Kenny Smith

Director, Writer, Producer

 

Kenny Smith, a native of  Washington, D.C., is a graduate of Hampton University with a  bachelor’s degree in mass media. Just out of college, he moved to Los Angeles where he got his start in the entertainment industry as a Production Assistant on the Fox sitcom Martin. 

 

Two seasons later, Kenny began his writing career on The WB Network's comedy series The Jamie Foxx Show, soon becoming Co-Producer. After completing four seasons on the show,  he moved on to several UPN series, including One on One and its spin-off CUTS, where he served as Co-Executive Producer. 

 

In the summer of 2006, Kenny joined the staff of The Game on The CW Network, becoming  Executive Producer in the show’s third season and Showrunner in its sixth season. He also directed multiple episodes. For his work on The Game, he has been nominated twice for an  NAACP Image Award in the category Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series and has three nominations as a Producer in the category Outstanding Comedy Series, winning the latter in  2013. Between The Games's three seasons on The CW and its record-breaking return on BET,  Kenny worked on the DISNEY XD comedy series Pair of Kings, where he was nominated for his third Image Award for writing. After a nine-season series wrap of The Game, he moved on to ABC’s Uncle Buck, where he served as Co-Executive Producer.

 

In 2016, Kenny joined  ABC’s Black-Ish in the position of Co-Executive Producer and Director, earning another  NAACP Image Award, as well as an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination. The following season while developing for Universal, he served as Co-Executive Producer on NBC’s  Marlon. Under Kenny’s first overall deal, he returned to ABC Studios for season five of  Black-Ish as Director, Executive Producer, and Co-Showrunner of their multi-award-winning series. Kenny’s written a pilot for TV Land in collaboration with Jamie Foxx, as well as a pilot for BET starring Morris Chestnut, and three additional pilots — two for NBCUniversal.  Recently, he shot his comedy pilot None of The Above for FREEFORM. Currently, he’s working with UTV under his second overall deal, where he was just the Co-Showrunner for season two of Kenan on NBC and is developing multiple projects of different genres, as well as directing. 

 

In addition to television, Kenny has been involved in feature projects for New Line Cinema,  Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, IM Global, Netflix, and Fox Studios.