As a filmmaker On his 21st birthday, Smith saw
Richard Linklater's comedy
Slacker. Impressed that Linklater set and shot the film in his hometown of
Austin, Texas, rather than on a soundstage in a major city, Smith was inspired to become a filmmaker, and to set films where he lived. He assembled a library of independent filmmakers like Linklater,
Jim Jarmusch,
Spike Lee and
Hal Hartley to draw from. Smith attended
Vancouver Film School for four months, where he met longtime collaborators
Scott Mosier and
Dave Klein. Unlike them, Smith left halfway through the course, figuring he knew enough to proceed and wanting to save money for his first film. Smith moved back to New Jersey and got his old job back at a convenience store in the
Leonardo section of
Middletown Township, New Jersey. He decided to set his film,
Clerks, at the store, borrowing the a-day-in-the-life structure from the Spike Lee film
Do the Right Thing. Smith maxed out more than a dozen credit cards, and sold his much-treasured comic book collection, to raise $27,575 to make the film, Initially, the film received an
NC-17 rating from the
MPAA for sexually graphic language. Miramax hired
Alan Dershowitz to sue the MPAA. At an appeals screening, a jury of members of the National Association of Theatre Owners reversed the MPAA's decision, and the film was given an R rating. The movie had a profound effect on the independent film community. According to producer and author
John Pierson, it is considered one of the two most influential film debuts in the 1990s, along with
The Brothers McMullen. Widely hailed as Smith's best film, 1997's
Chasing Amy marked what
Quentin Tarantino called "a quantum leap forward" for Smith. Starring
Mallrats alumni Jason Lee,
Joey Lauren Adams and
Ben Affleck, the $250,000 film earned $12 million at the box office, wound up on a number of critics' year-end best lists, and won two
Independent Spirit Awards (for Screenplay and Supporting Actor for Lee). The film received some criticism from members of the lesbian community, who felt that it reinforced the perception that lesbians merely need to find the right man. Smith, whose brother Donald is
gay, found this accusation frustrating, as he has endeavored to be a pro-
LGBT filmmaker, believing that sexuality is more fluid, with social taboos, not sexual desire, preventing more people from expressing
bisexuality. The film debuted at the
1999 Cannes Film Festival, out of competition. Released on 800 screens in November 1999, the $10 million film earned $30 million. Smith then focused the spotlight on the two characters who had appeared in supporting roles in his previous four films.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back featured an all-star cast, with many familiar faces returning from those four films. Affleck and Damon appear as themselves filming a mock sequel to
Good Will Hunting. The $20 million film earned $30 million at the box office and received mixed reviews from critics.
Jersey Girl, with Affleck,
Liv Tyler, George Carlin, and
Raquel Castro, Smith's first film outside the View Askewniverse, marked a new direction in Smith's career. The film took a critical beating as it was seen as, in Smith's own words, "
Gigli 2", because it co-starred Affleck and his then girlfriend,
Jennifer Lopez. Smith heavily reedited the film to reduce Lopez's role to just a few scenes, but the film did poorly at the box office. Budgeted at $35 million, it earned $36 million. In the 2006 sequel
Clerks II, Smith revisited the Dante and Randal characters from his first film. Roundly criticized before its release, the film won favorable reviews as well as two awards (the Audience Award at the
Edinburgh Film Festival and the Orbit Dirtiest Mouth Award at the
MTV Movie Awards). It marked Smith's third trip to the Cannes International Film Festival, where it received an eight-minute standing ovation. The $5 million film, starring Jeff Anderson, Brian O'Halloran,
Rosario Dawson, Mewes, Jennifer Schwalbach and Smith reprising his role as Silent Bob, earned $25 million.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno was originally announced in March 2006 as Smith's second non-Askewniverse film. The film began shooting on January 18, 2008, in
Monroeville, Pennsylvania, and wrapped on March 15, 2008. It stars
Seth Rogen and
Elizabeth Banks as the title characters who decide to make a low-budget pornographic film to solve their money problems. It was released on October 31, 2008, and ran into many conflicts getting an "R" rating. Rogen said: Smith took the film through the MPAA's appeals process and received an R rating without having to make any edits.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno was considered a box-office "flop". It was hurt by "tepid media advertising for a movie with the title PORNO".
