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Great Lives from History: American Women

Anna Deavere Smith

by Casarae L. Gibson, Micah L. Issitt

Actor, playwright, professor, and author

Smith is an acclaimed playwright, actor, and author. She is known for her one-woman documentary plays exploring the people and issues involved in violent incidents such as the 1991 Crown Heights riots and the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Born: September 18, 1950

Area of Achievement: Education, radio and television, theater

Early Life

Anna Deavere (duh-VEER) Smith was born on September 18, 1950, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Anna and Deavere Smith. Smith's mother, an elementary school principal in the Baltimore school district, taught Smith and her four siblings to read and write early. Smith looked to her mother for guidance while growing up amid the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam War during the late 1960s. In 1968, Smith graduated from Western High School and enrolled in Beaver College (later called Arcadia University) in Pennsylvania. In 1971, she graduated from college with plans to pursue an acting career.

In 1973, Smith was accepted to the master of fine arts program in acting at American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco, California. There, she studied the art of acting and learned the fundamentals of conservatory theater. She landed her first stage role in 1974's The Savage, Horatio at ACT. In 1976, Smith graduated from ACT. Shortly after, she made her professional acting debut in Alma, the Ghost of Spring Street at the La Mama Experimental Theatre Club in New York. She won more roles in other New York plays, such as Mother Courage (1980), performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival, and On the Road (1982), performed at Clear Space Theatre in New York and then at Berkeley Repertory Company in California. In 1984, she returned to New York to star in Aye, Aye, Aye, I'm Integrated at the American Place Theatre. The next year, Smith was asked to be a speaker at the National Conference of Women and the Law in New York City.

Life's Work

During the early 1990s, Smith began exploring documentary theater. She became concerned about riots and wanted to document the story behind incidents of unrest. In 1993, Smith published her documentary play Fires in the Mirror, based on the 1991 Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn, New York. Fires in the Mirror is a one-woman play in which Smith portrays multiple characters based on real people who witnessed or took part in the riots. In 1993, Smith won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show for Fires in the Mirror. She also was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Following the success of Fires in the Mirror, Smith produced and wrote her second documentary play, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. The one-woman play, based on the 1992 Los Angeles riots, was far more provocative because it stresses the social and economic disparities present in multiethnic communities in Los Angeles. In 1994, Smith won a Drama Desk Award for her performance in Twilight. In 2005, she gave a performance that included her most famous character from Twilight, a Korean liquor store owner affected by the Los Angeles riots, at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Convention.

Smith also worked as a university professor and author. From 1990 to 2000, she taught drama at Stanford University. In 1996, she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation (“genius”) Fellowship for her creative work as a playwright. She also held teaching positions in New York University's Department of Performance Studies and School of Law. In 2000, Smith published her autobiography, Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines. In 2006, she published a book for aspiring actors, screenwriters, and artists, titled Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-Up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts for Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind. Shortly after, Smith won the Fletcher Foundation Fellowship for her activism on civil rights issues throughout her career. In 2009, Smith won a Fellow Award from United States Artists for her contributions in the theater arts.

Smith had several film and television roles as well. She played national security adviser Nancy McNally on The West Wing from 2000 to 2004. Other acting credits include daytime soap opera All My Children (1983), feature film The American President (1995), and HBO's Life Support (2007). In 2009, Smith landed a recurring role on the Showtime television series Nurse Jackie.

Significance

Smith's plays Fires in the Mirror and Twilight have been widely studied in American and African-American studies departments at major universities. These works' investigation of social and economic ills makes them timeless. Smith depicts the frustration, anger, and confusion related to classism and interethnic tensions in poor, urban communities. Both plays invite readers and viewers to connect to the characters and to consider the many factors involved in the violent riots.

With a career that includes film, television, stage, and academic accomplishments, Smith is considered one of the most accomplished African-American women in the American arts and entertainment industries. In 2013, Smith received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama in recognition to her contributions to American culture, and she was selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities to deliver the 2015 Jefferson Lecture. Smith has been awarded honorary degrees from numerous institutions including the University of Pennsylvania, Spelman College, and Yale University.

Further Reading

1 

Smith, Anna Deavere. Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-Up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts for Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind. New York: Anchor Books, 2006. A useful resource for young artists who aspire to careers in the arts or the entertainment industry. Highlights Smith's experiences in many areas of entertainment and her interviews with other artists.

2 

_______. Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines. New York: Random House, 2000. Smith's autobiography discusses her life and career as a professor, playwright, and actor.

3 

_______. Talk to Me: Travels in Media and Politics. 2d ed. New York: Anchor Books, 2001. The second edition of Smith's autobiography discusses how the media and politics have played a significant role in her career and throughout history.

4 

Zarrilli, Phillip, ed. Acting (Re) Considered: A Theoretical and Practical Guide. New York: Routledge, 2002. Two chapters in this source explore Smith's work and her philosophies of acting and theater.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Gibson, Casarae L., and Micah L. Issitt. "Anna Deavere Smith." Great Lives from History: American Women, edited by Mary K. Trigg, Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLHW_0454.
APA 7th
Gibson, C. L., & Issitt, M. L. (2016). Anna Deavere Smith. In M. K. Trigg (Ed.), Great Lives from History: American Women. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Gibson, Casarae L. and Issitt, Micah L. "Anna Deavere Smith." Edited by Mary K. Trigg. Great Lives from History: American Women. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2016. Accessed September 17, 2025. online.salempress.com.