Shawnee Smith extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Shawnee Smith
Shawnee Smith, February 2007
Born	July 3, 1970 (1970-07-03) (age 39) Orangeburg, South Carolina, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, Musician
Years active	1978 – present
Spouse(s)	Kai Mattoon (2005–2006) (divorced) 1 child Jason Reposar (1998–2003) (divorced) 1 child

Shawnee Smith (born July 3, 1970) is an American actress and musician. Smith is well known for her roles in the Saw films and the TV series Becker. As well as the many films and television shows in which she has appeared, Smith once fronted the band Fydolla Ho, with which she toured the USA and the UK. While still acting, she is also the other half of Smith & Pyle, a desert country-rock band, with actress Missi Pyle.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Personal life 1.2 Career 1.3 Music career 2 Filmography 3 Television 4 Executive Producer 5 Radio Appearances 6 Discography 6.1 Albums 6.2 Singles 7 References 8 External links

Biography

Personal life

This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (June 2009)

Shawnee Smith was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the second child of Patricia, an oncology nurse, and Jim Smith, a financial planner and US Air Force pilot. (Interestingly, Shawnee would be cast at age 15 as one of Jason Gedrick's fellow Air Force brats in the original Iron Eagle.) The family relocated from South Carolina to Van Nuys, California when she was a year old. Shawnee's biological parents divorced when she was 2 and her mother remarried when she was 8.

She attended Ranchito Avenue Elementary School in Panorama City, California. She also attended North Hollywood High School in North Hollywood, California and graduated in 1987.¹²

Smith has a slight southern drawl in her speech even though she only lived in the South for a very brief period of time. Visiting family over the summer holidays kept her accent.

Smith has two children: a daughter named Verve, born in 1999, from her marriage to photographer Jason Reposar (1998–2003) and a son named Jakson, born in 2005, from her marriage to musician Kai Mattoon (2005–2006). Her daughter was named after Verve Records.³ Both Verve and Jakson were featured in the debut Smith & Pyle album, It's OK to be Happy. The kids are listed in the album credits as having vocals and spoken narrative tracks for 2 songs.⁴

Smith's second marriage to Kai Mattoon took place in April 2005. Their son Jakson was born on December 12, 2005.⁵

Smith and ex-husband Jason Reposar eloped in 1998 while on vacation in Scotland due to the inability to organize a wedding. The song "Sugar," performed by her country-rock band Smith & Pyle, was written by Smith after her divorce from Reposar. She describes it as her break-up song that is quite different from Pyle's break-up song, "I Wish You Were Dead."⁶

In December 2000, Smith mentioned on the Bill Maher talk show Politically Incorrect that she is a Republican.

Smith was featured in Maxim magazine in June 2001.⁷

Smith has been a member of the Screen Actors Guild since she was 9.⁸

Smith is only 5'2".⁹

Career

Smith appeared on stage in A Christmas Carol repertory from age 8 to 11 and starred in a stage play with Richard Dreyfuss at age 15. She also performed in the original stage production of To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday and won the Dramalogue Critics Award for her performance. She was the youngest actor up to that time to receive such an honor.¹⁰

Smith made her television debut in a McDonald's commercial titled "Best Friends" in 1978.

Smith's feature film debut was John Huston's 1982 adaptation of the Broadway musical Annie, as one of Aileen Quinn's fellow orphans.

In 1985, Smith co-starred in two troubled-teen melodramas, Not My Kid and Crime of Innocence.

In 1987, Smith co-starred in the hit comedy film Summer School as pregnant student Rhonda Altobello. The following year, she starred with Kevin Dillon and the late Joe Seneca in a 1988 remake of the Steve McQueen classic The Blob as Meg Penny.

Smith played a rich punk who helps John Candy locate her kidnapped sister in 1989's Who's Harry Crumb?. That same year, she co-starred with Jennie Garth and Alison Sweeney in the short-lived TV series Brand New Life. The following year, Smith co-starred as the daughter of Anthony Hopkins and Mimi Rogers in the remake of Michael Cimino's thriller The Desperate Hours.

Smith took a three-year break from acting in the mid-1990s primarily because she had outgrown teenage roles and had a hard time finding work. During that time she climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and competed in a triathlon. Near the end of the hiatus she decided to sell all her stuff and relocate to North Carolina to visit family and go back to school. When she was about to start attending classes she landed a small role in Leaving Las Vegas and has had steady work ever since.