Zack and Miri opened #2 behind
High School Musical 3: Senior Year with $10,682,000 from 2,735 theaters, an average of $3,906. The "bankable" Rogen experienced his "worst box-office opening ever". In an interview with Katla McGlynn of the
Huffington Post, Smith said: It was announced in 2009 that Smith had signed on to direct
A Couple of Dicks, a buddy-cop comedy written by the Cullen Brothers and starring
Bruce Willis and
Tracy Morgan. Due to controversy surrounding the original title, it was changed to
A Couple of Cops, then reverted to its original title due to negative reaction, before finally settling on the title
Cop Out. The film, shot from June to August 2009, involves a pair of veteran cops tracking down a stolen vintage baseball card, and was released on February 26, 2010, to poor reviews; it was the first film Smith directed but did not write.
Cop Out opened at number two at the box office and was mired in controversy, mostly over reported conflicts on the set between Smith and Willis. It was the last time Smith worked with a major studio, leading him to return to his independent film roots. In September 2010, Smith started work on
Red State, an independently financed horror film loosely inspired by the
Westboro Baptist Church and its pastor,
Fred Phelps. Weinstein and his brother
Bob, who had been involved in the distribution of Smith's films except
Mallrats and
Cop Out, declined to support
Red State. The film stars
Michael Parks,
John Goodman and
Melissa Leo. Smith had said he would auction off rights to the $4 million film at a controversial event following its debut screening at
Sundance but instead kept the rights to the film himself and self-distributed it under the
SModcast Pictures banner. The January 2011 premiere drew protests from a half-dozen members of the church, along with many more who counter-protested Westboro members. Smith explained his decision as a way to return to an era when marketing a film did not cost four times as much as the film itself, a situation he called "decadent and deadening".
Red State was a box office bomb, earning just $1,104,682, and opened to poor reviews; the critical consensus (according to
Rotten Tomatoes) was "
Red State is an audacious and brash affair that ultimately fails to provide competent scares or thrills." In April 2011, Smith said that
Red State had made its budget back by making $1 million on the first leg of the tour, $1.5 million from a handful of foreign sales and $3 million from a domestic distribution deal for VOD. Smith had said before
Red State that he would soon retire from directing, and announced that his last movie would be
Clerks III. In December 2013, he said he would continue to make films, but only ones that were uniquely his, as opposed to generic ones "anybody could make". In 2013, Smith directed
Tusk, a horror film inspired by a story Smith and Mosier read about a
Gumtree ad for a man who rents out a room in his house for free on the condition that the respondent dresses as a walrus for two hours per day. The project began pre-production in September 2013, and was shot in November of that year. Released September 19, 2014, it received mixed reviews. Before
Tusk release, Smith wrote the script for a spin-off of the film, which he titled
Yoga Hosers. The film began filming in August 2014, and was released in 2016. It stars Smith's daughter,
Harley Quinn Smith, and
Lily-Rose Depp, reprising their two minor characters from
Tusk, with
Johnny Depp playing his inspector character from the earlier film. Smith revealed at the 2014
San Diego Comic-Con that he had written the script for a film called
Moose Jaws, which he described as "
Jaws with a moose", and which is planned to be the third film in his
True North trilogy. Smith wrote and directed one segment,
Halloween, of the 2016 horror
