Will Smith

William James Smith (born 8 June 1971) is an English stand-up comedian, writer, actor and producer. He is the creator and showrunner of the Apple TV+ drama thriller Slow Horses (2022–), which was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series in 2024 and 2025. .

He was part of the writing team of the BBC sitcom The Thick of It (2007–2012), in which he starred as Phil Smith. As co-writer and co-producer of the HBO sitcom Veep (2012–16), he was among the recipients of two Emmys and two Writers Guild of America Awards, and has received nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Episodic Comedy.

Early life and education Smith was born in Winchester, Hampshire, and grew up in Jersey, where he attended Victoria College. His brother is the TV presenter and wine critic Olly Smith.

Career Stand-up comedy Smith started his career in stand-up comedy, winning awards including Chortle Best Headliner 2005 and Time Out Comedy 2004. One critic called him 'the Hugh Grant of comedy', and he appeared on The 11 O'Clock Show with Sacha Baron Cohen and Ricky Gervais as the character 'Posh Boy'. He took solo shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival every year from 2003 to 2006: "Will Smith Is Much Obliged", "Misplaced Childhood" (inspired by his love of the rock band Marillion and their 1985 album of the same name), "Ten Arguments I Should Have Won", and "How To Be Cool". Smith supported Gervais on his record-breaking sell-out 2007 "Fame" tour, and supported Ardal O'Hanlon and Johnny Vegas on national tours.

Television Smith serves as showrunner and executive producer on Slow Horses, the Apple TV+ series based on the espionage novels by Mick Herron. Smith calls himself "a huge, huge Bond fan... I'd love to write one", and describes Slow Horses as "the anti-Bond". The show films in the UK and stars Gary Oldman, Jonathan Pryce, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden. The series, which premiered on Apple TV+ on 1 April 2022, won Smith the USC Scripter Award two years running, for best episodic adaptation of a printed work in 2023, and again in 2024. Smith was also nominated in the writer: drama category in the 2023 and 2025 Royal Television Society Programme Awards, and for best long form TV drama in the 2023 Writers' Guild of Great Britain awards. Smith won the 2024 Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series' for Season's 3's episode "Negotiating with Tigers". Accepting the award, Smith referenced the Chris Rock–Will Smith slapping incident of the 2022 Oscars, saying "First of all, relax. Despite my name, I come in peace."

Smith has been involved with both British and American political satire. He was a writer and one of the executive producers on HBO's Emmy-winning sitcom Veep, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. He wrote or co-wrote the Veep episodes: Chung (Season 1); Midterms, Running (Season 2); Some New Beginnings, Fishing (Season 3); Storms and Pancakes, Testimony (Season 4); Thanksgiving, (Season 5). Smith also wrote on the BAFTA-winning BBC political comedy The Thick of It. He was the only writer on the programme who acted in it – as MP Peter Mannion's inept adviser, The Lord of the Rings-obsessive Phil Smith. He also has a cameo role in the closing credits of In the Loop, the Anglo-American film spin-off.

He served as executive producer on HBO sitcom Avenue 5. Other writing credits include sitcoms Damned and Back, both airing on Channel 4. With Armando Iannucci and Roger Drew he devised BBC future comedy Time Trumpet, six episodes that screened in 2006. In 2018 he was reported to be working on co-writing a television series of Scarfolk.

Books Comedy books by Smith include How to Be Cool (Harry Enfield said of it 'Will Smith is the coolest guy in the world (if uncool is the new cool) – he's also terrifically funny'), and The Joy of No Sex, published by Penguin, a parody of The Joy of Sex.

Smith has written for various publications, including the magazine Intelligent Life, in which he learnt something new for each issue. Articles included banjo-playing, ice-sculpting, circus skills and making a soufflé.

In 2015, Smith published his first novel, Mainlander (4th Estate, a division of HarperCollins), a thriller about a schoolboy who goes missing on Jersey. The Independent described it as 'John le Carré meets Middlemarch',

Smith reflected on the difference between writing for television and writing a novel in The Guardian. "The chain from author to reader is short and simple – agent, editor, proofreader, shop/website. In TV, the script will have to be signed off by producers, executive producers, genre commissioners and channel commissioners, and that's still only a starting point". He cited as his influences John Cleese and Stephen Fry, as well as Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot. Will Smith Presents the Tao of Bergerac (2007), based on the 1980s TV series set on Jersey. Released as a BBC Audio CD in 2008. Will Smith's Midlife Crisis Management (2008) It's Your Round (2011) Mr and Mrs Smith (2012), sitcom about a couple in marriage counselling

Acting credits Year Title Role Notes 1997 The 11 O'Clock Show 2000 Time Gentlemen Please 2003 Gash 2004 A Wife For William 2005 Back in the Day 2006 The Charlotte Church Show 2006 Never Mind the Buzzcocks 2006–2012 The Thick of It Phil Smith 2006, one-hour special in 2007, 2009, 2012 2007 The C Word Presenter The euphemism for "cunt", not "cancer" 2007 The Late Edition 2008 For One Night Only 2009 Argumental 2 guest appearances 2011 Comedy Lab Tony Season 12, Episode 5 2012 Have I Got News for You 2012 Dead Boss Governor Gorey Season 1, Episode 6 2014 Paddington Geographer 2016–2018 Damned Zac 2017 Hampstead Leon Rowlands 2019 Greed Teacher 2025 The Roses Derek