Shawnee Smith

Shawnee Rebecca Smith (born July 3, 1969) is an American film and television actress and musician best known for her role in the Saw franchise and for playing Linda in the sitcom Becker, Meg Penny in The Blob, and Jennifer Goodson in Anger Management.

She played Amanda Young in Saw, Saw II, Saw III, Saw VI, and Saw X.

Early Life[]

Shawnee Rebecca Smith was born at Orangeburg Regional Hospital, Orangeburg, South Carolina, the second child of Patricia Ann, an oncology nurse, and James H. Smith, a financial planner and former US Air Force pilot. When she was one year old, her family relocated from South Carolina to Van Nuys, California. Her parents divorced when Smith was two years old, and her mother remarried when she was eight. Smith attended Ranchito Avenue Elementary School in Panorama City, Los Angeles, and Madison Jr. High in North Hollywood. Afterward, she also attended North Hollywood High School, graduating in 1987.

Career[]

Smith began acting as a child, appearing on stage in A Christmas Carol repertory from age 8 to 11, and starred in a stage play with Richard Dreyfuss at age 15. She performed in the original stage production of To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, winning the Dramalogue Critics Award for her performance and becoming the youngest actor up to that time to receive such an honor. Smith made her television debut in a McDonald's commercial titled Best Friends in 1978. She joined the Screen Actors Guild at the age of nine and made her feature film debut in John Huston's 1982 adaptation of the Broadway musical Annie as one of Aileen Quinn's fellow orphans. In 1985, she co-starred in two troubled-teen melodramas, Not My Kid and Crime of Innocence. In 1987, Smith co-starred in Summer School as a pregnant student named Rhonda Altobello. The following year, she starred in a 1988 remake of the Steve McQueen classic horror film The Blob as Meg Penny.

Smith played a wealthy teen who helps John Candy locate her kidnapped sister in 1989's Who's Harry Crumb? That same year, she co-starred with Jennie Garth and Barbara Eden in the short-lived TV series Brand New Life. The following year, Smith co-starred as the daughter of Anthony Hopkins and Mimi Rogers in the remake of Michael Cimino's thriller The Desperate Hours. Afterward, she took a three-year break from acting in the early 1990s, primarily because she had outgrown teenage roles and had difficulties finding work. However, she finally landed a small role in the film Leaving Las Vegas and has had steady work ever since.

Smith's best-known television role was that of Linda in the CBS sitcom Becker. She was a regular cast member in all 129 episodes of the show from 1998 to 2004. She also played Julie Lawry in the 1994 miniseries The Stand, based on the novel by Stephen King. She also appeared as a waitress in the miniseries The Shining and made several guest appearances on several television shows, such as Cagney & Lacey, Married... with Children, Murder, She Wrote, The X-Files, Players, and Law & Order: Los Angeles. In 2003, she lent her voice to an episode of the Disney cartoon Kim Possible as Vivian Porter.

Smith has become well-known to a bigger audience for her role as Amanda Young in the Saw films. She has been called a "scream queen" due to the number of horror films in her résumé. In the DVD commentary of the first Saw film, the producers revealed that her scenes were filmed while Smith was battling a terrible case of the flu. In the DVD commentary of Saw II, it was revealed that she was four months pregnant with her second child during filming. Her pregnancy was kept a secret from everyone except director Darren Lynn Bousman. He mentioned in the commentary that Smith's daughter Verve accidentally told him about the pregnancy during filming. Although she is briefly shown in Saw IV and Saw V, Smith has said she was never on the set for those two installments. Any scenes featuring her were dubbed from file footage. On March 20, 2009, producer Mark Burg released a statement confirming that Smith would be in Saw VI. She arrived in Toronto on March 31, 2009, to begin filming brand new flashback sequences.

