Tavis Smiley to Get Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame Today

Television and radio talk show host Tavis Smiley will receive the 2,522nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today.

Former "Tonight Show"  host Jay Leno and longtime television and radio talk show host Larry King will join Smiley in speaking at the 11:30 a.m. ceremony at 6270 Hollywood Blvd., near the famed intersection of Hollywood and Vine.

Born Sept. 13, 1964, in Gulfport, Mississippi, and raised in the small town of Bunker Hill, Indiana, Smiley was an intern in the office of Mayor Tom Bradley in 1985 while a student at Indiana University and a member of Bradley's staff from 1986-90.

Smiley unsuccessfully ran against Councilwoman Ruth Galanter in 1991. He later became a commentator on KGFJ-AM (1230), KABC-TV Channel 7 and KABC-AM (790).

Smiley was a commentator on the nationally syndicated radio program "The Tom Joyner Morning Show" from 1996-2008 and hosted "BET Tonight" on Black Entertainment Television from 1996 to 2001.

Smiley also hosted a talk show on National Public Radio from 2001-2004. He has hosted talk shows on the Public Broadcasting Service since 2004 and Public Radio International since 2005.

Smiley is the author of 16 books, owner of a communications company, The Smiley Group, the holding company for various enterprises in broadcast and print media, lectures, symposiums, book publishing and the Internet.

Smiley founded the Tavis Smiley Foundation in 1999, which has provided leadership training to more than 6,500 young people. In 2013, the foundation began a planned four-year $3 million effort to identify solutions to alleviate poverty in the U.S.

Smiley was selected by Time in 2009 as one of the world's 100 most influential people.

"He has a passion to educate about the black experience, black history, black responsibility, black achievement and black people," fellow PBS talk show host Charlie Rose wrote in the magazine in connection with the selection.

--City News Service