Juney Smith is a native New Yorker and graduate of LIU Brooklyn. He is a veteran actor, director, writer and producer of stage, screen and television. As an actor on stage he acted in classic plays and portrayed the roles of Walter Lee in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Oscar Madison in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple and Solly Two Kings in August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. Mr. Smith’s most recent television credits include, FBI, Law & Order: SVU, Blue Bloods, The Breaks, and as far back as ER, M*A*S*H, Growing Pains, Hill Street Blues, Highway to Heaven, Matlock, and beginning with The White Shadow. On film, he co-starred as “Sgt. Phil McPherson” opposite Robin Williams and Forest Whitaker in the comedy classic Good Morning Vietnam, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as “Det. Tom Wyler” in the action classic Lethal Weapon 2, as “Chief” in Friends and Romans and as “Anthony the Post Master” in Colewell opposite Karen Allen.
The former Artistic Director of 4 theatre companies from 1979 to 1998: The Renaissance Drama Company and Mattie Theatre Company in New York, and Rainbow Connection Drama Company and Rebirth Drama Company in Los Angeles, where he directed over 100 plays including; For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, Livin Fat, and Twelve Angry Men. In 1988, he wrote the stage play The Nation (A story of the Nation of Islam).
After completing an intensive film-making program at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Mr. Smith transformed the stage play into his first feature film, The Nation, in 1992. In 1999, along with partners, Juney formed the movie production company Drummond and Smith Entertainment Inc., which was later renamed Rainbow Media Group, Inc.
He has written, directed and produced 25 feature films under the umbrella where all the films are distributed in the major retail stores online at Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Amazon and digital markets nationwide. Films such as City Teacher/A Hard Lesson starring Glynn Turman, Ella Joyce, Elain Graham, Frank Vincent, Chuck D and Tommy Ford; Fake Preacher starring Eddie Goines and Alyah Horsford and Clockin’ Green starring Joyce Sylvester and Ella Joyce, Charles Weldon and Dean Irby.
The documentary film King of Stage: The Woodie King Jr. Story starring Woodie King Jr., Founder and Producing Director of the famed “New Federal Theatre,” in which he was awarded the Pan African Film Festival 2018 Documentary Director’s Award.
He followed that up in 2019 with the documentary film “The Robeson Effect” about the life and times of actor Danny Glover. He also directed the 2019 documentary film A Lady Doctor, the story of Dr. Juanita Jenyons, a renowned Dominican Medical Doctor, which had its World Premiere in December 2019 at the African Diaspora International Film Festival.
Full Credits:
Film: A Different Man (dir. Aaron Schimberg), Colewell (dir. Tom Quinn), Friends and Romans (dir. Chris Kublan), Bye, Bye Love (dir. Sam Weisman), Lethal Weapon II (dir. Richard Donner), Good Morning, Vietnam (dir. Barry Levinson), Short Order Dreams (dir. Mimi Leder), Weekend Warriors (dir. Burt Convy) Colors (dir. Dennis Hopper).
Television: FBI, The Breaks, Law and Order: SVU, Blue Bloods, NYC 22, Murder One, Ed McBain’s 87th Pct, ER, Dr.Quinn, Medicine Woman, Growing Pains, Law & Order, Hard Time On Planet Earth, Killer Instinct, Matlock, One Big Family, T.J. Hooker, Hill Street Blues, Highway to Heaven, A Doctor’s Story, M*A*S*H*, The Violation of Sarah McDavid, The White Shadow, All My Children
Theatre: Breaking Bread (The Working Theatre), Gem of the Ocean (Marin Theatre Company), Women In The Pit (Billie Holiday Theatre), Cheaters (Producers Club Theatre), I’m In Love (Black Spectrum Theatre), A Soldier’s Play (Inner City Cultural Center), Medea And The Doll (Frank Silvera Theatre), The Sirens (New Federal Theatre), The Odd Couple, Same Time, Next Year (Renaissance Drama Company), Ceremonies In Dark Old Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Mighty Gents (African American Studio Theatre)
Training: Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, Negro Ensemble Company, New Federal Theatre,
African American Studio Theatre, Long Island University