She admitted she has a hard time watching the Saw films or horror movies in general. Initially, she turned the role of Amanda Young down because it was very upsetting to her. After doing so, she was shown the eight-minute short film by Leigh Whannell and James Wan and changed her mind when the role was offered to her a second time. In 2006, Smith made an appearance in the ten-minute short film trailer Repo! The Genetic Opera, also directed by Bousman. Smith's character was Heather Sweet, the surgery-addicted daughter of GeneCo president Rotti Largo. The trailer was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, and was an adaptation of the stage version. Bousman shot the trailer after completing Saw III to try to pitch the idea to film producers. Smith did not reprise her role as Heather Sweet when Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures picked up the film in 2007 and was replaced by Paris Hilton. Additionally, the character's name was changed to Amber.

In 2008, Smith played Detective Gina Harcourt in the FEARnet original series 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust. On July 17, 2008, the series premiered on FEARnet.com in six 4- to 6-minute webisodes along with behind-the-scenes clips. This series served as a continuation of the first webisode series, 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails. Smith made her producing debut with this series.

She was also the host and one of three mentors on the VH1 reality program Scream Queens, in which ten unknown actresses competed for a role in Saw VI. The show aired from October 20, 2008, to December 8, 2008. However, in January 2010, it was announced that Smith would not return as host and mentor for Season 2 due to scheduling conflicts, resulting in Jaime King subsequently replacing her.

In 2009, Smith played the role of Dr. Ann Sullivan, a child psychiatrist, in The Grudge 3. The film was a direct-to-DVD release in May 2009. She appeared as a guest star on The Secret Life of the American Teenager on August 30, 2010. It was her first television appearance since Scream Queens aired in 2008. Shortly afterward, she appeared in the series premiere of Law & Order: Los Angeles on September 29, 2010. Smith also starred as Jennifer Goodson, the ex-wife of Charlie Sheen's character on Anger Management, which ended in 2014 after 100 episodes, of which Smith appeared in 94.

Music Career[]

Along with acting, Smith is also a musician. She plays the guitar, piano, drums, and sings. She contributed to the soundtrack of Saw III with vocals on Hydrovibe's song Killer Inside and to the soundtrack for Catacombs as a solo vocalist with the song Please Myself. Her voice was also featured in the film Carnival of Souls, where her character Sandra performed a jazz song titled I Fear. Smith fronted the punk/metal band Fydolla Ho in the early 2000s. The group was initially formed by Smith, Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, Suicidal Tendencies guitarist Rick Battson, and Skindred vocalist Benji Webbe as a small recording project. The band released its debut full-length album, Untied, in December 2001. She balanced the band with being a regular cast member on Becker. The band officially ended in 2004.

Smith began working on a solo album in 2004 with producer Chris Goss, but the project was never completed. In an interview with Radio Free in October 2005, she stated: "Between being a mom and working and growing another baby, I have not had time to give attention to music for a while."

She was also part of a country music group with actress Missi Pyle called Smith & Pyle. The two actresses met while filming an ABC comedy pilot titled Traveling in Packs. The band started after Smith invited Pyle to attend the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival together. Their first album, It's OK to Be Happy, was released digitally through iTunes and Amazon.com in July 2008. The debut album was recorded in Joshua Tree, California, and produced by Chris Goss. Smith and Pyle became business partners and formed their record label called Urban Prairie Records. In 2011, the two of them disbanded before a second album was completed. While promoting Anger Management in 2013, Smith stated that she reached a point where she wanted to focus on her children and television work.

Personal Life[]

Smith has three children: a daughter from her marriage to photographer Jason Reposar, a son from her brief marriage to musician Kai Mattoon, and a second son born in March 2010. Her two elder children were featured in the debut album of Smith & Pyle, It's OK to be Happy. The kids were listed in the album credits as having vocals and spoken narrative tracks for two songs. Additionally, an article published on October 28, 2009, highlighting Smith & Pyle's small tour in West Virginia, stated that Shawnee was pregnant with her third child at that time.

