Date of birth: 16/8/1958
Industry: Media/Entertainment
Estimated worth: £1.4b
A bit of rough with the smooth is a bit of an understatement when it comes to reviewing the trials and tribulations of America's richest black woman, Oprah Winfrey.
As well as being the most successful female talk show host in American TV history, the publisher of three magazines (O, The Oprah Magazine and O At Home), an actress and the first black female news anchor at Nashville's WTVF-TV, Oprah is seen as a motivating activist and inspiration to many.
Despite an emotional, abusive and poverty-stricken upbringing, Winfrey excelled in her schooling and at the age of 14 gained a scholarship to attend a prestigious all-white school. Unable to contain her rebellious streak, she ran away from home and thus was sent to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee.
With the encouragement of her father, she continued to do well at school and secured a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, a historically black institution, where she studied communications. Outside of the lecture halls she was popular among her class mates and won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant in 1971.
Her media career began with a role at Nashville's WTVF-TV where she became the first black female anchor in 1976 she then went on to Baltimore's WJZ-TV to co-anchor the six o'clock news where she was spotted to co-host of WJZ's local talk show, People Are Talking. Oprah's career pole-vaulted over the next few years and, in 1984, Oprah landed her first movie role in The Color Purple, for which she was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress category
Her seminal chat show The Oprah Winfrey Show launched in 1986 and made her the richest woman in the United States within a decade. The show has now won an astounding 32 Emmys. Not content to stick with the classic mix of controversy and opinion, in 1994 she turned the show around promising to dedicate the show's content to uplifting and inspiring subjects.
In the late 1990s she introduced Oprah's Book Club into the show. Any book recommended in the show became and instant best-seller and she has been awarded for her contribution to literature. Oprah's TV production company, Harpo Productions Inc, put down a marker when it renovated a huge production facility in 1988 and remains an influential industry player.
Oxygen Media, Inc. - a cable channel and interactive network for women was set up by Oprah and Gerry Laybourne in 1998 - the same year she was named as one of the 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century by Time Magazine.
Ever-keen to put her prestige to good use, Oprah initiated the National Child Protection Act in 1991. She urged the U.S Senate Judiciary Committee to implant a national register of convicted child abusers effectively causing President Clinton to sign the National Oprah Bill into law.
Among many other social contributions, Oprah has opened an academy for girls in South Africa and set up the Oprah Winfrey Foundation - giving hundreds of grants to educational organisations - as well as The Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program, which gives scholarships to students who wish to use their education constructively to better their community in the USA and around the world. Oprah's Angel Network is another public charity which has raised more than $50 million, with 100% of audience donations going to non-profit organizations worldwide.
Her many ventures in the world of media made her the richest African-American of the 20th century and the only black billionaire in 2004. Still going strong at 60, Oprah's pockets are still bulging and has a net-worth of $1.4 billion, which puts her at number 562 in the Forbes list of the richest people in the world.