John R Smith Jnr

My agent bills me as an award-winning, classically-trained, character actor, but I'm just a guy who's been addicted to performing since I was a kid improvising puppet shows & superhero adventures with my brother & cousin and mimicking family members & TV characters for laughs. I started hitting the harder stuff in 5th Grade: school plays & memorizing stand-up albums. ​In High School, I just gave into it: plays, musicals, sketch comedy, improv, Shakespeare, and workshops with industry pros at summer student festivals at The Folger Library in DC & Ball State U in IN.

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I dabbled very briefly in college and quickly realized academia is not for me. 

 

​After moving to CT, Tanya Feduik and I exchanged "I do's". In those early years, we worked on one of many doomed efforts to reopen Stratford's legendary Shakespeare Festival Theatre. Which is now, sadly, a pile of ashes. While doing that work, we were invited to be part of Playing Shakespeare USA, a weekend intensive with RSC Co-Founder, the late John Barton, CBE. 

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A few years after, we took a hiatus to focus on raising our young family. When the kids were semi-responsible, young adults (and at an age far beyond when their Gen X parents were left to our own devices) we returned to the stage working primarily at The Bijou Theatre in Bridgeport CT. Tanya and I eventually joined The Bijou staff as Artistic Consultants & Producers of the live theatre wing: The Bijou Actors' Guild. Which we spun off into Vagabond Theatre Company when economic struggles forced management at The Bijou to call it quits.

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​When Covid shuttered theaters, at Tanya’s urging I pivoted to film, starting with my performance as Bernie Davis in The Woodsman. I followed that up with reformed outlaw Moka Joe in the forthcoming short: The Red Reina, and lovable, foul-mouthed catcher, John Faiella, in Omnes Films baseball feature, Eephus. Which premiered at Cannes in May 2024.

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In all, I've done over 20 projects and counting since the pivot.

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​People also seem to like my and Tanya’s work. Shows we produced have over 70 nominations for OnStage Critics' & BroadwayWorld Awards, including 20 nominations in BroadwayWorld's 2020 - Best of the Decade, and I've been nominated for more than a dozen OnStage Critics' & BroadwayWorld Awards for theatre performances around CT, and was given some very nice Film Festival trinkets for The Woodsman.

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For the Day Job I've driven a desk as a metal trader for over 25 yrs. Now that Tanya and I are empty nesters most of my free time is spent recalculating my dinner recipes for just 2 people, making good on my promises to tackle renovation projects on the 1921 farmhouse built by her great grandmother "once the kids move out and we have space to work in", and filling, then refilling, the craters our 5 y.o. Husky/Malamute insists on having in the backyard.