Smith has become well-known in recent years for her role as Amanda Young in the Saw films. In the DVD commentary of Saw, the producers revealed that her scenes were filmed while she was battling a terrible case of the flu. It is also revealed in the DVD commentary of Saw II that she was four months pregnant with her second child, Jakson, during filming. Her pregnancy was kept a secret from everyone except director Darren Lynn Bousman. He mentioned in the commentary that Smith's daughter Verve accidentally told him about the pregnancy during filming. She also wore a man's watch while filming Saw III, which she kept. She has also said that although she is briefly shown in Saw V, she was never on set. Any scenes featuring her were dubbed from file footage.

Smith has repeatedly admitted that she hates being scared and has a hard time watching the Saw films, or any horror movie. She originally turned the role of Amanda Young down because it was so upsetting to her. After turning the role down, she was shown the 8-minute short film by Leigh Whannell and James Wan and changed her mind after the role was offered to her a second time. Ironically, Smith in the jaw trap became the image on the film poster. Shawnee also revealed at SawMania 2008 that her name was initially brought up for the role of Amanda because Saw director James Wan was a big fan of her films in the 1980s and had a longtime crush on her. Director Darren Bousman and Leigh Whannell have also talked about their crushes on Shawnee in the Saw DVD commentaries, especially Bousman.

Shawnee has been acknowledged as a "scream queen" due to the number of horror films she has appeared in.¹¹¹²

Smith's best-known television role was Linda, an air-headed nurse's aide, in the CBS hit comedy series Becker with Ted Danson. She was featured in 129 episodes as a regular cast member from 1998-2004. During the first season she was pregnant with her first child, Verve. Her pregnancy was hidden by wearing a lab coat and holding patient charts and other random props over her stomach. She gave birth in May 1999 during the summer hiatus between seasons 1 and 2.

Another well-known television role was that of Julie Lawry in the 1994 miniseries The Stand, based on the book by Stephen King. She also appeared as a waitress in The Shining miniseries, which King adapted from his own novel.

Besides her regular role on Becker and the cameos in the Stephen King miniseries, Smith made several guest appearances on television shows, such as Cagney & Lacey; Married With Children; Murder, She Wrote; The X-Files; and Players. She lent her voice to an episode of the Disney cartoon Kim Possible as Vivian Porter.

In 2006, Smith made an appearance in the 10-minute short film trailer Repo! The Genetic Opera by director Darren Lynn Bousman. Smith's character was Heather Sweet, the surgery addicted daughter of GeneCo president Rotti Largo. The trailer was filmed in Toronto, Canada and was an adaptation from the stage version. Bousman filmed the trailer after completing Saw III to try and pitch the idea to film producers. Smith did not reprise her role as Heather Sweet when Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures picked up the film in 2007 and was replaced by Paris Hilton. The character name was also changed from Heather to Amber. Other familiar faces in the original trailer were Terrance Zdunich as the Grave Robber, Michael Rooker as the Repo Man (replaced by Anthony Stewart Head) and Smith's Saw III co-star J. Larose as Pavi (replaced by Nivek Ogre).¹³

In 2008, Smith played Detective Gina Harcourt in the FEARnet original series 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust.¹⁴ The 6 episode series premiered on July 17, 2008 on FEARnet.com in 4-6 minute webisodes along with behind the scenes clips. This series is a continuation of the first webisode series 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails. It is still available on FEARnet.com and can also be seen in its entirety (about 30 minutes straight through) on FEARnet On Demand. Shawnee also made her producing debut with this series.

Smith was the host and one of three mentors on the VH1 reality program Scream Queens which aired from October 20, 2008 to December 8, 2008.¹⁵ Smith appeared as a guest on Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, the late night talk show on Fox News, on November 15, 2008 to promote the reality show.¹⁶ The winner of the reality show, Tanedra Howard, got the prize of a breakout role in Saw VI.

Smith's played the role of Dr. Ann Sullivan in the latest installment of the Grudge series, The Grudge 3. Filming took place in the Spring of 2008 in Bulgaria¹⁷. The film was originally supposed to be released onto DVD and Blu-Ray on March 25, 2009 but was pushed back to May 12, 2009.

