Shawnee Smith Biography

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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 38) Orangeburg, South Carolina, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Kai Mattoon (2005–present) 1 child: son Jakson Jason Reposar (1998–2003) (divorced) 1 child: daughter Verve

Shawnee Smith (born July 3, 1970) is an American actress. 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, and is the other half of country band Smith & Pyle 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 Discography 6 References 7 External links

Biography

Personal life

Shawnee Smith was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the second child of Patricia, an oncology nurse, and Jim Smith, a financial planner and 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.) Shawnee's parents divorced when she was 2, her mother remarried when she was 8, and then the family relocated from the South to Van Nuys, California. She attended Ranchito Elementary School in Panorama City, California.¹

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 present marriage to musician Kai Mattoon (2005–present). Her daughter was named after Verve Records.²

Smith and ex-husband Jason Reposar eloped in 1998 while on vacation in Scotland due to the inability to organize a wedding.

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.

Smith said to TV Guide in 1999 on an online chat that she deals with success, "with church and a good sense of humor!" In the same chat, she revealed her favorite food is nachos and that she carries a bottle of Tabasco Sauce in her purse.

Smith is sometimes confused with actress Juliette Lewis.

Career

Smith appeared on stage in A Christmas Carol repertory from age 8 to 11 and starred 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^{citation needed}.

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-1990's 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 at Blue Ridge Mountain Community College she landed a small role in Leaving Las Vegas.

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 and director revealed that her scenes were filmed while she was battling a terrible 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 during filming. Shawnee revealed at SawMania in November 2008 after Beverly Mitchell mentioned no one knew about the pregnancy that, "A costumer knew. I said 'you gotta help me hide this for the next 5 weeks.'" She also wore a man's watch while filming Saw III, which she kept. She has also said that although she is in Saw V, she was never on set. Any scene featuring her were dubbed from file footage.

Smith has admitted that she hates being scared and has a hard time watching the Saw films. 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 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 director James Wan was a big fan of her films in the 80's and had a crush on her.

Shawnee has been acknowledged as a "scream queen" due to the number of horror films she has appeared in.³⁴

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. 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 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.

More recently, Smith played Detective Gina Harcourt in the FEARnet original series 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust.⁵ The series premiered on July 17th, 2008 on FEARnet.com in six 4-6 minute webisodes along with behind the scenes clips. It is still available on FEARnet.com and is also showing in it's entirety (about 30 minutes straight through) on FEARnet On Demand in the free movies section. 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 20th, 2008 to December 8th, 2008.⁶

Music career

Not only has Shawnee done various acting roles, but she is also a musician. 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."

Smith also fronted the punk/metal band Fydolla Ho (pronounced like Five-Dollar Whore) in the early 2000's. The band released their album "Untied" in December 2001. She mentioned in an interview that every Becker co-star went to see a Fydolla Ho show at least once, even Ted Danson.

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^{citation needed}. 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 and was released on CD in September 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^{citation needed}. . Smith also mentioned the idea of a series on Fangoria radio with Dee Snider.⁷ 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.⁸⁹

Filmography

• Annie (1982) .... Orphan/Dancer
• Not My Kid (1985) .... Carol
• Cagney & Lacey (1985)
• 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
• 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) (on the director's cut DVD of Saw II) .... Amanda Young
• Repo! The Genetic Opera (2006) .... Heather Sweet (short film)
• Saw III (2006) .... Amanda Young
• Traveling in Packs (2007) (TV) .... Ivy
• 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. Sullivan ¹⁰
• Slaughter (2009) .... Sarah

Television

• Silver Spoons (1984) .... Tawny (1 episode)
• It's Your Move (1985) .... Brenda (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 Stand (1994) (mini) TV Series .... Julie Lawry
• The X-Files (1994) .... Jesse O'Neil (1 episode)
• Arsenio (1997) (TV) .... Laura Lauman (1 episode)
• The Shining (1997) (mini) TV Series .... Waitress (episode 3)
• 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
• Scream Queens (2008) .... Herself (8 episodes)

Executive Producer

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

Discography

Albums

• 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)
• "Please Myself," Catacombs (film) soundtrack (2007)

Unknown year and/or album

• "Deciding"
• "Head"
• "Shelter"

with Fydolla Ho:

• Vial, (4-track Demo CD)
• "Oh Yeah"
• "No Matter"
• "Pieces"
• "Behave"
• "Afraid"

References

External links

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