JEFF BAY SMITH

Jeff Bay Smith is a professional screenwriter with 15 years of film production experience. He has written and revised feature-length scripts for award-winning indie filmmakers, Hollywood studios and production companies, and has written original feature scripts, TV pilots, commercial concepts, and short films.

In the past, his original screenplays, A Shot in Heaven (2017), Christoff (2017), and Benjamin the Bear (2012) placed as quarter-finalists for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, as semi-finalists for the Nantucket Writer's Colony, and were considered in the final round of selection at the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab.

Smith was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up on the tropical city-state island of Singapore. Early in his pursuit of filmmaking, he became inspired by the narrative and artistic aspects of Robert Gardner’s documentaries, particularly Dead Birds (1965) and Forest of Bliss (1986), and chose to study anthropology at the University of Colorado in Boulder with an interest in ethnography. His artistic sensibilities developed further under the guidance of experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage. After graduation, he joined the cinematographer’s union and worked for a decade in New York City as a professional camera assistant ("Law & Order: C.I.", "Law & Order: S.V.U.", Netflix's "Master of None") before transitioning full-time to screenwriting. He received his MFA in filmmaking from Columbia University.