Smith and Jason Reposar eloped in 1998 while on vacation in Scotland. The song Sugar, performed by her former country-rock band, Smith & Pyle, was written by Smith after her divorce from Reposar. She describes it as her break-up song that is quite different from Pyle's break-up song, I Wish You Were Dead.

In June 2001, she was featured in Maxim magazine. She expressed regret about the two Maxim photoshoots and guessed that 80% of her presence on the internet came from those two shoots alone.

Smith is a convert to the Orthodox Church and is making a documentary about her conversion and other aspects of Orthodoxy, entitled Orthodoxy: A Love Story.

Filmography[]

Films[]

Year	Title	Role
1982	Annie	Dancer
1986	Iron Eagle	Joenie
1987	Summer School	Rhonda Altobello
1988	The Blob	Meg Penny
1989	Who's Harry Crumb?	Nikki Downing
1990	Desperate Hours	May Cornell
1995	The Low Life	'Little Tramp' Woman
1995	Leaving Las Vegas	Biker Girl
1996	Female Perversions	Make-Up Salesgirl
1997	Dead Men Can't Dance	Sgt. Addy Cooper
	Greater Than a Tiger	Alice
	Men	Clara
	Dogtown	Tammy Hayes
	Bombshell	Shelly
	Eat Your Heart Out	Nicole
1998	Every Dog Has Its Day	RedHead
	Armageddon	Redhead
	Carnival of Souls	Sandra Grant
	The Party Crashers	Carolyn
1999	A Slipping-Down Life	Faye-Jean Lindsay
1999	Breakfast of Champions	Bonnie MacMahon
2002	Never Get Outta the Boat	Dawn
2004	Saw	Amanda Young
2004	The Almost Guys	Bigger
2005	The Island	Suzie
2005	Saw II	Amanda Young
2006	The Scott Tibbs Documentary	Amanda Young
	Saw III	Amanda Young
	Repo! The Genetic Opera	Heather Sweet
2009	The Grudge 3	Dr. Ann Sullivan
2009	Saw VI	Amanda Young
2010	Kill Speed	Honey
2012	Jayne Mansfield's Car	Vicky Caldwell
2013	Grace Unplugged	Michelle Trey
2016	Savannah Sunrise	Joy
2016	Believe	Dr. Nancy Wells
2021	Christmas vs. the Walters	Diane Walters
2023	Saw X	Amanda Young
2024	Bloodline Killer	Moira Cole

Television Series[]

Year	Title	Role
1984	Silver Spoons	Tawny
1985	It's Your Move	Brenda
1985	Cagney & Lacey	Mrs. Zal's daughter
1986	All Is Forgiven	Sonia Russell
1989-1990	A Brand New Life	Amanda Gibbons
1990	Lucky Chances	Olympia Stanislopolous
1993	Murder, She Wrote	Jill Cleveland
1994	The Stand	Julie Lawry
1994	The X Files	Jessie O'Neil
1997	Arsenio	Laura Lauman
1997	The Shining	Waitress
1998	Players	Lila
1997-1998	The Tom Show	Florence Madison
2003	Kim Possible	Vivian Porter
1998-2004	Becker	Linda
2007	30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust	Detective Gina Harcourt
2010	Law & Order: Los Angeles	Trudy Sennett
2010-2011	The Secret Life of the American Teenager	Carrie
2012	Marie
2012-2014	Anger Management	Jennifer Goodson
2023	City on Fire	Ramona

Television Films[]

Year	Title	Role
1985	Not My Kid	Carol
1985	Crime of Innocence	Jodi Hayward
1986	Easy Prey	Tina Marie Risico
1988	Bluegrass	Alice Gibbs
1988	I Saw What You Did	Kim Fielding
1996	Face of Evil	Jeanelle Polk
1997	Something Borrowed, Something Blue	Teri
1998	Twice Upon a Time	Maggie Fowler
2005	Washington Street
2007	Secrets of an Undercover Wife	Lisa
2007	Traveling in Packs	Ivy
2012	Reel America	Lisa Slotnik