A popular comedian, actor, television host, radio personality, and prank phone-call specialist, Birmingham, Alabama native Rickey Smiley got his start in 2000 as the host of BET's Comic View program. A successful standup career followed -- as well as a starring role in Ice Cube's Friday After Next -- with high-profile appearances on Showtime at the Apollo and HBO's Def Comedy Jam, just to name a few, culminating in Smiley becoming the morning-show personality for radio station KBFB in Dallas, Texas in 2004. It was there that he honed the prank calls that would eventually become his trademark, and by 2008 he had inked a syndication deal and taken his popular Rickey Smiley Morning Show into the mainstream. In addition to his busy film, television, and radio schedule, Smiley frequently releases comedy albums, mostly consisting of his prank calls. ~ James Christopher Monger