Roberts was born in Buffalo, New York, to a working-class family, and he is of Valle d'Aosta (northern Italian) descent.
Roberts attended Syracuse University as a speech and dramatic arts student, graduating with dual majors in English and communications.
In Buffalo, because the use of ethnic surnames was at that time discouraged,[1] he temporarily adopted David Thomas as his stage name.
Roberts made an uncredited cameo appearance, as an extra in the FBI office, in the 100th episode of Bones, "The Parts in the Sum of the Whole", which was directed by his son.
To avoid possible confusion with Lisa Thomas-Laury, he changed his stage name from David Thomas to Dave Roberts.