Thomas Joyner is an American actor, author, and retired radio host, former host of the nationally syndicated The Tom Joyner Morning Show, and also founder of Reach Media Inc., the Tom Joyner Foundation, and BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Joyner had been involved in college radio and began his broadcasting career in Montgomery, Alabama immediately upon graduation, and worked at a number of radio stations in the South and Midwest, including stations in Memphis and St. Louis, before moving to Chicago in early 1978. In Chicago, he first worked at WVON, doing the morning show, but left the station after only three months to work at a competitor, WBMX-FM. By late July 1978, however, he had been hired away by Charles Mootry, general manager of station WJPC (AM) (now WNTD). This station, named for "Johnson Publishing Company", was owned by John H. Johnson, owner of such black magazines as Jet and Ebony.

In 1985, Joyner was simultaneously offered two positions: one for a morning show at KKDA-FM (K104) in Dallas and one for an afternoon show at WGCI-FM in Chicago. Instead of choosing between the two, Joyner chose to take both jobs, and for eight years, he commuted daily by plane between the two cities, earning the nicknames "The Fly Jock" and "The Hardest Working Man in Radio". He later told Radio Ink magazine that he racked up 7 million frequent flyer miles over the course of his employment at both stations; a travel agent had found him a $30,000 fare that would guarantee him a round-trip seat for five years. Joyner was able to work for both stations simultaneously since neither of his two employment contracts had an exclusivity clause.

In 1994, Joyner was signed by ABC Radio Networks to host a nationally syndicated program, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, featuring Joyner and a team of comedians and commentators reporting and discussing the latest news and sports of the day, and playing popular R&B songs from the 1970s through the 1990s as well as contemporary R&B hits. Also featured were celebrity guests, on-site remotes (called "Sky Shows"), and an on-air soap opera, It's Your World which is currently not aired. Southwest Airlines is a prominent sponsor of the radio show, especially Joyner's "Sky Shows", and free round-trip airfare to any destination that Southwest flies to was a recurring giveaway on his show.

Upon signing a contract extension with Westwood on October 17, 2017, Joyner announced that he would retire at the agreement's end (2019), declaring "I'm retiring, and for the next two years we're going to reminisce, go down Memory Lane and talk about all the things that we've done for the past 25 years." He retired from his morning show on December 13, 2019.

In 2005, a nationally syndicated television show, The Tom Joyner Show, was launched with Joyner as emcee of a one-hour comedy/variety show, combining sketch comedy featuring the Tom Joyner Show Players (his co-hosts from the radio show), talent contests, and musical performances by such artists as Patti LaBelle, Earth, Wind and Fire, Brian McKnight, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Toni Braxton. The show attracted advertisers such as McDonald's, Chrysler Corporation, Walmart and Southwest Airlines.

While the program achieved top ratings for a weekly syndicated program themed to African American viewers — even taking the number one show position, although it was in a late night time slot — in such markets as New York and Atlanta, affiliates in other markets were reluctant to upgrade the show to prime time for a targeted audience. Without the opportunity to reach a larger audience in earlier time slots and achieve greater revenues, the show had limited ability to offset the residuals and music clearances required by the many performers appearing on the show. Despite award recognition, in May 2006, Joyner decided not to continue due to production costs related to the music variety show concept. Re-runs are shown on TV One cable channel. As for his radio career, Tom Joyner continues to be an influential broadcaster: the TJMS is heard live in over 100 cities, both on-air and via streaming audio, through its syndicator, Reach Media.

Capitalizing on the popularity of the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Joyner founded The Tom Joyner Foundation. The mission of the foundation is to support historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) through student scholarship, endowment, and capacity building enhancements. In the foundation's first month, $20,000 was raised in 'Dollars for Scholars' scholarship money. Since 1998, it has raised more than $65 million to help keep students enrolled at HBCUs.

The charitable foundation prides itself in having the capability of providing donors specifics of what institution and what student is on the receiving end. The Tom Joyner Foundation also hosts an annual cruise named the Fantastic Voyage which also raises money for HBCUs.

In 2005 Warner Books published I'm Just a DJ but ... It Makes Sense to Me written with his longtime writer, Mary Flowers Boyce. The book chronicles his childhood and early days in radio as well as offers Joyner's thoughts on Historically Black Colleges and Universities ("HBCUs"), the power of the black consumer and fatherhood. In February 2009, Amber Books published Tom Joyner Presents How to Prepare for College, a primer for parents and their children offering specific suggests and advice. The book features a foreword written by Joyner with writers Wil and Thomas LaVeist.

He appeared with his father and grandfather in the documentary "Rising from the Rails: The Story of the Pullman Porter" crediting his family with passing down important values which he passed down to his sons as well. His grandfather Oscar "Doc" Joyner was a Pullman porter who became a medical doctor.

Tom Joyner has had cameo roles in two films-The Gospel (2005) and Madea Goes to Jail (2009). During the early 1980s he was a host of the Ebony/Jet Showcase, a syndicated television magazine program. He also had another television show, The Tom Joyner Sky Show (2003), and has appeared on many other television programs.

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