Austin Smithard

Austin Smithard hails from a sleepy village on the Isle of Wight, off the coast of southern England. The young Smithard took to movies at the age of six upon viewing Jaws (1975), declaring his ambition to make films for Steven Spielberg. Nine years later, after teaching himself cameras and lenses, he was working as a professional photographer for a London modeling agency, and writing corporate reports for the Shell Oil Company. One of his short films, "The Homerun", was spotted by acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard and, by extraordinary chance, soon gained the attention of Steven Spielberg, himself. Smithard was personally contracted by Spielberg and weeks later, he was sitting beside Dustin Hoffman in California on the set of Hook (1991), where he spent a year learning the ropes from the master. Smithard was signed under contract as a screenwriter at Universal Pictures. Spielberg then executive produced his first film, "The Scream" (2000), which led to a call from Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope Company, who hired the 22-year-old as a writer. Smithard began directing commercials and soon took the reins as director and cinematographer on 80 campaigns for Amtrak, the New York Stock Exchange, Mercedes Benz, U.S Army and dozens of others. He recently wrote, produced and photographed the History Channel documentary "Avalanche" (2000) and is currently editing Intrepid (2000), a historical record of world conflict through the eyes of the famous U.S. battleship. Smithard has recently completed producing, writing and directing the 2005 release feature film Breaking the Fifth (2004), starring Tony Award- Winner Frank Langella. He is currently in production on the documentary "Men of Character" (2000), to be released in 2005. He married actress Kaela Dobkin in 2002 and lives in California.