- Nickname
- BRB
- Height5′ 3″ (1.60 m)
- A journalist of both print and broadcast, Billie Rae Bates' work over the years has included interviews with all manner of actors and other Hollywood pros, as well as many artists and writers in the comics industry for her on-camera work with TV shows based in Washington, D.C., and Detroit.
In the 1990s, she hosted several episodes of the half-hour "Red Cross Currents" TV series produced by the Bay, Genesee and Saginaw County (Michigan) chapters of the American Red Cross and airing on WNEM, Channel 5. After years of print work, she returned to television in 2010, working for the then-brand-new "Comics Continuum" half-hour entertainment series based in Detroit and airing on several Midwestern channels, hosting on-the-road episodes from locations such as the San Diego Comic-Con, C2E2 in Chicago and Mega-Con in Orlando. She also did a wealth of correspondent work for the series, then in 2011 began hosting and correspondent work for the Washington, D.C.-based "Fantastic Forum" series, airing on several stations in D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia.
A graduate of Michigan State University's accredited School of Journalism, BRB has been a professional writer and editor of the printed word for decades, spending 10 years at daily newspapers including The Detroit News, The Saginaw News, and the Wausau (Wis.) Daily Herald, plus working in the corporate, ministry and government fields. She's written four novels, two of which are set in Detroit, as well as the BRBTV series of fact books and reports, which cover the prime-time soaps "Dynasty" and "Dallas," the action-adventure hits "The Dukes of Hazzard," "Wonder Woman" and "The Green Hornet," and a host of animated series. She parlayed that love of classic TV shows into a web series called "Terrific TV Toys," airing on YouTube and exploring toys (most of which are from her own collection) that celebrate various vintage shows, then she created a spinoff series, "Terrific non-TV Toys." Since 2006, she's kept up a news blog focusing on classic television, and she's also blogged for Congoo.com and the OohLifestyle.com. She has reviewed books for Foreword Reviews, and she's the creator, writer and photographer of two yearlong photo essays, the much-discussed "My Mother's Clothing" and "The Inexplicable Lives of Dolls." More recently, she's written two books in the true-crime genre.
A Michigan native who has lived in Detroit, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., BRB has also been known to do some acting! She's appeared in several feature films, both big-budget and independent productions.
See more at BillieRae.com.- IMDb Mini Biography By: BRBTV.com
- Red hair
- Billie Rae's name is drawn into the cover of issue No. 34 of the late-1990s Cheryl Blossom comic book series by Archie Comics. She met and interviewed longtime Archie artist Dan DeCarlo, who drew it onto the boogie board Cheryl is carrying in the cover's beach scene.
- In the DVD extras for the original "X-Men" movie (2000), BRB can be seen taking photos at the Ellis Island red-carpet premiere of the film, which she was covering for ComicsContinuum.com.
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