1981-10-12

BRIAN JACOB SMITH, born today, is an American actor. Smith is known for portraying Will Gorski in the Netflix series Sense8 and Lieutenant Matthew Scott in the military science fiction television series Stargate Universe. He is also known for his Tony Award-nominated role as Jim O’Connor (The Gentleman Caller) in the 2013 Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie.

While enrolled at Collin College, Smith worked as theatre technician. He was later cast as Alex in A Clockwork Orange in a Quad C Theatre production to a positive review from the Dallas Observer. In 2005, he portrayed Trey, a gay man facing intolerance from the son of a fundamentalist preacher, in Hate Crime, an independent film that featured at gay and lesbian film festivals around the United States.

Upon graduating from Juilliard, Smith briefly considered joining the US Army due to several setbacks in his career. But he eventually received acting roles in two more independent films, Red Hook and The War Boys. In 2008, he appeared on Broadway in the play Come Back, Little Sheba as the character Turk. Smith was cast as Lieutenant Matthew Scott, a lead role in the 2009 Stargate television series, Stargate Universe, until its cancellation in 2010. He also guest-starred on Law & Order in 2009.

Smith played Berg in The Matrix Resurrections in 2021 and in 2023, was cast as Daniel Lennix, a lead character in FX on Hulu’s series Class of ’09 and as Ken in Essex County a Canadian television drama.

A House Is Not a Disco, his debut documentary film as a director, premiered at the 2024 SXSW festival. In November 2019, Smith came out in an interview with the British Attitude magazine.