anthology film Holidays, in which each segment takes place during a different holiday. In June 2017, Smith started shooting
KillRoy Was Here, a horror film based on the
graffiti phenomenon. Directed by Smith, the script was co-written with Andrew McElfresh, marking the first time he shared writing credit. It represents a retooling of their
Anti-Claus film, which was initially canceled after the release of
Krampus, due to the two stories' similarity. The film crew was mostly made up of students of the
Ringling College of Art and Design, with shooting continuing over every semester break. In 2017, due to obstacles getting
Clerks 3 or
Mallrats 2 produced, Smith decided to write and direct a
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back sequel instead,
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. It was scheduled to be filmed in September 2017, but shooting was postponed to February and March 2019. The first trailer for the film was released on July 18, 2019. Smith announced a tour to accompany the film. On October 1, 2019, Smith announced on
Instagram that
Clerks III was happening and that
Jeff Anderson, who had retired, had agreed to reprise his role as Randal. The film was released on September 13, 2022. In 2024, Smith released
The 4:30 Movie, focusing on a group of teenagers in the 1980s who spent a day "theatre-hopping", in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
Relationship with Harvey Weinstein With the exception of
Mallrats, all of Smith's films until 2008 were financed and/or distributed by
Harvey Weinstein and his brother
Bob, via their companies
Miramax,
Dimension Films, and
The Weinstein Company. In 2008 Smith's relationship with Harvey Weinstein soured due to the financial failure of
Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which Smith blamed on a lack of marketing. Smith is considered one of the writer-directors whose career Weinstein nurtured, a group that also includes
Quentin Tarantino and
David O. Russell. Smith severed professional ties with Weinstein when he was informed of his assault on
Rose McGowan. Soon after
allegations of rape and sexual assault by Weinstein publicly surfaced in October 2017, Smith said on Twitter that he was "ashamed" of his relationship with Weinstein. On his
Hollywood Babble-On podcast, he said: "My entire career is tied up with the man", adding: "No fucking movie is worth all this." He lamented that in addition to working with Weinstein, "I sat out there talking about this man like he was a hero, like he was my friend, like he was my father." He pledged to donate all his future
residuals from his Weinstein-produced films to the nonprofit organization
Women in Film, which advocates for the inclusion of more women in film production. Smith later announced that, due to the declining appeal of his earlier films, the residuals from Weinstein-funded films may be lower than expected; he decided that he would instead donate $2,000 a month to Women in Film.
Frequent collaborators Smith regularly casts the same actors in his film projects.
Jason Mewes has been in nine of his films, his wife
Jennifer Schwalbach Smith in eight and
Ben Affleck in seven.
Writer In 1997,
New Line Cinema hired Smith to rewrite
Overnight Delivery, which was expected to be a blockbuster teen film. Smith's then-girlfriend
Joey Lauren Adams almost took the role of Ivy in the movie, instead of the female lead in
Chasing Amy. Eventually, she lost out to
Reese Witherspoon, and
Overnight Delivery was quietly released directly to video in April 1998. Smith was not credited for his contributions. He has said that the only scene that really used his dialogue was the opening scene, which includes a reference to longtime Smith friend
Bryan Johnson. Smith was an uncredited screenwriter on the 2000 comedy-drama film
Coyote Ugly.
