Brian Michael Smith

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Brian Michael Smith at the GLAAD Media Awards 2018

Brian Michael Smith (born January 29, 1983 in Ann Arbor ) is an American actor and activist , whose role was toine Wilkins and Pierce Williams in the television series Queen Sugar and The L Word: Generation Q, as well as his leading role as firefighter Paul Strickland in 9-1-1: Lone Star became known.

Life

Brian Michael Smith was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan , where he grew up with his mother, an event manager and Ford employee. Smith was raised with the children of his three aunts, who he claims were closely related to his mother. Smith is transgender and presented himself as a boy even in his childhood, although he was considered a tomboy because of his biological gender . At the local Pioneer High School , Smith played American football on the boys 'team in the winter and shot put and pole vault as a member of the girls' athletics team in the spring . On September 17, 1999, at a game in Traverse City, he became the first player of a female birth sex to score a touchdown for a school football team in Michigan state. Smith also underwent a gender reassignment program in his youth .

After graduating from high school, Smith studied Acting and Video Production at Kent State University , graduating in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in film and broadcast programming and minor drama.

Career

After studying and teaching at the University of Michigan , Smith moved to New York City in 2008 to become an actor himself. During his training started in 2011 by Terry Knickerbocker at the William Esper Studio , a school for performing arts in Manhattan , Smith received smaller roles in films and television series such as Gossip Girl and Blue Bloods - Crime Scene New York from 2012 , and he was next to Eli Manning seen in a commercial for Toyota .

Smith got his first speaking role in 2015 as a cop in the HBO production Girls , who arrested the main character Jessa Johansson ( Jemima Kirke ). According to his own statement, Smith plays the role type because of his preference for productions such as Law & Order and Lethal Weapon - two steely professionals , he would have embodied police officers in the background in over 20 television and theater projects such as Hostages or Unforgettable through them Experience he would have received his first major film role in Tracers as a security guard in the same year .

After other supporting roles as a police officer in various television series as well as an activity in off-Broadway and other regional plays such as Duck Hunter Shoots Angel by Mitch Albom and A Real Boy by Stephen Kaplan , Smith became Officer Antoine Wilkins in the year 2017 in the recurring role of Oprah Winfrey Network production Queen Sugar occupied. Antoine , called Toine , is also transgender like Smith and helps his school friend, the main character Ralph Angel Bordelon ( Kofi Siriboe ) , to accept the feminine traits of his son Blue ( Ethan Hutchinson ), with whom he has difficulties . Toine Wilkins was Smith's first role with which he shared the gender identity, as he had previously played only cisgender people. According to Smith, Toine and Ralph Angel's friendship reflected experiences he'd had with longtime friends that had never been seen on television. Before filming, he was excited to share this with people who were unaware of their acquaintance with transgender people. Among other things, the series creator Ava DuVernay received a GLAAD Media Award in July 2018 for casting the character with a transgender actor .

In 2019 Smith was cast in another recurring supporting role: In The L Word: Generation Q , the sequel to The L Word - When Women Love Women , he embodies Pierce Williams , the transgender campaign manager for the main character Bette Porter ( Jennifer Beals ) who is running for Los Angeles mayor's office . Since 2020 he has played the main character Paul Strickland , a firefighter working in Austin , in 9-1-1: Lone Star , and Smith is the first African-American trans man to play a leading role in a US television series.

activism

Brian Michael Smith (far right) in a discussion with Janet Mock and Amiyah Scott, University of Michigan in 2018

After graduation, Smith returned to his home state of Michigan and taught drama and media literacy at the University of Michigan in the Gear Up Program . In New York he continued his work as a mentor in this field, among others at the art organization Wingspan Arts , for the non-profit cinema Maysles Documentary Center , which organizes courses for budding documentary filmmakers, and in the Tribeca Teaches Program of Tribeca Film Institute . He also said in an interview with NBC News that he had also looked after young people in the LGBT center of Manhattan in the main areas.

In February 2018, Smith was a guest and speaker at the 4th Annual Trotter House Lecture Series, My Life, My Story! Centering the Lives of Trans Voices on the everyday life of transgender people. There he also held a panel discussion with producer and journalist Janet Mock and actress Amiyah Scott . In May of the same year, Smith was the keynote speaker at a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the LGBT film festival Reel Out Charlotte in the city ​​of the same name in North Carolina . Finally, in June at New York Pride at the Game Changers Panel hosted by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation ( GLAAD for short ), he spoke again with Amiyah Scott and Jamie Clayton about changes in the US television landscape that would lead to increased representation from transgender people in series.

On August 7, 2018, Smith was part of the first Variety- initiated roundtable with transgender actors who discussed their experiences with their gender identity in Hollywood, alongside Laverne Cox , Trace Lysette , Jen Richards , Alexandra Billings and Chaz Bono . The one-hour video interview was published at the same time as a print edition in which the leading article dealt with the representation and discrimination of transgender people in the film business. During the discussion, Smith claimed that because of their visibility, Smith and the other interviewees should not be deprived of the opportunity to choose their artistic projects.