On March 20, 2009, producer Mark Burg released a statement confirming that Shawnee will be in the latest installment of the Saw films, Saw VI.¹⁸ She arrived in Toronto on March 31, 2009 to begin filming brand new flashback sequences.¹⁹²⁰

Music career

Along with Shawnee's extensive acting resume, she is also a musician; she plays the guitar, drums, and sings. She contributed to the soundtrack of Saw III with vocals on Hydrovibe's song "Killer Inside" and to the soundtrack for Catacombs as a solo vocalist with the song "Please Myself." Her voice was also featured in the film Carnival of Souls where her character Sandra performed a jazz song titled "I Fear." She also appears alongside Hydrovibe in the music video for "Killer Inside" which is a special feature on the Saw III Director's Cut DVD.

Smith fronted the punk/metal band Fydolla Ho (pronounced like Five-Dollar Whore) in the early 2000s. The group was originally formed by Smith and current Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo as a small recording project.²¹ The band released their debut full-length album "Untied" in December 2001 (available on iTunes and Amazon.com). She juggled the band with being a regular cast member on Becker and mentioned in an interview that every co-star, including Ted Danson, went to see a Fydolla Ho show at least once. She admits now that she doesn't know what state of mind she was in when writing Fydolla Ho songs and/or performing with the band and that it was very masochistic.²² The band officially ended in 2004.

Smith began working on a solo career/album in 2004 with producer Chris Goss, but the project was never completed. In an interview with Radio Free in October 2005 she stated, "between being a mom, and working, and growing another baby, I have not had time to give attention to music for a while." ²³

She is currently part of a country music group with actress Missi Pyle called Smith & Pyle. The two actresses met while filming an ABC comedy pilot titled Traveling in Packs. The band started after Smith invited Pyle to join her in attending the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. While stuck in traffic, Pyle talked about her dream to be a rock star and Smith agreed to form a band with her. Their first album, "It's OK to Be Happy", was released digitally through iTunes and Amazon.com in July 2008. The debut album was recorded in Joshua Tree, California at Rancho de la Luna and was produced by Chris Goss. The two actresses have also become business partners and formed their own record label called Urban Prairie Records, which "It's OK to be Happy" was released under. Smith has talked about the possibility of a Smith & Pyle television or webisode series in the near future. Smith mentioned the idea of a series on Fangoria radio with Dee Snider.²⁴ Currently there are 3 videos posted on YouTube that show the making of the record. They also have a 10-minute "making of" video on Vimeo called Smith & Pyle: Desert Sessions.²⁵

Filmography

• Annie (1982) .... Orphan/Dancer
• Not My Kid (1985) .... Carol
• Crime of Innocence (1985) .... Jodi Hayward
• Iron Eagle (1986) .... Joenie
• Easy Prey (1986) (TV) .... Tina Marie Risico
• Summer School (1987) .... Rhonda Altobello
• Bluegrass (1988) (TV) .... Alice Gibbs
• I Saw What You Did (1988) (TV) .... Kim Fielding
• The Blob (1988) .... Meg Penny
• Who's Harry Crumb? (1989) .... Nikki Downing
• Desperate Hours (1990) .... May Cornell
• Stephen King's The Stand (1994) (TV) .... Julie Lawry
• Leaving Las Vegas (1995) .... Biker Girl
• The Low Life (1995) .... "Little Tramp" woman
• Bombshell (1996) .... Shelly
• Female Perversions (1996) .... Make-Up Salesgirl
• Face of Evil (1996) (TV) .... Jeanelle Polk
• Every Dog Has Its Day (1997) .... Redhead
• Dogtown (1997) .... Tammy Hayes
• Something Borrowed, Something Blue (1997) (TV) .... Teri
• Dead Men Can't Dance (1997) .... Sgt. Addy Cooper
• Men (1997) .... Clara
• Armageddon (1998) .... Redhead
• Carnival of Souls (1998) .... Sandra Grant
• The Party Crashers (1998) .... Carolyn
• Twice Upon a Time (1998) (TV) .... Maggie Fowler
• A Slipping-Down Life (1999) .... Faye-Jean Lindsay
• Breakfast of Champions (1999) .... Bonnie MacMahon
• Eat Your Heart Out (2000) .... Nicole
• Never Get Outta the Boat (2002) .... Dawn
• Saw (2004) .... Amanda Young
• The Almost Guys (2004) .... Bigger
• The Island (2005) .... Suzie
• Saw II (2005).... Amanda Young
• The Scott Tibbs Documentary (2005) (short film on the director's cut DVD of Saw II) .... Amanda Young
• Repo! The Genetic Opera (2006) (short film) .... Heather Sweet
• Saw III (2006) .... Amanda Young
• Secrets of an Undercover Wife (2007) (TV) .... Lisa Wilder-Crews
• Saw IV (2007) .... Amanda Young
• 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust (2008) (webisode series) .... Detective Gina Harcourt
• Saw V (2008) .... Amanda Young
• The Grudge 3 (2009) .... Dr. Ann Sullivan
• Slaughter (2009) .... Sarah
• Saw VI (2009) .... Amanda Young²⁶

