Kimani Ray Smith
Director | Stunt Coordinator | Writer
Action movie buff and all around cinephile, Kimani Ray Smith landed his first big break as a stunt performer on Jackie Chan’s “Rumble in the Bronx”(94). Thereafter, Kimani spent the next 26 years garnishing numerous action roles in Hollywood blockbusters, such as; “I Robot, Salt, A-Team, Twilight, Total Recall and both Deadpool” movies to name a few. To date, Kimani has garnered over 200 credits as a stunt performer, actor and stunt coordinator. He’s been nominated for 20 Leo Awards [the Canadian Emmys] in several categories and has won three of them for Stunt Coordination. His latest Stunt Coordinating effort is the highly anticipated film, “G.I. Joe Origins: Snake Eyes” for Paramount Pictures.
Growing up in humble beginnings, Kimani is a byproduct of a Black Panther father and a Cherokee/Irish novelist mother. After the passing of his father during times of racial tension, his mother pulled her mixed-race family out of the ghettos of Detroit and moved to Arizona to get in touch with their Indigenous roots. Spending two years living in a teepee in the desert was a life changing experience and where Kimani developed his love for storytelling. At an Arizona drive-in theatre is where Kimani saw his first film, “Star Wars” which sparked his life long obsession for the movies. However, even with their spirits lifted and a blissful life in the desert they could not escape the long tendrils of racism. Determined to keep her family safe from racial inequalities, his nomadic mother made the journey to Canada’s arctic tundra of Yellowknife NWT. Spending a majority of his school years in the north, they eventually moved down to British Columbia where Kimani continues to live with his family and work within the world of Film & Television.
Kimani’s deep rooted passion for storytelling inspired him to jump behind the camera where he wrote the short film, “Self Projections” which won the CBC short film award. He moved on to co-write and direct the television pilot, “Evidence – The Truth Will Set You Free”, which shot entirely on location in Giza Egypt and London England. He also wrote and directed the shorts “Static” and “Dead Wrong”. Commercially, Kimani has directed several Electronic Press Kits, Promotional Videos and Music Videos through his production AWOL. In 2008, Kimani produced his first feature film “Cole” which premiered at TIFF 09 and won best Canadian feature at the Atlantic Film Festival. Continuing on his path, Kimani 2nd Unit directed the dark comedy “Hit List” in Los Angeles and later co-wrote and directed the short film “Suffer” winning numerous awards on the festival circuit. The success of “Suffer” kickstarted the financing for his feature directorial debut, “Evil Feed” which premiered at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival and is distributed by Screen Media. Kimani continued to hone his craft and 2nd Unit Directed for WWE/Fox Films, “The Marine : Moving Target”,“Countdown” and multiple episodes of the SyFy series “Olympus” and “Van Helsing”. He 2nd Unit Directed multiple episodes on the highly anticipated BBC America/ AMC series “Dirk Gently: Holistic Detective”.
In 2018, he became the official 2nd Unit Director of the new Netflix action series “Wu Assassins” which created the opportunity for him to direct two full episodes of SyFy/Netflix “Van Helsing”. Upcoming for Kimani, he has signed on to direct two episodes of CW’s “Two Sentence Horror Stories” and an episode of FreeForm’s "Motherland: Fort Salem”.