Comics and magazines Smith has been a regular contributor to
Arena magazine. In 2005,
Miramax Books released Smith's first book,
Silent Bob Speaks, a collection of previously published essays (most from
Arena) dissecting pop culture, the film business, and Smith's personal life. His second book,
My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith, published by
Titan Books, was another collection of previously published essays (this time blogs from Smith's website silentbobspeaks.com) and reached No. 32 on
The New York Times Best Sellers List. Titan released Smith's third book, ''Shootin' the Sh*t with Kevin Smith: The Best of the SModcast'', on September 29, 2009. A lifelong comic book fan, Smith's early forays into comic books dealt with previously established View Askew characters, and were published by
Oni Press. He wrote a short
Jay and Silent Bob story about Walt Flanagan's dog in
Oni Double Feature No. 1, and followed it with a
Bluntman and Chronic story in
Oni Double Feature #12. He followed these with a series of
Clerks comics. The first was
Clerks: The Comic Book, which told of Randal's attempts to corner the market on
Star Wars toys. The second was
Clerks: Holiday Special, where Dante and Randal discover that Santa Claus lives in an apartment between the Quick Stop and RST Video. Third was
Clerks: The Lost Scene, showing what happened inside Poston's Funeral Parlor. This story was later animated in the TV series style and included as an extra on the 10th Anniversary
Clerks DVD. Smith wrote the miniseries
Chasing Dogma, which tells the story of Jay and Silent Bob between the films
Chasing Amy and
Dogma. He has written the
trade paperback Bluntman and Chronic, published by
Image, which purports to be a collection of the three issues of the series done by Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards (of
Chasing Amy). It includes a color reprinting of the story from
Oni Double Feature No. 12, purported to be an early appearance by McNeil and Edwards. These stories have been collected in
Tales From the Clerks (Graphitti Designs, ), which includes a new
Clerks story tying into the
Clerks 2 material, and the story from
Oni Double Feature #1. They were previously collected by Image Comics in three separate volumes, one each for
Clerks,
Chasing Dogma and
Bluntman and Chronic. In 1999, Smith won a
Harvey Award, for Best New Talent in comic books. In 1999, Smith wrote "
Guardian Devil", an eight-issue story arc of
Daredevil for
Marvel Comics illustrated by
Joe Quesada. He produced a 15-issue tenure on
Green Arrow for
DC Comics that saw the return of
Oliver Queen from the dead and the introduction of
Mia Dearden, a teenage girl who would become Speedy after Smith's run had ended. Smith returned to Marvel for two miniseries,
Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do and
Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target, both of which debuted in 2002. The former was six issues long, but problems arose when the third issue was published two months after the initially scheduled release date. As a result, the final issues were delayed for at least three years, prompting Marvel to release an "in case you missed it" reprinting of the first three issues as one book before the remaining issues were released. The delay in part was due to Smith's work on
Jersey Girl and
Clerks II, causing him to shelve completion of the miniseries until the films were completed. He was announced as the writer of an ongoing
Black Cat series and
The Amazing Spider-Man in 2002, but because of the delays on
Evil That Men Do and
The Target, the plan was changed so that Smith would start a third Spider-Man title, launched in 2004 by
Mark Millar instead.
Spider-Man/Black Cat was completed in 2005, but
Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target remains unfinished, with one issue published. Smith wrote the limited series
Batman: Cacophony, with art by friend
Walt Flanagan, which ran from November 2008 to January 2009. The series featured the villains
Onomatopoeia (a character created by Smith during his run at Green Arrow),
The Joker,
Maxie Zeus, and
Victor Zsasz. The
trade paperback of
Batman: Cacophony became a
New York Times Bestseller in their Hardcover Graphic Books section. In 2010, Smith wrote a six-issue
Batman miniseries,
The Widening Gyre, for DC, drawn by Walt Flanagan. The series was initially planned as 12 issues, with a long break planned between issues six and seven. After issue six was published, Smith and Flanagan's work on their reality show,
Comic Book Men, extended this planned break longer than expected. It was decided in the interim to release the remaining issues as a separate series,
Batman: Bellicosity, scheduled for 2016, but it remains unreleased. Also in 2010, Smith published a
Green Hornet story for
Dynamite Entertainment based on an unused script he wrote for a
Green Hornet film that never came to fruition. In August 2011, Dynamite Entertainment debuted Smith's
The Bionic Man, which was based on a 1998 script he wrote that Universal rejected for being "more like a comic book than a movie." In 2014, Smith and
Ralph Garman released a six-issue ''
Batman '66 crossover featuring Batman and Green Hornet, Batman '66 Meets the Green Hornet''. On March 7, 2022, it was announced that Dark Horse and Smith would be teaming up to publish the books of
Secret Stash Press, a new publishing line by Smith. The first two books of the line include
Maskerade, written by Smith and Andy
McElfresh, and
Stops, written by Smith and set within the
View Askewniverse.
