R. T. Bowersox

Personal Bio

Bob Bowersox is a Renaissance Man:  actor, voiceover artist, screenwriter, playwright, novelist, poet, singer, songwriter, national television network personality. When it comes to creative endeavors – especially those in the entertainment fields – Bob has immersed himself in the crafts he loves, and success has found him in each of them.

Take acting, for instance, where Bob has built a reputation on both the stage and the screen. Since his younger days of watching his father perform in such Broadway classics as South Pacific and Kismet, Bob has loved the theater. He began his study of acting in college, as a member of the prestigious E-52 Theatre Group of the University of Delaware, now known as the nationally-recognized Professional Theatre Training Program (the PTTP), at the University. He also studied acting at the professional LORT Delaware Theater Company and Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre, and with several respected private instructors, diving deeply into the Meisner acting technique.

Armed with solid training, Bob burst onto the acting radar with a riveting and critically-acclaimed performance as an incestuous father in the award-winning drama she lived, he said, a difficult and distasteful role few other actors were willing to take on. He went on to handle prominent roles in productions of Sweet Bird of Youth, On Golden Pond, Sylvia, A Few Good Men, Water by the Spoonful, Talk Radio, Casa Valentina, 12 Angry Men, God of Carnage, August: Osage County, The Seafarer, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Waiting for Godot and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, among many, many others, always with an eye toward finding the unusual approach to each of the characters he portrayed.

But Bob has always loved the movies, and it wasn’t long before the lure of the movie set pulled him from the stage. Bob has been in over 22 films to date, ranging from blockbusters to quirky independents. He can be seen in Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia and Griffin Dunne’s Addicted to Love. He’s been featured in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, in Andrew Davis’ A Perfect Murder, and in the Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading. Bob also has shot roles in several independent films, including lead roles in Michele Losciavo’s My Own Confession, Mike Stanley’s Behind Bars, and Touched, the multi-award-winning debut film from director Mike Lemon and Academy Award-winning producer Tammy Tiehel-Stedman. Recently, Bob shot a supporting role in the upcoming The Ritual Killer, which, incidentally, he also wrote the screenplay for.

Bob’s talents have also brought him success on the small screen. He’s enjoyed the recurring role of profligate music producer Sam Gideon in the off-beat soap opera, The Edge. And his role of con-man preacher Art Thou in the sitcom Church of the New Millennium was, Bob says, “some of the most fun I’ve ever had on a stage or set.” And he recently wrapped the pilot for The Orphan, a horror-thriller shot this winter in Philadelphia and aimed at a major streamer.

Hosting television programs is another area where Bob has built a solid reputation. His early stints as the host of the entertainment news magazine Fine Time Video Magazine, and the ground-breaking Live at the Comedy Cabaret were only warmups to the immense success Bob found as a Program Host for always-live electronic retailing giant QVC. For 22 years, Bob was seen in over 92 million homes nationwide, and sold millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise. His consistently high ratings and the 19-year popularity as the creator and host of the network’s top show, In the Kitchen with Bob, have helped make Bob a household name and propel three books onto the best-seller lists

And it’s in the writing field that Bob has also made an impressive mark. Besides being a published songwriter – he’s recorded two albums of his own material – Bob has written two novels (the crime thrillers Image Imperfect and Pocket Change) and several books of poetry. Six of his stage plays have been produced on professional stages, including Moment of Grace, The Poetry of Hearts, The Return, and Person of Interest, which also received an international production at the prestigious Theatre Hoger-Streven in Belgium, translated into Flemish. His most recent play, Crossing the Veil, commissioned by Philadelphia’s Fever Dream Repertory, received its World Premiere this past spring at the Skinner Studio Theatre in Philly’s prestigious Plays and Players Theatre.

Because of his love of film, Bob went back to school, studying Screenwriting, and graduated from UCLA with a Professional Programs Masters in Screenwriting in 2007. And again, he has found success. He’s optioned three scripts to Hollywood in the last five years, with one of them, the dark thriller The Ritual Killer (Bob’s original title for the film was MUTI), released last year starring Morgan Freeman, Cole Hauser, and Peter Stormare.

In 2008, Bob left Philadelphia for Key West, Florida, where he established himself not only as one of the top actors in the Keys (appearing in dozens of professional productions), but also founding his own company, TheatreXP, and building it into one of the most respected theater groups in the Florida Keys. Bob not only brought over 40 productions to stages in the region – from his own original work to re-stagings of some of the most iconic plays of the modern era – but he also created a number of new theatrical events that met with critical and audience success.

Bob returned to Philadelphia last year, and immediately began involving himself in the theater community here. He’s studying acting again at the Walnut Street Theater, and has appeared on the Plays and Players stage, where he also brought a new, original production – Fresh Ink Shorts – as part of the Fringe Festival 2022, as well as the World Premiere of his newest original play, Crossing the Veil.

No matter what he’s doing at the moment – be it acting, writing, or hosting a television show – Bob will always be committed to the endeavor.

“I believe the only way to be involved in something is to give everything you have to the project,” Bob says. “I believe in myself, and in my talents. I’m old enough to have no illusions, and I’m not afraid of hard work. When you ask me to do something, you can expect nothing but creative cooperation, openness, willingness to go the extra mile, and a strong desire to have fun along the way. Come to me with that same kind of commitment, and there will be absolutely nothing we can’t achieve together.”

Resume / CV