In June 2020, on the 50th anniversary of the United States' first Pride Parade , Smith was named one of the 50 people directing the United States toward equality, acceptance, and dignity for all by the online LGBT publication Queerty .

Filmography

  • 2011: Harlem Man (TV movie)
  • 2011: It Affects Us All (short film)
  • 2012: ZERO (TV series, episode 1x3)
  • 2012: Becoming Ricardo (web series, two episodes)
  • 2012: Gossip Girl (TV series, episode 6x6)
  • 2012: Nobody Knows (docu-drama)
  • 2014–2018: Blue Bloods - Crime Scene New York (TV series, four episodes)
  • 2014: Top Five
  • 2014: Rest in Peace - A Walk Among the Tombstones
  • 2014: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV series, episode 16x10)
  • 2015: Tracers
  • 2015: Girls (TV series, episode 4x3)
  • 2015: White Privilege Frankenstein (short film)
  • 2015: F * CK Machine (short film)
  • 2015–2016: Copernicus and Shaw (web series, 13 episodes, also idea, screenplay, direction and production)
  • 2016: Cruel Children (TV series, episode 1x1)
  • 2016: Mommy Heist (short film)
  • 2016: Person of Interest (TV series, episode 5x8)
  • 2017-2019: Queen Sugar (TV series, three episodes)
  • 2017: The Detour (TV series, episode 2x1)
  • 2017: Rufus (short film)
  • 2017: Compliance: Whydoucomply (short film, also director and screenplay)
  • 2017: Petty Therapy (short film, also director)
  • 2017: Chicago PD (TV series, episode 5x4)
  • 2017: Red Oaks (TV series, episode 3x1)
  • 2018: Seven Seconds (TV series, episode 1x1)
  • 2018: Homeland (TV series, episode 7x4)
  • 2018: After (TV series, seven episodes)
  • 2019: Tell-by Date (short film)
  • 2019: P's in a Pod (TV series, episode 1x5)
  • 2019: Polyester (short film)
  • since 2019: The L Word: Generation Q (TV series)
  • since 2020: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV series)
  • 2020: After Life (TV movie)
  • 2020: Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (documentary, interview partner)

Web links

Commons : Brian Michael Smith  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Nadine Matthews: Brian Michael on breaking barriers for trans male actors and his 'Queen Sugar' role. In: Shadow and Cat. October 9, 2017, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Malcolm Venable: 9-1-1 Lone Star's Brian Michael Smith: Black, Trans, and the Face of Pride 2020. In: TV Guide . June 4, 2020, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Jennifer Lawler: Punch !: Why Women Participate in Violent Sports . Wish Publishing, Terre Haute 2002, ISBN 978-1-930546-50-9 , pp. 79 .
  4. ↑ Samantha Allen: Take 5: How a Track Coach, TV Set, and Titanic Made Brian Michael Smith Who He Is. In: Them. December 5, 2019, accessed on August 23, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b Brian Michael Smith. In: Kent State University . Retrieved June 5, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b Tiq Milan: 'Queen Sugar' Actor Brian Michael Smith Comes Out As Transgender. In: NBC Nightly News . July 16, 2017, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  7. ↑ a b Nick Adams: GLAAD talks to Brian Michael from OWN's Queen Sugar. In: GLAAD . July 12, 2017, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  8. ^ Mariah Cooper: Actor Brian Michael comes out as transgender. In: Los Angeles Blade. July 17, 2017, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  9. ↑ SM Walsh: Brian Michael, Antoine Wilkins on 'Queen Sugar': 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know. In: Heavy. July 14, 2017, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Smokeinthecity: Who's That Guy Arresting Girls' Jessa ?? In: BuzzFeed . June 14, 2014, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Duck Hunter Shoots Angel. In: About The Artists. Retrieved June 5, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Evan Real: Watch Ava DuVernay Discuss "This Leaderless Country" in GLAAD Awards Speech (Exclusive). In: The Hollywood Reporter . July 5, 2018, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Tim Stack: The L Word: Generation Q casts One Mississippi and Queen Sugar stars. In: Entertainment Weekly . June 27, 2019, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  14. ^ Nico Lang: Brian Michael Smith Is TV's First Black Trans Man In Regular Role. In: Out . September 24, 2019, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Elizabeth Lawrence: Trotter Multicultural Center hosts lecture honoring transgender and nonbinary stories. In: The Michigan Daily. February 8, 2018, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Spring 2018 Spotlight: Brian Michael. In: Charlotte Pride. March 8, 2018, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  17. ↑ NYC Pride and GLAAD Host Incredible 'Game Changers' Series. In: Instinct . June 20, 2018, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Ramin Setoodeh: Transgender Actors Roundtable: Laverne Cox, Chaz Bono and More on Hollywood Discrimination. In: Variety . August 7, 2018, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  19. ^ David Reddish: Meet the world-class performers who are diversifying LGBTQ representation. In: Queerty. June 1, 2020, accessed on August 17, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Smith, Brian Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and activist
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH Ann Arbor , Michigan