Bobby Rivers has a had a longtime love of movies that has literally saved his life, gotten him work and helped him pay off the mortgage on his momma's house. Besides spending a lot of money on movie books when he was a kid, he studied Film Journalism in college.

Like Matt Lauer and Mary Hart, he was on the syndicated PM Magazine show in the early '80s. He was the first African-American seen nationally doing celebrity interviews. Bobby worked for the Milwaukee edition, where he also did film reviews. By the mid-80s, he'd talked himself into a New York City job on WPIX TV. Two years later, he had his own show on VH1. Along with Rosie O' Donnell, he was a veejay. Proudly, he became the first Black talent to get his own prime time weeknight celebrity talk show. Some of his VH1 guests included Paul McCartney, Kirk Douglas, Meryl Streep, Mel Gibson, Ben Kingsley, Norman Mailer, Liza Minnelli, Spike Lee, Patrick Dempsey, Carrie Fisher, Sally Field and Whoopi Goldberg. The New York Times rated him "...a master interviewer." Tom Hanks and Lucille Ball told Bobby they were fans of his work. The late '80s on VH1 were great years for him.

Starting in 1992, after hosting two syndicated summer replacement game shows, he was seen on Manhattan's local NBC and Fox news affiliates doing humorous morning liveshots and occasional entertainment reports. Frustrated by not being assigned more entertainment reports and some diversity issues, he left local news in 1999. In 2000 he booked himself a network gig on the ABC/Lifetime TV production, Lifetime Live. He was the movie critic for that weekday magazine show, hosted by the late Dana Reeve. The show lasted one year.

After that, he took acting classes, did a way off-Broadway one-man show, plus acting roles on The Sopranos and CBS' Guiding Light. In 2002, he auditioned to host a non-cooking Food Network show and he got the job. It's no longer in production, but Top 5 still airs in Monday morning repeats. On Friday mornings, he loves helping you Wake Up With Whoopi by giving you tips for your entertainment dollar on new and classic films at the cineplex and video store.

With the help of independent Black filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, Bobby became a member of the Screen Actors Guild in 1988. Today Bobby is on SAG's Board of Directors in New York City. He's done voluteer work and raised money for God's Love We Deliver and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.