![]() ![]() Most every review of the film made mention of Smith ’s part. What he developed was the stuttering neighborhood idiot who wandered the streets hawking photos of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X shaking hands. Smith was allowed to create the role himself. In 1989 he appeared in Spike Lee ’s Do the Right Thing Although Smith ’s role as Smiley in this extremely controversial film about racial tension was a small one, it was memorable. ’ ” Began Work in Filmsĭuring the late 1980s Smith began to work in films. The minimal, make-do-with-what ’s-at-hand tradition that Smith only half-jokingly refers to as ’the theater of nothing and everything. Neioion Story, 1996.Īddresses: Management - Kaplan-Adams Entertainment, 8205 Santa Monica Blvd., #1-177, Los Angeles, CA, 90046. Newton Story, 1995 and the LA Weekly ’s award for Best Solo Performance for A Huey P. Newton Story, 1995 appeared on the stage in The Birthday Party, Agamemnon, The Task, Sue ños, It ’s a Man ’s World, That Serious He-Man Bull, and Coriolanus appeared on television in A Different World, Cosmic Slop, Murphy Brown, and Fallen Angels.Īwards: The LA Weekly ’s award for Best Two Person Show for Inside the Creole Mafia two NAACP awards for Best Playwright and Best Actor for A Huey P. Acted in films including School Daze, 1988, Do the Right Thing, 1989, King of New York, 1990, Deep Cover, 1992, Malcolm X, 1992, Poetic Justice, 1993, Tal és from the Hood, 1995, Panther, and The Bus, 1996 wrote and starred in stage performances including Frederick Douglass Now, 1990, Inside the Creole Mafia, 1991, Christopher Columbus 1992, 1992, A Huey P. Watson Fellowship.Īctor, writer, and director. 1982 Master ’s degree from Yale School of Drama apprenticed at the Keskidee Arts Centre, London, England, on a Thomas J. Education: Bachelor ’s degree in American studies from Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, c. As Don Snowden wrote in the New York Times Syndicate, Smith “also honed his skills in At a Glance …īorn 1960, in Berkeley, CA son of Sherman (a judge) and Helen (a dentist) Smith. Smith went on to play seasons at the Mark Taper Forum, Mabou Mines, and the Actors ’ Theatre of Louisville. He developed his craft on the stage of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and at the New York Shakespeare festival playing Pinter, Ionesco, Shakespeare, and Dickens. Smith began his professional acting career in the mid 1980s. As he told Marianne Ruuth in Players, “I ’ve had the opportunity to be influential within Academia and yet maintain my independence as an artist. Although he eventually gave it up to enter the performing sphere full-time, Smith still teaches performance workshops from time to time, including stints at the University of California at Berkeley. His strong desire to instruct led to a year spent teaching English at Hollywood High in Los Angeles following graduate school. Law school had tempted Smith, as had the idea of teaching history at the college level. Acting finally got the best of him, however, and he transferred into and graduated from Yale ’s prestigious School of Drama. On returning home Smith went to Yale University, initially into their African American studies program. Watson fellowship allowed him to apprentice at the Keskidee Arts Centre, a small theater in London that was an African-Caribbean theater center. Now beginning to toy seriously with the idea of acting as a career, Smith applied for and won a fellowship to do theater abroad for a year. He attended Occidental College, a small private college in Los Angeles, from which he received a Bachelors degree in American Studies. Not coincidentally, the vast majority of Smith ’s work as an adult addresses the African American ’s position in society.Īs Smith sought his own place, he was drawn to acting, but was afraid he might not be able to make a living at it. His mother, from South Carolina, and his father, from Virginia, moved to California in order to find opportunities denied to them as blacks in the segregated south. Smith was the first of his family to be born outside of the South. As a writer, director, and actor, he is making an admirable place for himself in the theatrical world.īorn in Berkeley, CA, but raised in Los Angeles, Smith did not have the acting bug at first his interests were varied and ever changing. Without fail, the work he does aims at bringing the black experience into mainstream American entertainment. More importantly, when those roles are not immediately forthcoming, Smith creates his own. He is, however, an extremely well-respected actor who makes a point of accepting provocative roles in theater, television, and film. ![]() Roger Guenveur Smith is not a famous actor, nor would his face be readily recognized on the street.
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