Kevin Andrew Ross (born June 1, 1963) is an American television personality, podcaster, producer, writer, and former judge on the

Los Angeles County Superior Court The Superior Court of Los Angeles County is the California Superior Courts of California, Superior Court located in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States. The Sup ...

in California. Since 2010, he has presided over the syndicated reality courtroom show, '' America's Court with Judge Ross''.

Biography

Early years

A Los Angeles native, Ross attended

Gardena High School Gardena High School (GHS) is a public high school in the Harbor Gateway neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States, adjacent to the City of Gardena. It serves grades 9 through 12 and is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School Distri ...

, where he was student body president and president of the District-Wide Association of Student Councils for the

Los Angeles Unified School District Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a State school, public school district in Los Angeles County, California, United States of America. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the List ...

. He went on to become student body vice president and later president of

Morehouse College Morehouse College is a Private college, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black, Men's colleges in the United States, men's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia, ...

, graduating from the Atlanta

HBCU Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...

with a degree in Political Science. Ross received his Juris Doctor from

Southwestern Law School Southwestern Law School is a Private university, private Law school in the United States, law school in Los Angeles, California. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and enrolls nearly 1,000 students. Its campus includes the Bullocks ...

. There, he continued in various leadership roles, including class president and chapter president of the National Black Law Students Association. Ross also became a member of the African-American Greek-lettered

fraternity A fraternity (; whence, "wikt:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular ...

Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a List of African-American fraternities, historically African American Fraternities and sororities, fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911, at Indiana University Bloomington, it has n ...

Law and Politics

An internship working for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic convinced Ross that victims and those living in underserved communities needed advocates to represent their interests. He decided to become a deputy district attorney, and later worked as a hardcore gang prosecutor responsible for implementing controversial civil gang nuisance injunctions. Ross entered politics in 1995 by running unsuccessfully for the

Los Angeles City Council The Los Angeles City Council is the Legislature, lawmaking body for the Government of Los Angeles, city government of Los Angeles, California, the second largest city in the United States. It has 15 members who each represent the 15 city council ...

. That year he also co-founded The New Leaders, an organization seeking to train the next generation of African-American leaders.

Initial Media Employment

Ross began contributing op-ed pieces for newspapers including the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

. He was named co-host of ''"The People's Connection"'' on 103.9 KACE, before being given his own show on Disney's KTZN 710 ''The Zone''. Ross later hosted and produced a weekend program on Talkradio 790 KABC until he retired to begin his judicial career.

Election to the California Bench and Subsequent Removal

While attending law school, Ross interned for David W. Williams. A fellow black Republican, Judge Williams would administer the oath of office to Ross after he became a judge on the then Inglewood Municipal Court. Ross was elevated the following year to the Superior Court after a ballot measure approved by California voters allowed for "unification" of municipal and superior court judicial roles. During his seven years on the bench, Ross handled over 60,000 matters, ranging from traffic and small claims cases, to criminal matters involving juvenile delinquents, sexually violent predators, and murderers. After being profiled on KCET's ''Life & Times Tonight'', Ross began appearing on the local

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

program to discuss legal issues from a judge's perspective. He also frequently spoke about the importance of Blacks becoming police officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges to ensure the judicial system treated minorities fairly. In 2005 the Commission on Judicial Performance (CJP) removed Judge Ross from office, stating he violated judicial canons pertaining to defendants' constitutional rights, became embroiled in cases he was supposed to be adjudicating impartially, publicly commented on several matters pending before him during appearances on

KCET KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOC ...

, and improperly held himself out as a judge while actually acting as a private mediator in a television court show pilot. Ross unsuccessfully appealed the CJP's decision to the California Supreme Court. The ruling also made him ineligible to practice law in the state. Neither the initial

Endemol Endemol B.V. (stylized in all lowercase) was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted gen ...

and

Tribune Entertainment Tribune Entertainment (formerly Mid-America Video Tape Productions, WGN Continental Productions, Tribune Productions and Tribune Entertainment Company) was a television production and broadcast syndication company owned and operated by Tribune Br ...

-produced ''"Mobile Court''", nor the follow-up Twentieth Television program ''"Ross is Boss"'', was picked up by television stations for syndication.

Return to Media

Ross decided to start a communications company, become a blogger, and launch an eponymous Internet show on

Blogtalkradio BlogTalkRadio was a web-based platform that allowed podcasters and radio sites and talk show hosts to create live and on-demand talk format content for distribution on the web and podcast distribution channels. It offered a web-based 'studio' tha ...

, a large citizen broadcasting network. ''"The Kevin Ross Show"'' became a leading current events and conservative political show on Blogtalkradio. It also ranked among the top five most popular shows on the social networking radio site. In 2008,

Fox News Radio Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. History In 2003, ...

and BlogTalkRadio partnered to bring listeners ''"Election 2008: Battle of the Blog Talkers."'' Fans of FOX News Radio's ''"FOX Across America"'' selected their favorite BlogTalkRadio hosts from each side of the political spectrum during a weeklong, one-on-one tournament. Ross was chosen as one of the eight hosts, and ultimately won the contest representing the political right. At a 2009 business meeting with comedian

Byron Allen Byron Allen (born Byron Allen Folks on April 22, 1961) is an American businessman, film and television producer, and comedian. He is the founder of the American media company Allen Media Group (formerly Entertainment Studios), which has intere ...

to discuss an online media venture, Allen was so impressed with Ross that he made a deal on the spot, allowing Ross to host what would be the first of six court shows for

Entertainment Studios Allen Media Group, alternately known by its former name of Entertainment Studios, Inc. is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved ...

(ES). The following year, ''"America's Court with Judge Ross''" launched as a daytime program. Entering its fourteenth season in September 2023, ''America's Court'' can also be seen on ''Justice Central'', ES’ legal cable network. Ross’ acting credits include appearing as the judge in

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is film production, produced outside the Major film studios, major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independ ...

s ''”Blindfire”'' and ''”Broken Star”'' ”, and an episode of

Bounce TV Bounce TV is an American digital terrestrial television, digital broadcast television network owned by Scripps Networks, a subsidiary of E. W. Scripps Company. It launched on September 26, 2011, and was promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multic ...

’s comedy series ''”In The Cut”''. Additionally, the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

release ''”

Ava (2020 film) ''Ava'' is a 2020 American action thriller film directed by Tate Taylor (filmmaker), Tate Taylor written by Matthew Newton and produced by Chastain's production company, Freckle Films. The film stars Jessica Chastain, John Malkovich, Common (rapp ...

”'' features Ross presiding over an ''America's Court'' case.

Entrepreneurship

Along with serving as one of the executive producers on the

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

-nominated ''America's Court'', Ross hosts ''Kevin Ross The Podcast'' on

TheGrio TheGrio is a brand name owned by American media company Allen Media Group for a television network and a website aimed at African-Americans. History TheGrio is to "focus on news and events that have a unique interest and pronounced impact with ...

's Black Podcast Network. He appears on various cable and radio outlets such as

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

Black Entertainment Television Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...

(BET),

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

, and KJLH 102.3 FM as a legal, political and social commentator.

Personal

Ross is married with two sons and resides in the Los Angeles area.

References

External links

America's Court With Judge Ross ShowKevin Ross on TwitterTheGrio's Kevin Ross The Podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Kevin A. 1963 births Living people African-American judges African-American television personalities American bloggers American prosecutors American radio personalities Businesspeople from California Morehouse College alumni Lawyers from Los Angeles Southwestern Law School alumni Television judges California state court judges Municipal judges in the United States Gardena High School alumni Disbarred American lawyers Disbarred California lawyers 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American lawyers