Television '' at the
New York Comic Con In 1998, Smith shot two TV commercials for
Coca-Cola in New Jersey. and starred in commercials for
Panasonic. In 2004, he shot a
public service announcement for the
Declare Yourself organization, which promotes youth voter registration. These advertisements brought Jay and Silent Bob out of their "semi-retirement." On February 27, 2002, Smith released a short film for
The Tonight Show,
The Flying Car. Smith directed the pilot for
The CW supernatural comedy series
Reaper. He described it as "less
Brimstone or
Dead Like Me and more like
Shaun of the Dead than anything else". He added that he took the job because he had always wanted to direct something he did not write, but never had an interest in doing it on the big screen. Smith produced and appeared in the
AMC reality television series
Comic Book Men, which is set inside Smith's comic book shop,
Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, in
Red Bank, New Jersey. The show ran for seven seasons, from 2012 to 2018. A second series of
Spoilers aired on
The Comedy Network in Canada. Smith has directed three episodes of
The Flash ("The Runaway Dinosaur", "Killer Frost", and "Null and Annoyed"), four episodes of
Supergirl ("Supergirl Lives", "Distant Sun", "Damage" and "Bunker Hill") and three episodes of
The Goldbergs ("The Dynamic Duo", "Graduation Day" and "Our Perfect Strangers"). In February 2017, Smith was announced to write, direct, and executive produce a TV series based on the Image Comics title
Sam and Twitch for
BBC America. In February 2019, Smith was announced to cowrite, with
Dave Willis, an animated web series based on
Marvel Comics'
Howard the Duck for
Hulu. In January 2020, it was announced that the
Howard the Duck series was scrapped. In 2022, Smith guest starred as himself on the
Nickelodeon sitcom
Warped!, in the episode "Plagiarized!"; in the episode, Smith announces to the lead characters what his new film would be, and the two leads believe Smith stole their similar idea and try to stop him.
Abandoned and stalled TV and film projects In 1996, Smith worked on a script for a planned
Superman film tentatively titled
Superman Lives. He wrote several drafts but was dropped from the project when
Tim Burton was hired to direct and brought his own team to write the script; Burton's attempt was later abandoned as well. Smith publicly discussed his experience working on the script at a Q&A session at
Clark University shown on the 2002 DVD
An Evening with Kevin Smith. In the Q&A, he said the experience was positive overall, since he loves Superman and was paid well. But he listed a number of unusual demands that producer
Jon Peters made, including that Superman not be shown flying or wearing tights, and that he should battle a giant spider at the end of the film. Smith noted that he went to see the 1999 film
Wild Wild West, which Peters produced, and was surprised to see a giant mechanical spider at the end of the film, presumably Peters's handiwork. Smith's description of his experience gained a life of its own, with film critic
A.O. Scott of
The New York Times calling it "extraordinary". In the 2007 direct-to-DVD animated film
Superman: Doomsday, Smith has a cameo as an onlooker in a crowd that alludes to this anecdote: after Superman defeats
Toyman's giant mechanical robot, Smith scoffs, "Yeah, like we really needed him to defeat that giant spider. Heh.
