Derek Hartley

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Derek Hartley (born on October 28, 1969) is an American gay talk show host of the Derek and Romaine Show, a talk radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio's Sirius OutQ channel.

Hartley was born at Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He has one sibling, Tiffany, a younger sister. Born a military brat, he lived in several states before the age of four. He attended kindergarten in Utah and first through third grades in Sebastopol, California at Apple Blossom Elementary School. His parents divorced and Hartley and his sister divided their time and school years between California and Utah. Between fourth and ninth grade, he attended almost a dozen different school. He graduated from Alhambra High School in Alhambra, Calfornia in 1987 and attended the California State University at Los Angeles.

Hartley joined PlanetOut.com in May 1996 as a volunteer in the PopcornQ area on America Online. He hosted online celebrity interviews for PlanetOut on AOL in 1996 and 1997. In March of 1997, he created FantasyMan Island, an online dating area for PlanetOut, which ran until January 2005, and wrote a popular weekly relationship advice column there. From 1997-1999, he also worked directly for America Online, developing entertainment content for their Entertainment Asylum area.

In December 2000, Hartley was introduced to Fred Seibert by former AOL co-worker Emil Rensing and joined Frederator in January 2001. While there, he developed online marketing campaigns for Seventeen Magazine, Tiger Beat and The New TNN (later Spike TV) for Viacom.

In late 2002, John McMullen, who met Hartley at the PlanetOut launch party in September 1996 in San Francisco, California, offered Hartley a dating/relationship show on a proposed gay talk channel on Sirius Satellite Radio. In March 2003, while searching for a producer for the show, McMullen hired former activist Romaine Patterson to serve as producer and co-host of the show. The two met only once before beginning work together as a radio duo. The now Derek and Romaine Show launched in April 2003 as a three hour talk show airing from 6-9pm ET each weekday. Later the show was expanded to four hours from 6-10pm ET. Guests on the show have included: Donald Trump, Meredith Vieira, Charo, Olivia Newton John, Samuel L. Jackson, kd lang, and Jenna Jameson.