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IMDbPro

Roger Guenveur Smith

  • Actor
  • Writer
  • Producer
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Roger Guenveur Smith at an event for All About the Benjamins (2002)
Nicole Wright, a beautiful and successful music CEOs life is about to crumble in front of her. While leaving her husband and son, the lies that have built her music empire is threatening to tear her down. Nicole learns the hard way that looks can be deceiving and his motives are as dark as the secrets she keeps.
Play trailer2:07
The Available Wife (2020)
13 Videos
16 Photos
Roger Guenveur Smith is an internationally acclaimed actor, writer, and director who has created a prolific body of work on stage and screen.

He adapted his Obie Award-winning solo performance of A Huey P. Newton Story into a Peabody Award-winning telefilm, directed by his longtime colleague Spike Lee, with whom he continues to collaborate in a relationship which is unparalleled in the American cinema.

For Lee's Oscar-nominated Do The Right Thing, Smith improvised the stuttering hero, Smiley, after his debut as fraternity pledge Yoda in Lee's first studio film, school daze. The eclectic range of characters expanded with a Russian roulette-playing gangster in Malcolm X, a guitar-playing cop in Get On The Bus , the street philosopher Big Time Willie in He Got Game, a hardnose detective in Summer Of Sam, and an opportunistic insurance salesman in Chi-Raq.

Also among Smith's recent credits are The Birth Of A Nation, and Bitch, which have achieved distinction in three consecutive Sundance Festivals, and the acclaimed indies Mooz-Lum, and Better Mus' Come, in which he plays the Prime Minister of Jamaica.

Smith's astonishing range is further demonstrated in the cult classics Deep Cover and King Of New York, Eve's Bayou, Hamlet, All About The Benjamins, and American Gangster, for which he was nominated for the Screen Actors' Guild Award. On HBO, Smith has starred in Steven Soderbergh's K Street, Oz, and Unchained Memories: Readings From The Slave Narrative.

Before entering the Yale School of Drama ( into a class which included Angela Bassett, Charles S. Dutton, and John Turturro) Smith studied history, earning an undergraduate degree in American Studies at Occidental College.

He has continued to combine his interests through an ever-evolving stage repertoire which includes Frederick Douglass Now, Christopher Columbus 1992, The Watts Towers Project, In Honor Of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Two Fires, Patriot Act, Juan and John, The End Of Black History Month, Who Killed Bob Marley?, Iceland, and, with Mark Broyard, Inside The Creole Mafia, a "not too dark comedy."

Smith's work is frequently developed through intense archival immersion and improvisation, a process which informs his performing history workshop, which he currently directs at Cal Arts.

Katori Hall's The Mountaintop, Steven Berkoff's Agamemnon, and the Bessie and Ovation Award-winning Radio Mambo, are also among his directorial credits.

Smith frequently collaborates with composer/videographer Marc Anthony Thompson (Chocolate Genius Inc.) and presents his work at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles.

Smith was born in Berkeley, and raised in Los Angeles, where he resides with his wife, the writer LeTania Kirkland, and their three children. He has an adult daughter from a former marriage.
BornJuly 27, 1955
  • More at IMDbPro
    • Contact info
    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornJuly 27, 1955
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
  • View contact info at IMDbPro
  • Awards
    • 1 win & 4 nominations

Photos16

Roger Guenveur Smith in Do the Right Thing (1989)
Roger Guenveur Smith in Marshall (2017)
Still of Roger Guenveur Smith and Paul Elia in the film "Dirty"
Still of Tony Denison and Roger Guenveur Smith in the film "Dirty"
Still of Roger Guenveur Smith and Paul Elia in the Film "Dirty"
Roger Guenveur Smith in The Guardian (2001)
Laurence Fishburne, Spike Lee, Giancarlo Esposito, Jasmine Guy, Darryl M. Bell, James Bond III, Edward G. Bridges, Tisha Campbell, Rusty Cundieff, Art Evans, Kadeem Hardison, Dominic Hoffman, Ellen Holly, Kyme, Cinqué Lee, Joie Lee, Kasi Lemmons, Branford Marsalis, Bill Nunn, Eric Payne, Joe Seneca, Roger Guenveur Smith, and Leonard L. Thomas in School Daze (1988)
Still photographs on the set of "I Believe in America"
Mira Nair and Roger Guenveur Smith at an event for Hysterical Blindness (2002)
Roger Guenveur Smith at an event for Hysterical Blindness (2002)
Roger Guenveur Smith in Dirty (2016)
Vanessa Bell Calloway, Jazsmin Lewis, Roger Guenveur Smith, and Gina Torres in Applause for Miss E (2009)

Known for

Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons, and Shameik Moore in Dope (2015)
Dope
7.2
  • Austin Jacoby
  • 2015
Summer of Sam (1999)
Summer of Sam
6.7
  • Detective Curt Atwater
  • 1999
Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, John Turturro, Ruby Dee, Giancarlo Esposito, and Bill Nunn in Do the Right Thing (1989)
Do the Right Thing
8.0
  • Smiley
  • 1989
Denzel Washington in He Got Game (1998)
He Got Game
6.9
  • Big Time Willie
  • 1998

