Arthur Smith

CEO of A. Smith & Co.

Arthur Smith founded A. Smith & Co. Productions with longtime friend Kent Weed in 2000 and serves as Executive Producer on all the company's productions including the Emmy® and People's Choice Award nominated hit show Hell's Kitchen as well as Kitchen Nightmares with Chef Gordon Ramsay, I Survived a Japanese Game Show, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, Full Throttle Saloon, The World According to Paris, Unsung, American Ninja Warrior, American Gangster, Pros Vs Joes, UFC Countdown, The Swan, Skating with Celebrities, and Trading Spaces.

Beyond overseeing A. Smith & Co., Smith serves on the Board of Directors for Tinopolis Group, one of the UK's leading producers of media and programming which A. Smith & Co. joined in 2011. Smith is also a lead consultant to major media companies and sport entities with clients such as Paul Allen, The Harlem Globetrotters, and Gemstar/TV Guide. Additionally Smith serves on the boards of several sports organizations.

Smith has been working in the entertainment industry his entire life. As a youth, he acted in feature films, television sitcoms and television commercials, and hosted a video show. On an academic scholarship, Smith studied communications at Ryerson University in Toronto, where he excelled in his studies. While at Ryerson, Smith won numerous awards for his inventive productions and graduated first in his class.

In 1982, Smith began producing network television at the age of 22 at CBC Network Sports, where he produced and directed major sporting events around the world, including Executive Producing three Olympic Games for which he won numerous awards, including two prestigious Gemini Awards. At the age of 28, Smith was named head of CBC Sports and continued to create sports content in an entertainment format filled with stylized graphics, driving music, high profile features, and technological innovations.

Following CBC, Smith spent four years as Senior Vice President of Dick Clark Productions where he created a melange of comedy, reality, game, talk and music programming for network, cable and syndicated television. He was responsible for Producing and Executive Producing When Stars Were Kids, and Caught in the Act and Universal Studios Summer Blast for NBC as well as Battle of the Bands, The Jim Thorpe Pro Sports Awards, and The Great 18 Golf Championship for ABC.

Smith went on to become Senior Vice President of MCA Television Group in 1995. Within months of arriving at MCA Television, Smith garnered commitments for shows from ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS. Smith also rejuvenated MCA's first run division, with a number of projects/acquisitions he developed for syndication. Smith's stint at MCA Television Group was a short one, however, the entertainment industry, aware of his ability to create innovative programming that excited target demographics, clamored to persuade him to join their forces.

Prior to launching A. Smith & Co. in November 2000, Smith held the role of Executive Vice President of Programming, Production and News for FOX SPORTS where he launched the network into the cable sports business as well as overseeing what would become the fastest growing television sports network. Smith's responsibilities included supervising production, development, scheduling, and acquisition of all programming, nationally and regionally. While at FOX, Smith launched 22 sports networks and acted as Executive Producer on over 4,500 events and thousands of original hours of programming each year.