Fires in the Mirror

Background:

"Do you want to be an artist so the whole world would look at you, or do you want to be an artist because you want to use your ability to attract attention, to have the world see itself through you differently?" Anna Deavere Smith.

Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-nominated actress, playwright, and university professor Anna Deavere Smith had her breakthrough solo performance piece in "Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities" (1992), which she also wrote. She followed it up with the Broadway play "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" (1993), which was later be adapted into film in 2000, "House Arrest" (1997; 1999; 2000), and "Let Me Down Easy" (2007). She will debut a new solo show, “The Arizona Project,” at the Herberger Theater Center's Stage West in Phoenix in early November 2008.

Meanwhile, TV viewers could catch her as D.A. Kate Brunner (2000) on the ABC legal drama "The Practice" and as National Security Advisor Nancy McNally (2000-2006) on the hit NBC political drama series "The West Wing." She also has appeared on "All My Children," "Presidio Med," and "Numb3rs."

On the big screen, Smith could be seen in the films "Soup for One" (1982), "Unfinished Business" (1987), "Philadelphia" (1993), "The American President" (1995), "The Human Stain" (2003), "The Manchurian Candidate" (2004), "Cry_Wolf" (2005), "Rent" (2005), "The Kingdom" (2007), and "Rachel Getting Married" (2008).

This petite, attractive African-American is also an author (she has published two books in 2000 and 2006) and a tenured professor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with an additional affiliation at the NYU School of Law. She was awarded the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1996 for having created a new form of theatre. She serves as an Artist in Residence at MTV Networks.

Genius Anna

Childhood and Family:

In Baltimore, Maryland, Anna Deavere Smith was born on September 18, 1950, to Deaver Smith (died in 1995), a coffee merchant, and Anna Smith, an elementary school principal. She has one younger sister named Rosalind Allen (born in 1960).

Smith attended Western High School, Baltimore, Maryland (class of 1967) and received a BA degree in linguistics from Beaver College (now Arcadia University), Glenside, Pennsylvania, linguistics, in 1971. She went on to earn an MFA degree in theater from American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco, California. Smith, who was assistant professor of theater at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1978, teaches in the Department of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. From 1990 to 2000 she was a professor in the drama department at Stanford University, where she was Ann O'Day Maples Professor of the Arts. She also teaches at NYU School of Law.

Smith, who has published the books “Talk to Me: Travels in Media and Politics” (2000) and “Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind” (2006), has received honorary degrees from Arcadia University, Bates College, Bryn Mawr College, Smith College, Skidmore College, Macalester College, Occidental College, Pratt Institute, Holy Cross College, Haverford College, Wesleyan University, School of Visual Arts, Northwestern University, Colgate University, California State University Sacramento, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wheelock College, and the Cooper Union.

Smith, who Appears as herself on Technology Entertainment and Design, a series of academic lectures on human ideas and imagination, is also the recipient of MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant in June 1996. In 2006, she won a Fletcher Foundation Fellowship for her contribution to civil rights issues as well as a 2008 Matrix Award from the New York Women in Communications, Inc.

Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992

Career:

With a BA degree in linguistics and an MFA degree in theater under her belt, Anna Deavere Smith made her stage debut in 1974 in a production of "Horatio." In the early 1980s, she entered the big screen and made her feature film debut in "Soup for One" (1982), a comedy written and directed by Jonathan Kaufer, and had her first play, "On the Road" (1983), produced. Meanwhile, she made her TV debut in 1983 with a short-term role as Hazel, Glamorama shampoo girl, on the long-running ABC soap "All My Children."

Smith moved to Los Angeles in 1986 and was cast in "Unfinished Business" (1987), an independent drama film helmed by Viveca Lindfors. In the early 1990s, she had her breakthrough solo performance piece in "Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities" (1992), in which she interviewed and played various 29 characters connected to the 1991 Crown Heights Riot between African-Americans and Lubavitch Jews. Smith, who also wrote the play, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 and won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show. She also appeared in its TV movie version in 1993.

