Kimani Ray Smith

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 30 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 by-product 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 tee-pee in the desert was a life changing experience and where Kimani developed his love for storytelling. At a drive-in theater, Kimani saw his first film, "Star Wars: A New Hope" which sparked his life-long obsession for the movies.

Kimani has directed episodes of SyFy/Netflix "Van Helsing", CW's "Two Sentence Horror Stories", an episode of Disney/FreeForm's "Motherland: Fort Salem" and AMC/Shudder's "Horror Noire". Kimani's latest release is the feature film, "The Painter" for Paramount Plus.