diff --git a/orca-pipelinetemplate/src/main/java/com/netflix/spinnaker/orca/pipelinetemplate/v1schema/render/YamlRenderedValueConverter.java b/orca-pipelinetemplate/src/main/java/com/netflix/spinnaker/orca/pipelinetemplate/v1schema/render/YamlRenderedValueConverter.java
index 0d72a7c432..59f5b737b4 100644
--- a/orca-pipelinetemplate/src/main/java/com/netflix/spinnaker/orca/pipelinetemplate/v1schema/render/YamlRenderedValueConverter.java
+++ b/orca-pipelinetemplate/src/main/java/com/netflix/spinnaker/orca/pipelinetemplate/v1schema/render/YamlRenderedValueConverter.java
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ public YamlRenderedValueConverter(Yaml yaml) {
 
   @Override
   public Object convertRenderedValue(String renderedValue) {
-    if (containsEL(renderedValue) || isYamlKeyword(renderedValue)) {
+    if (containsEL(renderedValue) || isYamlKeyword(renderedValue) || containsYamlParsingExceptions(renderedValue)) {
       return renderedValue;
     }
     if (containsNoExpandMarker(renderedValue)) {
@@ -71,6 +71,11 @@ private static boolean isYamlKeyword(String renderedValue) {
     return YAML_KEYWORDS.contains(renderedValue.toLowerCase());
   }
 
+  private static boolean containsYamlParsingExceptions(String renderedValue) {
+    return renderedValue != null &&
+      renderedValue.startsWith("* "); // A markdown list: YAML will parse this as an alias and fail.
+  }
+  
   private static boolean containsNoExpandMarker(String renderedValue) {
     return renderedValue.startsWith("noexpand:");
   }
diff --git a/orca-pipelinetemplate/src/test/groovy/com/netflix/spinnaker/orca/pipelinetemplate/v1schema/render/JinjaRendererSpec.groovy b/orca-pipelinetemplate/src/test/groovy/com/netflix/spinnaker/orca/pipelinetemplate/v1schema/render/JinjaRendererSpec.groovy
index de4dcc72cb..5246c9639c 100644
--- a/orca-pipelinetemplate/src/test/groovy/com/netflix/spinnaker/orca/pipelinetemplate/v1schema/render/JinjaRendererSpec.groovy
+++ b/orca-pipelinetemplate/src/test/groovy/com/netflix/spinnaker/orca/pipelinetemplate/v1schema/render/JinjaRendererSpec.groovy
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ class JinjaRendererSpec extends Specification {
     '${ #stage("First Wait")["status"].toString() == "SUCCESS" }' || String | '${ #stage("First Wait")["status"].toString() == "SUCCESS" }'
     '${ parameters.CONFIG_FOLDER ?: \'\' }' || String | '${ parameters.CONFIG_FOLDER ?: \'\' }'
     ''                || String       | null
+    '* markdown list' || String       | '* markdown list'
     'noexpand:{"t": "deployment"}' || String   | '{"t": "deployment"}'
   }