Kevin Patrick Smith is known for his work as an American filmmaker, actor, director, comedian, comic book writer, author, and podcaster. Smith was born August 2nd, 1970 in Red Bank, New Jersey by his parents Grace and Donald E. Smith. He is the youngest of three children. During his early childhood years, Smith would usually stay with his father at the post office during his late shifts and noticed that he resented his job immensely to the point of seeing him struggling to get up and go to work. That was the definitive moment for Smith to never work at something that would not bring him pleasure. When Smith began high school he would observe life in a more comedic manner especially for interacting with his friends and girls he took interest in. He eventually attended The New School in New York City after finishing high school but dropped out after his first semester. As he began working at a youth center later on, he befriended a man named Jason Mewes who he instantly connected with after having similar interests in comic books and would eventually be one of his closest friends and actors in his future films.

During Smith’s 21st birthday he saw the film Slacker by Richard Linklater and was astounded by the fact that Linklater filmed the movie from his own hometown in Austin, Texas compared to using a soundstage in a more well-known shooting location and that is what inspired Smith to become a filmmaker. Smith tried his hand again at attending college by enrolling at Vancouver Film School and befriended another person who eventually became close with him and his future films Scott Mosier but unfortunately had to drop out again in order to save money for his first film Clerks. When Smith moved back to New Jersey, he wanted to set his film Clerks in his hometown in New Jersey; more specifically at the convenience store he worked at in Leonardo, New Jersey known  as the Quick Stop which became a common staple for most of his movies next to its iconic characters. Smith borrowed the a-day-in-the-life format from Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing for Clerks along with raising $27,575 to make his first film a reality.

 

After his low-budget, independent comedy film Clerks first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994 and won a Filmmaker's Trophy, the film was eventually bought by Miramax and had limited theater screenings. Despite the limited release and complications from initially having an NC-17 rating to an R rating from the content featured in the film, Clerks did well financially and opened new doors for Smith to continue making films to this day. He’s even made several spin-off movies and other projects with some of his original characters that were featured in the first Clerks film. Most of Smith’s films after Clerks were a hit or miss financially or would possibly become cult classics years later.