Lame!" In the early '00s, Smith was said to be writing
Fletch Won, a prequel to the
Chevy Chase film
Fletch, and was set to direct with Jason Lee in the lead role, but the plans ultimately came to nothing. Smith cited Miramax not seeing Lee's box-office appeal (in an
Entertainment Weekly article covering the delays, Smith claimed Harvey Weinstein continually refused it personally or suggested he focus more on the disguises of the character in a matter similar to
Austin Powers, Smith admitting incredulity that Harvey refused even after Lee was frequently seen in billboards and posters in the city at the time, to promote his new show
My Name is Earl, but admitting that Harvey's vision for the film clearly did not include Lee) as a reason for its abandonment. For a time, Ben Affleck was considered for the role, with Chase framing the action as the narrator, looking back on his early adventures. In 2004, Smith wrote a screenplay for a film adaptation of
The Green Hornet, and announced that he intended to direct it. The project died after the poor box office of
Jersey Girl; the screenplay was later turned into a
Green Hornet comic book miniseries. (A live-action film adaptation,
The Green Hornet, was released in 2011, with no involvement from Smith.) At the 2007
San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that Smith would write and direct an episode of the
Heroes spin-off
Heroes: Origins, but the project was canceled because of the
2007 Writers Guild of America strike. Smith planned to direct a hockey drama-comedy based on
Warren Zevon's song "
Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)". The song, about a hockey player famous for fighting in the rink, was co-written by
Mitch Albom, who worked with Smith on the project. Smith announced at the 2011 Sundance premiere of
Red State that
Hit Somebody would be the last film he directed, but that he would continue to tell stories in other media. In August 2011,
Hit Somebody was announced as a two-part film titled
Hit Somebody: Home and
Hit Somebody: Away, with part one rated PG-13 and part two rated R, but later it became one film again. In December 2012, Smith announced that, due to difficulties finding funding,
Hit Somebody would be a six-part miniseries on an as-yet unknown network. Smith announced in March 2015 that
Hit Somebody would film from September to Christmas 2015, but this did not happen. On March 12, 2015, Smith said he would film
Clerks III in May 2015, followed in early 2016 by
Moose Jaws and
Anti-Claus (a story inspired by the
Krampus tradition), which he confirmed the next day. On April 8, 2015, Smith said that
Mallrats 2 would instead be his next film. Most of the original film's cast (16 of the 18) signed on to appear in the sequel. In June 2016, Smith revealed that because
Universal owns the rights to the
Mallrats title a sequel would not be made; instead, it would be turned into a ten-episode TV series produced by
Universal Television. He also confirmed that the film's entire cast would reprise their roles in the series. Toward the end of the month, Smith announced that he had closed a deal with Universal Television to pitch the series to networks and streaming services in August. In January 2016, Smith wrapped production on a pilot episode for a planned half-hour comedy series,
Hollyweed. He wrote and directed the pilot, which starred Smith and
Donnell Rawlings, along with
Kristin Bauer van Straten,
Frankie Shaw,
Jason Mewes,
Ralph Garman,
Adam Brody, Hina Abdullah, Pete Pietrangeliand and
Harley Quinn Smith. The pilot was not picked up. In July 2018, it was released as the inaugural pilot on the new TV
crowdsourcing site Rivit TV, in hopes of getting funded as a web series. In May 2016, Smith announced that he was adapting the 1984 film
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension for television through
MGM and said he and the company were shopping it around to networks. In July 2016, it was revealed that
Amazon Studios was close to closing a deal to produce the series, but in November 2016, during a Facebook Live Stream, Smith said he would walk away from the series after MGM filed a lawsuit against the original creators, but would be willing to come back on board if they wanted him.
