Oliver "Ali" Nejad returns to the Heads Up Poker Championship as color analyst, and also serves as the voice of Poker After Dark.

Nejad's television career began while still a high school student, when he hosted and reported for two television shows on a local NBC affiliate. Hoping to continue working in local television, he stayed close to home for college, enrolling at nearby Cal-Berkeley in 1996. At the same time, he also started down another career path: poker.

In 1999, Nejad left Berkeley to pursue playing poker full-time and before long, he had done it all: low limit player, dealer, prop player, online player, and finally, high limit cash game player. But despite his financial success in the poker world, Nejad still had the broadcasting itch. In 2002 he hosted an MTV pilot that was not picked up, but marked the beginning of his return to television; which has since gone on to include stints with AOL, INHD, ESPN, and of course NBC.

Ali recently took on a new poker radio show http://www.pokerroad.com/pokerroad_radio/ which will soon be airing on Sirius satelite radio, and video streaming on www.wsop.com and www.espn360.com during the world series of poker.

For more on Ali visit www.olivernejad.com .