As a little girl, Amanda Booz would hold an imitation microphone to her lips in front of her dolls at her childhood home in Miramar home to host "The Amanda Show." All these years later, she's garnered 57,000 sentient followers on Instagram, who tune in for her curated feed of fashion, makeup, and travel inspiration. As a lifestyle influencer and multimedia journalist and producer, Booz has worked with a slew of networks and brands, including BET, Viacom, Complex, Spotify, NBC, and CBS Radio. Her advice? "Be a light and be confident and true to who you are no matter what," Booz says. "Live out loud and enjoy life."

Whether she's singing with Jimmy Fallon or enjoying a back-arching dance with Magic Mike, Emmy Award-winning TV reporter Johanna Gomez is bubbly and captivating on-screen as the cohost of the daily lifestyle and entertainment show 6 in the Mix on NBC 6 South Florida. She and cohost Jen Herrera have a natural chemistry and easily riff on each other in what often becomes unscripted knee-slapping comedy. But off-screen (and via social media) Gomez reveals a softer side, as the mother of three often shares her personal struggles as a breast-cancer survivor and urges other women to check each month for cysts.

As his Twitter handle @TheMozKnowz suggests, WSVN sports anchor Josh Moser understands South Florida's diverse sports scene. From sideline reports after Miami Heat games to one-on-one sitdown interviews with Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, Moser has his Knowz deep in the Miami sports trenches. Arriving in late 2020, Moser is a relatively newcomer on the Miami sports-coverage scene. But his outside-the-box interview questions keep Moser's subjects and viewers at the edge of their seats and on their toes, providing a jolt of new insight to what often feels like a redundant space.

When it comes to landing scoops about the grimy side of Miami life, count on Sheldon Fox to be the first TV reporter on the scene. A Magic City native, Fox is known for his exclusives documenting violent episodes that are commonplace in our tropical dystopia. He was first to report on a roving band of male bicyclists attacking and robbing unsuspecting pedestrians in Miami Beach. The story included cellphone footage of the young men ganging up on and beating a victim. Fox was also the first on the scene in Miami's Silver Bluff neighborhood shortly after an unidentified man was spotted indiscriminately shooting a high-powered rifle in the street. And he uncovered the exclusive police bodycam footage showing police officers blowing up a door and windows of a hotel room where a homicide suspect was holed up. Fox is also keen on public-service journalism, like the time he reported how a woman videotaped a tow truck driver rifling through her car after he hitched the vehicle for being illegally parked. The driver was later arrested for allegedly stealing cash and iPhone accessories from the woman's SUV.

From a once-in-a-thousand-years storm that parks itself over Fort Lauderdale to tracking oncoming hurricanes to practical tips on navigating the brutal South Florida heat, we look to Betty Davis. As chief meteorologist for Local 10, she's our trusted weather source on weekdays during the station's 4, 6, and 11 p.m. shows. She has been in the biz for 15 years, with stints at the Weather Channel and in markets farther up the East Coast. We're glad she's here — her impact extends well beyond her forecasts, including regular visits to local classrooms and universities to inspire the next generation of atmospheric scientists. We can count on Davis' forecasts to be bright even when the weather isn't.

Morning commutes can be a doozy around these parts. One silver lining is DJ-rockstar extraordinaire Ashley O on South Florida's alternative station, 104.3 The Shark. She's on mornings from 6 to 10 a.m. with her hot takes and funny commentary. Over the years, she has interviewed bands like Twenty One Pilots and the Killers, started a program that pays off outstanding student lunch debt in Broward County, and is the beloved local face of The Shark's biggest annual concert spectacle, the Audacy Beach Festival (formerly Riptide Music Festival). She's a blast to follow on social media, too, dishing on everything from favorite hot dog toppings to what it's like to work in the DJ booth.

A lot of stations claim to play "the hits." Hits 97.3 actually does. Perhaps it's in the name, but the station has mastered the right balance of Latin thump, contemporary pop, and nostalgic throwbacks to keep South Florida jammin' through the day. Its DJ lineup is great, too, with quintessential Miami girl Jade Alexander hyping up our mornings and comedian/actress/DJ Brittany "Duchess of Kendall" Brave making us laugh. Thank you, Hits 97.3 We think you're a hit, too.

A lot of climate reporting focuses on big-picture data and futuristic projections. But stories bearing the byline of the Miami Herald's Alex Harris — the paper's first climate reporter — often focus on what a changing climate feels like. Harris reports on climate change as a personal, local issue affecting all of us, from coastal condo owners to the working poor. Take her stories on the catastrophic flooding in Fort Lauderdale earlier this year, including one presciently titled: "A freak storm, but also the future?" In between accessible explanations and frightening data points, Harris weaves in stories about an elderly resident floating in her home on a mattress and panicked parents hoisting their young children on a sofa to avoid rising floodwaters. One thing Harris's work makes glaringly clear: Climate change is here, and it's happening now.

Miami Herald photographer Carl Juste has been at it for decades. Since 1991, the award-winning photojournalist has been holding his camera up to the injustices, scandals, and beauty that surround South Florida, while bringing empathy and a strong moral compass to his work. That work was deservingly spotlighted in last year's HBO documentary Endangered, which featured Juste and three other journalists discussing how freedom of the press is under attack abroad and in the U.S. It's been said in industry circles that if you want to know what's going on in Miami, figure out where Juste is. You'll find him in hurricane-ravaged suburbs, at protests against police brutality, inside the homes of vulnerable migrants, and anywhere else history is being made in the moment.

As a reporter, it's important to ask the hard questions and awaiting those answers can often be long and fraught — but never when they're directed at Miami Police Department spokesman Orlando Rodriguez. Rodriguez respects tight deadlines, assists with public-records requests, and responds to inquiries seemingly 24/7 (sometimes within minutes!). Rodriguez has never dodged a request for comment or ghosted us completely unlike other media liaisons with other public agencies (we're glaring at you, City of Miami).