Acting roles As an actor, Smith is best known for his role as
Silent Bob in
Clerks,
Mallrats,
Chasing Amy,
Dogma,
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,
Clerks II, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, and Clerks III. He made a cameo appearance in the horror film
Scream 3, and was featured along with
Jason Mewes in several
Degrassi: The Next Generation episodes, including a special, "Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi" (also as a fictional version of himself). Smith played the role of Paul, a cynical divorced man, in a
Showtime television series pilot,
Manchild, filmed in December 2006. It was not picked up by the network. From 1995 to 1999, Smith played small roles in the View Askew films
Drawing Flies,
Vulgar, and
Big Helium Dog. In 2001, he appeared in friend Jeff Anderson's film
Now You Know. In 2003, Smith appeared in a cameo role as coroner Jack Kirby in the film
Daredevil. In 2006, he voiced the Moose in the CGI cartoon
Doogal. In early 2005,
Smith appeared in three episodes of the Canadian-made teen drama
Degrassi: The Next Generation. He wrote his own dialogue for the episodes. An avid fan of the original
Degrassi series
Degrassi Junior High and
Degrassi High, Smith references them in some of his early films. In the episodes, portraying a fictionalized version of himself, he visited the school to work on the fictional film
Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh! All three episodes were collected on the DVD
Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi. Smith and Mewes reappeared in two episodes the following season, in which they returned to Degrassi for the Toronto premiere of the movie. Smith also appeared in the 2009 made-for-TV movie
Degrassi Goes Hollywood. In 2007, Smith appeared in a number of films, co-starring as Sam in
Catch and Release, starring
Jennifer Garner, and appearing as The Warlock, a hacker, in the fourth installment of the
Die Hard franchise,
Live Free or Die Hard. At year's end, he appeared briefly in friend and fellow writer-director
Richard Kelly's
Southland Tales, in which he played the legless conspiracy theorist General Simon Theory. The same year, Smith did voicework for the CGI film
TMNT as a diner chef and was seen as Rusty (a friend of lead Jason Mewes) in
Bottoms Up with co-star Paris Hilton. Smith cameoed in the
second-season premiere of the sitcom
Joey, playing himself, on an episode of
Law & Order (2000, episode "
Black, White and Blue"),
Duck Dodgers (2003 as
Hal Jordan, voice only) and
Yes, Dear (2004, as himself and as Silent Bob behind the end credits). He appeared in the second episode of season two of
Veronica Mars, playing a store clerk. Before it aired, Smith watched the show's first season and raved about it in his "online diary", calling it one of the best shows in the history of television. Smith does a voice cameo in
Superman: Doomsday as a bystander. He had a cameo appearance as "Bob the Security Guard" alongside
Jason Mewes as "Jay the Security Guard" on
The Flash episode, "Null and Annoyed", which he also directed. Smith played himself in the video game
Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham as a playable character. Smith appears as himself in
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, as a cameo and a playable character in the map Rave in the Redwoods. In 2017, he appeared as himself in the animated film
Teen Titans: The Judas Contract from the
DC Universe Animated Original Movies series. Smith had a voice cameo in
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and an on-screen cameo in
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Q&A documentaries and other specials Smith has appeared in five Q&A documentaries:
An Evening with Kevin Smith (2002),
An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder (2006),
Sold Out: A Threevening with Kevin Smith (2007),
Kevin Smith: Too Fat for 40 (2010) and
Kevin Smith: Burn in Hell (2012). All five have been released on DVD, and the last two were broadcast on the cable channel
Epix. The first is a collection of filmed appearances at American colleges, while the sequel was shot at two Q&A shows held in
Toronto and London. The third and fourth were filmed in Red Bank, New Jersey at the Count Basie Theater on Smith's 37th and 40th birthdays, respectively. The fifth was filmed in Austin, Texas at the Paramount Theater. The first two DVD sets were released by Sony Home Video, while the third was put out by the Weinstein Company. A stand-up special, entitled
Kevin Smith: Silent But Deadly, filmed a mere hour before Smith's heart attack, premiered in 2018 on the cable channel
Showtime and was later released to DVD. Smith appears with Marvel Comics'
Stan Lee in
Marvel Then & Now: An Evening With Stan Lee and Joe Quesada, hosted by Kevin Smith. The film is similar in tone to the
Evening with Kevin Smith series. Proceeds from the film benefit
The Hero Initiative, a charitable organization that aids ill or aging comic book creators.
