• Judge Greg Mathis
    10 of 13

    Judge Greg Mathis was in a gang and served time before launching his own TV show.

    When Mathis was a teenager in Detroit, he joined a gang and went to jail for some time. Then at the age of 17, his mother was diagnosed with colon cancer and Mathis turned his life around.

    Sima Ballinger at the Examiner reports that Mathis got his G.E.D., attended Eastern Michigan University and then went to law school.

    His television legal reality show has been on the air since 1999.