Television

• Silver Spoons (1984) .... Tawny (1 episode)
• It's Your Move (1985) .... Brenda (1 episode)
• Cagney & Lacey (1985) .... Unknown Role (1 episode)
• All Is Forgiven (1986) .... Sonia Russell (9 episodes)
• A Brand New Life (1989) .... Amanda Gibbons (6 episodes)
• Lucky/Chances (1990) .... Olympia Stanislopolous Golden
• Murder She Wrote (1993) .... Jill Cleveland (1 episode)
• The X-Files (1994) .... Jesse O'Neil (1 episode)
• Arsenio (1997) (TV) .... Laura Lauman (1 episode)
• The Shining (1997) (mini) TV Series .... Waitress (1 episode)
• Players (1998) .... Lila (1 episode)
• The Tom Show (1998) .... Florence Madison (19 episodes)
• Hollywood Squares (1999-2002) .... Herself (11 episodes)
• CBS Cares (2001, 2003) .... Herself (2 episodes)
• Kim Possible (2003) (TV) .... Vivian Porter (voice)
• Becker (1998-2004) .... Linda (129 episodes)
• Scream Awards (2006) .... Herself
• Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2006) .... Herself
• 30 Even Scarier Movie Moments (2006) (mini) TV Series .... Herself
• Traveling in Packs (2007) TV Series .... Ivy (1 episode, pilot)
• Scream Queens (2008) .... Herself (8 episodes)
• Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld (2008) .... Herself

Executive Producer

• 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust (2008) (webisode series)

Radio Appearances

• Loveline with Dr. Drew and Adam Carolla (January 3, 2001) .... Herself
• Loveline with Dr. Drew and Stryker (May 14, 2001) .... Herself
• Fangoria Radio with Dee Snider (October 27, 2006) .... Herself (to promote Saw III)²⁷
• Fangoria Radio with Dee Snider (August 8, 2007) .... Herself (with Tobin Bell to promote Saw IV)²⁸
• Fangoria Radio with Dee Snider (April 25, 2008) .... Herself (with Mark Christian and Mat Dauzat to promote Smith & Pyle)²⁹
• The Time Machine with Mike Clark of the Smith Bros. (November 2008) .... Herself (to promote Smith & Pyle)³⁰
• The Single Life with Sam Phillips (April 18, 2009) .... Herself (with Missi Pyle, Mat Dauzat, and Heather St. Marie)
• Fangoria Radio with Dee Snider (May 15, 2009) .... Herself (to promote The Grudge 3 and Saw VI)

Discography

Albums

• Vial, Fydolla Ho (4-track Demo CD, unknown year)
• Untied, Fydolla Ho (2001)
• It's OK to be Happy, Smith & Pyle (2008)

Singles

Featured in film

• "I Fear," Carnival of Souls (1998)
• "Killer Inside" (with Hydrovibe), Saw III soundtrack (2006)
• "Zytrate Anatomy," Repo! The Genetic Opera 10-minute short film (2006)³¹
• "Please Myself," Catacombs soundtrack (2007)

Unknown album and/or year

• "Deciding" (2004)
• "Head" (2004)
• "Shelter" (2004)

with Fydolla Ho

• "Oh Yeah"
• "No Matter"
• "Pieces"
• "Behave"
• "Afraid"

References

External links

• Smith & Pyle Official Site
• Shawnee Smith at the Internet Movie Database