Smith subsequently premiered her play, "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992," in which she portrayed 40 characters, in L.A. in 1993. It was later produced on Broadway and earned her two Tony Award nominations: as Best Actress (Play) and Author of Best Play. It also won her a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance and a Theatre World Award. The play would later be adapted into film in 2000 with Smith starring in the lead role.

Meanwhile, she appeared in the films "Dave" (1993; starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver), an Oscar-nominated romantic comedy directed by Ivan Reitman, "Philadelphia" (1993; starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington), an Oscar-winning drama helmed by Jonathan Demme, and "The American President" (1995; with Michael Douglas, Annette Bening, Martin Sheen, and Michael J. Fox), an Oscar-nominated romantic drama/comedy by director Rob Reiner. She also narrated an episode of PBS documentary television series "The American Experience."

In 1997, Smith had first stage play with a cast of actors in "House Arrest: First Edition," which was premiered in Washington, DC. She would later reprised "House Arrest," which explores the US national identity as it revealed by the American presidency, past and present, in a revised edition on stage in L.A. in 1999 and in 2000 in NYC. Meanwhile, she was appointed as head of The Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue to begin meeting in the summer of 1998.

The new millennium saw Smith published her first book, “Talk to Me: Travels in Media and Politics.” On television, she played the recurring role of D.A. Kate Brunner on the ABC legal drama "The Practice" and began playing National Security Advisor Nancy McNally on the hit NBC political drama series "The West Wing." She played the latter character from 2000 to 2006 and received two Image Award nominations in 2003 and 2004, both for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

During her "West Wing" stint, Smith served as artistic advisor for "Nickel and Dimed" (August 2002) play adapted by Joan Holden from the book by Barbara Ehrenreich and staged at Intiman Theater, Seattle, Washington. She was cast opposite Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman in Robert Benton's film adaptation of Philip Roth's 2000 novel, "The Human Stain" (2003), playing Hopkin's suffering wife who died suddenly following his racist remarks scandal, for which she won a Black Reel Award for Film: Best Supporting Actress and a Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) Award for Best Supporting Actress.

She then appeared in Jonathan Demme's film based on the 1959 novel and a reimagining of the previous 1962 film, "The Manchurian Candidate" (2004; starring Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, and Jon Voight). In the following year, she played a headmaster in Jeff Wadlow's murder mystery film "Cry_Wolf," starring Julian Morris, Lindy Booth, Jon Bon Jovi, and Kristy Wu, and acted in Chris Columbus' film adaptation of the Broadway musical, "Rent," alongside Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, and Rosario Dawson.

Besides on "The West Wing," TV viewers could also catch her guest-starring in an episode of the short-lived courtroom television drama "100 Centre Street" and the CBS police procedural/crime drama series starring Rob Morrow and David Krumholtz, "Numb3rs," as well as in two episode of CBS drama "Presidio Med." She also starred in the mystery/drama TV movie "Expert Witness" (2003), alongside Matthew Modine.

In 2006, Smith's new play, "Let Me Down Easy," debuted at the Public Theater in New York City. Also in that year, she released a book, “Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind.”

Following the demise of "The West Wing," Smith co-starred with Queen Latifah in the Golden Globe-winning, true story-based TV movie "Life Support" (2007), playing the beleaguered mother of an AIDS victim and activist as well as a powerful positive role model (played by Latifah), and supported Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, and Jennifer Garner in Peter Berg's action drama/thriller film, "The Kingdom" (2007).

Most recently, Smith supported Anne Hathaway in Jonathan Demme's contemporary romantic drama film "Rachel Getting Married," which competed for the Venice Film Festival's top prestigious prize, the Golden Lion and was released at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film was released in select theaters on October 3, 2008.

Next, Smith will debut a new solo show, “The Arizona Project,” which is inspired by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. It will be presented by ASU Future Arts Research at the Herberger Theater Center's Stage West in Phoenix from November 5-8, 2008.

Awards:

• Black Reel: Film: Best Supporting Actress, "The Human Stain," 2004

• Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA): Best Supporting Actress, "The Human Stain," 2003

• Drama Desk: Outstanding Solo Performance, "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992," 1994

• Theatre World: "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992," 1994

• Drama Desk: Outstanding One-Person Show, "Fires in the Mirror," 1993