Steve Smith (comedian)
Steve Smith, CM (born
December 24,
1945,
Toronto, Ontario) is a
Canadian comedy writer and actor.
Before turning to comedy, Smith studied engineering at the
University of Waterloo and then worked a variety of jobs. In
1979, he began to produce, write, and star in
Smith & Smith, a sketch comedy series with a cast of two: Smith and his wife,
Morag Smith. The show was produced for
Hamilton, Ontario's
CHCH and
syndicated to other television stations in Canada.
In
1985, Smith decided to try a different format and created the family sitcom
Me & Max. After just one season, however, Steve and Morag went back to sketch comedy, creating the new series
The Comedy Mill, which ran for four years.
Between
Comedy Mill and
Red Green, Smith was writer of
Offside, a sports comedy series for CTV; head writer for Global's
Laughing Matters; and writer of the TV pilot
Out Of Our Minds with
David Steinberg. Uniquely enough, he wrote three episodes of CBS'
Top Cops series. Smith was in charge of development on the failed
The Gordon Pinsent Show for CBC.
In
1991, Smith made one of his recurring characters, who had appeared on all three previous shows, into the star of a new series,
The Red Green Show. Red Green, an inept handyman whose answer to almost everything â€" including, in one episode,
Quebec sovereigntism â€" is
duct tape, proved to be not only one of the most enduring characters in Canadian television history, but one of the most lucrative and durable Canadian television exports as well. In all, 300 episodes of the series were produced.
Smith also writes a syndicated newspaper column as Red Green, distributed by
Newspaper Enterprise Association.
On February 17,
2006, Smith was made a Member of the
Order of Canada.
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NorthernStars.ca Profile - Steve Smith
