Smith has appeared in films such as
School Daze,
Do the Right Thing,
King of New York,
Panther, Malcolm X,
Poetic Justice,
Get on the Bus, ''
Eve's Bayou, He Got Game, and Summer of Sam. Several of these films were with director Spike Lee. During the 1990s, he had a recurring role on A Different World''. In 1996, Smith starred in the self-written and produced
A Huey P. Newton Story, a one-man theatre performance based on the life of
Black Panther Party founder
Huey P. Newton. Smith received an
Obie Award, and a performance was later filmed by Spike Lee and released in 2001. In addition to his performances in major studio productions, Smith continues to work in and support independent film projects. In 2003, he had a starring role in the
Steven Soderbergh/
George Clooney TV series
K-Street on
HBO. Also in 2003, Smith read in the HBO documentary,
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives; the film, based on interviews conducted by the
WPA in the 1930s with formerly enslaved African Americans, is a compilation of
slave narratives with actors emulating the original conversation with the interviewer. Smith was also the voice of Bao-Dur in the video game
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. He portrayed Craig Barnes, a corrupt detective in the martial arts/crime film
Fist of the Warrior, alongside
Ho-Sung Pak and
Sherilyn Fenn. Smith starred with
Laurence Fishburne and
Jeff Goldblum in the 1992 film
Deep Cover. He also played a villain in
All About the Benjamins (2002) with
Ice Cube. In 2000, he portrayed Agent Schreck in the
first installment of the
Final Destination horror films. In 2006, he played the main villain in the straight-to-video actioner
Mercenary for Justice, opposite
Steven Seagal. Smith was in the 2007 film
American Gangster with
Denzel Washington and
Russell Crowe, in which he played the role of Nate,
Frank Lucas (Washington)'s army connection in Vietnam. He also played the role of Isaiah in the 2016 film
The Birth of a Nation, a film about the life of
Nat Turner. Smith also had a recurring role in the hit HBO series
Oz.
Juan and John, written and performed by Smith, is based on baseball's most famous fight—
San Francisco Giants pitcher
Juan Marichal clubbing
John Roseboro of the
Los Angeles Dodgers with his bat during a 1965 battle for the pennant at
Candlestick Park—which traumatized the playwright as a child. Smith portrayed American black leader
Booker T. Washington in the 2020
Netflix miniseries
Self Made, based on the life of
Madame C. J. Walker (
Octavia Spencer). Smith wrote, directed, and performed the solo show
In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat, a tribute to
Jean-Michel Basquiat, whom he was friends with. == Personal life ==