Other film and television appearances After an August 2001 appearance on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to promote
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Smith returned to the show for monthly segments as a correspondent. The "Roadside Attractions" segments featured him traveling to places around the country, including
Howe Caverns in upstate New York and the
Pike Place Fish Market in
Seattle. At least 12 of these segments were aired, and Smith regularly appeared on the program to introduce the pre-taped pieces. Five of the segments were also included on the
Jersey Girl DVD. Smith appeared in the 2006
mtvU show
Sucks Less with Kevin Smith. The show gives college students ideas for things to do on the weekends. In 2006, Smith guest reviewed on
Ebert & Roeper, in place of
Roger Ebert, who was recovering from
thyroid cancer treatment. These spots were notable for the arguments between Smith and
Richard Roeper over certain films, with Smith often citing Roeper's negative review of
Jersey Girl to discredit his review of the film at hand. On one appearance, Smith compared
Craig Brewer's
Black Snake Moan to the works of
William Faulkner. Smith was featured as one of the interview subjects in
This Film Is Not Yet Rated, a 2006 documentary about the
Motion Picture Association of America's process of rating films. Smith discussed how
Jersey Girl receiving an R rating, on the basis of a conversation two characters in that film have about masturbation, which MPAA head
Joan Graves told Smith she would not feel comfortable having her 16-year-old daughter watching. Smith's response was to question whether Graves' daughter had not already masturbated or learned about masturbation, arguing that his film was not teaching 16-year-olds anything they did not already know. Smith teamed with
AMC and
The Weinstein Company to co-host a late night talk show with
Greg Grunberg,
Geeking Out, which premiered in July 2016, covering
San Diego Comic-Con with 8 subsequent episodes running weekly. In February 2019, he made his second appearance on
The Big Bang Theory in season 12 episode 16, "The D&D Vortex", alongside other guests stars,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
William Shatner, and
Joe Manganiello in a storyline where they get together at the home of recurring star
Wil Wheaton, to play
Dungeons & Dragons. His first appearance was in season 8 episode 20, "The Fortification Implementation", when he joins
Wil Wheaton on a podcast, voice only. On November 16, 2019,
Amazon Prime published "Bonus: Kevin Smith Explains
The Expanse" as a forerunner to series 4 of
The Expanse, in which Smith helps explain the action that unfolded during the first three seasons. Two days later, it was published on YouTube.
Public appearances Smith's longest Q&A session took place April 2, 2005, at the
Count Basie Theatre in
Red Bank, New Jersey. The sold-out event was over seven hours long, took place from 8 pm through 3 am (which due to
daylight saving time, was actually 4 am). Following the Q&A, he opened
Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash for a meet-and-greet with the numerous remaining audience members, which ended around 6:30 am. Smith then hopped on a plane and did another Q&A at the Raue Center for the Arts in
Crystal Lake, Illinois, that night. Planned for two hours, it lasted just over five hours, ending a little after 1 am Central time. Smith made sold-out appearances at
Carnegie Hall in 2009 and the
Sydney Opera House in 2010.
On the Internet Smith has a website, The View Askewniverse, which went online in late 1995. He has an online blog, "My Boring-Ass Life", the contents of which were published in a book by the same name.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back fictional website MoviePoopShoot.com became real in 2002. It became
Quick Stop Entertainment and was the home of SModcast until it was sold and SModcast moved to a dedicated website
SModcast.com, which carries the other SModcast network
podcasts in early 2010. On February 5, 2007, Smith and
Scott Mosier began
SModcast, a regular comedy podcast. SModcast has since spawned into a podcast network called the SModcast podcast network which began in 2010, its own
digital radio station called SModcast Internet Radio (S.I.R) in 2011 and an internet television channel SModCo Internet Television (S.I.T.) in 2012. On June 4, 2012, Smith premiered his
Hulu weekly series
Spoilers, described as an "anti-movie review" series, where Smith takes a group of people to a new film and has them comment on what they have seen. Other segments on the show include interviews with celebrities, and the "Criterion Lounge", where Smith discusses a
Criterion Collection film available on DVD and the Hulu Plus service. On December 14, 2015, Smith began posting his
Fatman on Batman series on
YouTube. In late 2015, Smith and Jason Mewes began the web series ''What's in the Box?
on the Screen Junkies'' website, through the site's streaming service. ==Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash==