Jay Smith
I’m from a small town in the Midwest, devastated by the opioid epidemic, and one of the fundamental themes of everything I write is: There is always hope.
My interest in screenwriting began in high school, when I encountered “The Collected Works of Paddy Chayefsky.” Long before I ever saw Chayefsky’s work on the screen, I saw it on the page, and I was hooked on what I would later come to know as “visual storytelling”.
I studied acting at the Russian-American Performing Arts Academy, where I was instructed by members of the Moscow Art Theatre. I have performed in or directed over 60 theatrical productions. The instruction at RAMPAA placed a strong emphasis on deep-level script analysis.
The story analysis taught to me as an actor is the same as is taught to screenwriters. The two disciplines––acting and writing––are opposite sides of the same coin.
I'm currently working toward an MFA in screenwriting.