Meet Bevy Smith: TV and radio host, bestselling author and Harlem native.

She prides herself on doing things her own way, including swapping coffee for “sassy sangria” when she sat down with Jamie Stelter on this episode of “Extra Shot” at Melba’s Restaurant on West 114th Street in Harlem.

What You Need To Know

  • Bevy Smith is a TV and radio host, bestselling author and Harlem native who seeks to uplift her community above everything

  • She prefers to work only with Harlem designers and will sometimes only agree to events with the contingency that she spotlight other Black-owned businesses

  • As a native New Yorker, she also prides herself in her community

Smith has been a lot of places and does things the “Bevy way” wherever she is, whether it be on her SiriusXM show or memoir (both called “Bevelations”), on Page Six TV or Bravo’s “Fashion Queens,” or in her inspirational TED talk.

But the place she’s most at home is Harlem, because she was born, raised and still resides there – and makes it her mission to uplift the community: the main reason why she chose to spotlight Melba’s Restaurant. Smith said she considers the owner, Melba Wilson, a sister.

It was the same idea when she was invited to the Met Gala in 2019. Smih told Harlem fashion icon Dapper Dan that he could do her cape, but she would only go with him if a black woman designed her gown. And she didn’t stop there.

“Shelly Moseley did my hair. Mimi Kamara did my makeup. I had a Black woman design my shoes. My lotion was [created by] a Black woman. Everything,” she said. “It was important to me because as we all know, the Met Gala is an international stage.”

In September, when she was asked to be the Grand Marshal of the African American Day Parade, she agreed on the condition that she would be allowed to fundraise and shine a light on three Harlem organizations.

“I said, ‘How can I bring other people into it? How can it mean something for not just me?’” she said. “And listen, I'm a Scorpio, so I've got quite the ego, but I'm not so me-centric when I get opportunities, when I receive these amazing honors, I'm always thinking about how can I bring my community along.”

And that includes her Instagram community, which is a quarter of a million strong, who she brings along, no matter where she’s going.

“I love New York. I really do. I made all of my dreams come true here. I went to college here, I went to NYU, and then I began my career and I've had several successful careers, steps away, train stops away from where I grew up, where I was born.”