Career
Since May 2014 he has also worked at HLN and hosts the network"s programs The Daily Share and The Social Life. Though he has worked on-air since age 17 on a variety of projects, he is best known for his work as a poker commentator. Nejad served as the off-screen announcer on National Broadcasting Company"s Poker After Dark and the color commentator on National Broadcasting Company"s National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
He has also served as a correspondent for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.com"s World Series of Poker coverage, commentator for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network"s Pro-Am Poker Equalizer series, co-commentator with Chad Brown on the Ultimate Poker Challenge series, and alongside Daniel Negreanu on the PCA 2009 series.
Nejad has made 3 appearances as a player on commentators week on Poker After Dark. In his first appearance, he finished 6th after Gabe Kaplan flopped a set of 10"s to his set of 4"son
During high school in Albany, California through to college at University of California Berkeley, Nejad hosted and reported for "First Cut," a local National Broadcasting Company affiliate show in the San Francisco bay area, where he began his television career. Having been a recreational poker player for years, Nejad dropped out of Berkeley in 1998 to pursue playing poker full-time.
After 4 years playing poker, he returned to television in 2002, hosting an Music Television pilot about video games that despite not get picked up for a full season, marked his return to television In 2003, aboard the PartyPoker Million cruise, he met Mori Eskandani, then the Tournament Director of FSN"s Poker Superstars, and future producer of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship and Poker After Dark.
Eskandani hired Nejad as the Master of Ceremonies for the Poker Superstars event in 2004, which marked the beginning of a long working relationship in televised poker. On the February 7, 2008 episode of Poker Road Radio, Joe Sebok announced that Ali would be the new host of the Poker Road Radio podcast. His tenure began on February 26, 2008 at the WPT Commerce event, and ended right before the start of the 2009 WSOP. Nejad is one of the poker players who believes he was a victim of the Ultimate Bet cheating scandal.