Alias is an American spy-action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001, to May 22, 2006. It stars Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, a double-agent for the CIA, posing as an operative for SD-6, a criminal organization.
The main theme of the series explores Sydney's obligation to conceal her true career from her friends and family, even as she assumes multiple aliases to carry out her missions. These themes are most prevalent in the first two seasons of the show. A major plotline of the series was the search for and recovery of artifacts created by Milo Rambaldi, a fictitious Renaissance-era figure with similarities to both Leonardo da Vinci and Nostradamus. This plot and some technologies used in the series place Alias into the genre of science fiction.
The series was well received among critics and has been included in several "best of" lists. Alias was in the American Film Institute's top ten list for television programs in 2003.The show also received numerous awards and nominations.