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actor

  • Intercept
    • Governor James Williams
    • In Production
  • Reminisce
    • Mr. Benson
    • Post-production
  • Chocolate
    • Detective Fig
    • Completed
    • TV Movie
  • Amin Joseph and Skye P. Marshall in To Live and Die and Live (2023)
    To Live and Die and Live
    • Reed Jennings
    • 2023
  • Danielle Deadwyler in Till (2022)
    Till
    • Dr. Howard
    • 2022
  • Marg Helgenberger in All Rise (2019)
    All Rise
    • Judge Thomas Marshall
    • TV Series
    • 2022
  • Nondumiso Tembe in Thoughts Are Things (2022)
    Thoughts Are Things
    • Joshua Turner
    • Short
    • 2022
  • Actor Trade's Virtual Table Read Series (2020)
    Actor Trade's Virtual Table Read Series
    • Randall
    • Martin
    • TV Series
    • 2021
  • Real Talk (2021)
    Real Talk
    • Oliver James
    • King Of Diamonds
    • 2021
  • Jennifer Freeman, Daphne Reid, Roger Guenveur Smith, Kamel Goffin, Lawrence Robinson, James Wright Chanel, and Khadeen Ellis in The Business of Christmas (2020)
    The Business of Christmas
    • Oscar Franklin
    • 2020
  • Dianna Camacho, Rosemary Hochschild, Orson Oblowitz, Jon Sklaroff, Roger Guenveur Smith, Aeon Magdalena, Joe Montelongo, Jose Rosete, Jonathan Howard, Jennifer Field, Isidora Goreshter, Christian de Gallegos, Rigo Obezo, Robert Wise, Santiago Segura, Eric Womack, Harry Azano, Clayton Beard, Elena Kornilova, Mike Ferguson, Kirill Revega, Filipp Revega, and Daniel De Lara in The Five Rules of Success (2020)
    The Five Rules of Success
    • Santos
    • 2020
  • Clifton Powell, Roger Guenveur Smith, Kj Smith, and Terayle Hill in The Available Wife (2020)
    The Available Wife
    • Walter
    • 2020
  • Octavia Spencer in Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker (2020)
    Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker
    • Booker T. Washington
    • TV Mini Series
    • 2020
  • Deborah Cox, Drew Sidora, Kellita Smith, Roger Guenveur Smith, Anthony Hamilton, Columbus Short, and Todd Anthony in Influence (2020)
    Influence
    • Bradley Hudson
    • 2020
  • My Father Belize (2019)
    My Father Belize
    • Uncle Nacio
    • Short
    • 2019
  • Gerald 'Slink' Johnson in Black Jesus (2014)
    Black Jesus
    • Cardinal
    • TV Series
    • 2019
  • Lucas Monroe in I'll See You Around (2019)
    I'll See You Around
    • Michael Gomez
    • 2019
  • Hollow Point (2019)
    Hollow Point
    • Detective Chuck Bryant
    • 2019

Writer

  • Roger Guenveur Smith in Rodney King (2017)
    Rodney King
    • written by
    • TV Special
    • 2017
  • A Huey P. Newton Story (2001)
    A Huey P. Newton Story
    • play
    • TV Movie
    • 2001

Producer

  • Jennifer Freeman, Daphne Reid, Roger Guenveur Smith, Kamel Goffin, Lawrence Robinson, James Wright Chanel, and Khadeen Ellis in The Business of Christmas (2020)
    The Business of Christmas
    • producer
    • 2020
  • My Father Belize (2019)
    My Father Belize
    • executive producer
    • Short
    • 2019
  • It's Not About Jimmy Keene (2019)
    It's Not About Jimmy Keene
    • producer
    • Short
    • 2019
  • In-development projects at IMDbPro

Videos15

Official Trailer
Trailer 2:07
Official Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 1:06
Trailer
U.S. Version
Trailer 1:58
U.S. Version
CornerStore
Trailer 2:03
CornerStore
Joy Road
Trailer 2:28
Joy Road
The Queen of Hollywood Blvd
Trailer 1:33
The Queen of Hollywood Blvd
In Sickness and in Health
Trailer 1:06
In Sickness and in Health
Mooz-Lum
Trailer 2:33
Mooz-Lum
Fist of the Warrior
Trailer 0:45
Fist of the Warrior
The Take
Trailer 2:34
The Take
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Trailer 1:24
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
K Street
Trailer 1:57
K Street

Personal details

Edit
  • Official site
    • Facebook
  • Alternative names
    • Roger G. Smith
  • Height
    • 6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
  • Born
    • July 27, 1955
    • Berkeley, California, USA
  • Spouse
    • Carolina? - present (1 child)
  • Other works
    Wrote and stars in a one-man show entitled "A Huey P. Newton Story", which Smith has been touring with since 1997.

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Grew up and resides in Los Angeles. After studying for a doctorate in American studies, he attended Yale Drama School.
  • Trademark
      Often won't blink when he talks

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