Tavis Smiley Biography
Tavis Smiley is an author and talk show host from the United States. From 2004 to 2017, he hosted The Tavis Smiley Show on National Public Radio (NPR), Tavis Smiley on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and The Tavis Smiley Show on Public Radio International (PRI).
How old is Tavis Smiley? – Age
He is 58 years old as of 13 September 2022. He was born in 1964 in Gulfport, Mississippi, United States.
Tavis Smiley Family
Tavis is the son of Joyce Marie Roberts, a single mother who became pregnant for the first time at the age of 18. On his second birthday, September 13, 1966, his mother married Emory Garnell Smiley, a non-commissioned officer in the United States Air Force. When Tavis Smiley’s stepfather was transferred to Grissom Air Force Base near Peru, Indiana, his family relocated to Indiana. They lived in Bunker Hill, Indiana, in a three-bedroom mobile home and attended the local New Bethel Tabernacle Church.
Tavis Smiley Education
With only $50 and a small suitcase, John Smiley enrolled at Indiana University Bloomington in 1982. He worked, went to summer school, and lived off campus with Indiana men’s basketball players. During his second year, he was accepted into the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and went on to become the business manager of his dormitory, a member of the student senate, and the director of minority affairs. Smiley helped lead protests to defend his friend Denver Smith after he was killed by Indiana police officers.
He was offered a work-study internship at Bloomington Mayor Tomilea Allison’s office, where he would be paid $5 per hour. He was caught adding extra hours to his time sheets, but Mayor Allison let him work all of the hours he had already been paid for and did not tell anyone what he had done. Smiley was on academic probation during his junior year, and when he went to Los Angeles to attend a national student leaders’ convention, he met football star Jim Brown. Brown introduced Smiley to fellow football player George Hughley, who worked for Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley and put Smiley in touch with Mayor Bradley’s staff. Smiley requested an internship in a letter to the mayor’s office and once flew to Los Angeles to appeal.Mayor Bradley offered Smiley an unpaid internship in Los Angeles, and the Bloomington Community Progress Council provided him with $5,000 for living expenses.
He took the LSAT twice with the intention of applying to Harvard Law School. He did not complete his degree on time, however, because he failed a required course in his senior year and performed poorly in several other courses. He left Indiana to work as an aide to Mayor Bradley in Los Angeles until 1990. He officially received his bachelor’s degree in public affairs from Indiana University in 2003.
Was Tavis Smiley ever married?
He is not married and has never been married.
Tavis Smiley Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of $4 Million.
Tavis Smiley Show
Until December 2004, he was the host of NPR’s The Tavis Smiley Show. He announced his departure from his show in 2004, citing the network’s inability to reach a more diverse audience. Smiley launched a weekly version of his radio program The Tavis Smiley Show on April 29, 2005, distributed by NPR rival Public Radio International (PRI), until terminated by PRI on January 1, 2018, due to “troubling allegations”. Tavis Smiley transformed the second hour of his PRI program into Smiley & West, which he co-hosted with his longtime collaborator Dr. Cornel West until December 2013.
Tavis Smiley Radio Station
Smiley ran for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council in 1991 and finished fourth out of 15 candidates. He went on to work as a radio commentator and co-host of a local talk show. He also worked on a local cable network’s community news program and spent six months working on television in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Smiley became a frequent commentator on the Tom Joyner Morning Show in 1996, and he became friends with Joyner. He and Cornel West co-hosted their own radio talk show, Smiley & West, and were featured in the 2009 documentary film Still Bill, interviewing musician Bill Withers. Smiley hosts a radio show on KBLA 1580AM talk radio on weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon, and he also hosts the Tavis Smiley Podcast in collaboration with KBLA.
Tavis Smiley Books
♦ 1993 – Just a thought: The Smiley report
♦ 1996 – Hard left: Straight talk about the wrongs of the right
♦ 2001 – Doing what’s right: How to fight for what you believe– and make a difference
♦ 2004 – Keeping the faith: Stories of love, courage, healing, and hope from Black America
♦ 2002 – How to make Black America better : leading African Americans speak out
♦ 1998 – On air: The best of Tavis Smiley on the Tom Joyner morning show: Thoughts on culture, politics & race
♦ 2006 – The covenant with black America
♦ 2006 – What I know for sure: My story of growing up in America
♦ 2009 – Accountable: Making America as good as its promise
♦ 2011 – Fail up: 20 lessons on building success from failure
♦ 2014 – Death of a King: The real story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final year
♦ 2016 – The Covenant with Black America – ten years later
♦ 2016 – 50 for your future: Lessons from down the road
♦ 2016 – Before you judge me: The triumph and tragedy of Michael Jackson’s last days