Arthel Neville

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Arthel Neville (born New Orleans, Louisiana), is an American journalist and television personality. After graduating from St. Mary's Dominican High School in New Orleans, she began her career while a junior at the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism [1]. The first female African-American on-air reporter at KVUE-TV, her general assignment beat took her to the streets of Austin covering live breaking news, politics, education, health, and human-interest stories.

Neville's first job after graduation was in New Orleans as a reporter/anchor for WWL. In 1988 she moved back to Texas for a one-year stint as a reporter for Houston's KHOU. Neville returned to New Orleans as an anchor/reporter for WVUE.

In 1991 she landed the host spot on Extreme Close-Up, a one-on-one celebrity interview show that she co-produced for E! Entertainment TV. During three years with the program she logged over 200 interviews with stars from Will Smith to Tom Cruise to Sharon Stone, becoming the nation's first high-profile black female entertainment reporter. During this period she also covered live entertainment events for the network, and occasionally filled in as host on their signature show Talk Soup. In 1994 she beat out over 1,000 hopefuls to launch and anchor Extra for Warner Brothers studios, becoming the first African-American female to host a nationally syndicated entertainment news magazine program. Neville remained with Extra until 1996 when the program was revamped. In 1997 she teamed up with famed sportscaster Fred Roggin to host Arthel & Fred, a syndicated daytime entertainment news program that lasted only one season. A year later, Neville left Los Angeles for New York and became a senior correspondent on the Fox Network's syndicated news magazine Fox Files, and at Fox News Channel as an anchor, correspondent, host of Celebrity Spotlight, and weekly contributor on The O'Reilly Factor.

In 2002, Neville joined CNN to become the host of "Talk Back Live With Arthel Neville," becoming the first African-American woman to host her own show on the news network. The show presented news of the day and featured live interaction with audience members and guests, in-studio, and via satellite, phone, and internet. While at CNN, she also anchored morning, daytime, and weekend news from CNN's Atlanta and New York City bureaus.

In 2003 Arthel was recognized by the University of Texas for her outstanding contribution to broadcast journalism. She received the Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award, which is bestowed upon four University of Texas alumnae each year who've reached a level of excellence in their respective fields.

Later, Arthel co-hosted Good Day Live with Steve Edwards and Debbie Matenopoulos, hosted Celebrity Hobbies on the DIY Network [2], and served as a correspondent for the revival of the syndicated news magazine A Current Affair in 2005. On that show, she garnered much acclaim for her coverage of Hurricane Katrina in her hometown of New Orleans. She herself lost her family home and all of her relatives were displaced. She subsequently established "Arthel's Angels," a non-profit hurricane relief website [3]. In March 2006, she joined the Fox News-produced syndicated news magazine Geraldo at Large as the West-Coast bureau chief and correspondent. [4]. She co-hosted The View in the fall of 2006 and was speculated to be a front-runner as a new host. [5].