T. Ryder Smith
Encyclopedia
T. Ryder Smith is an American
actor
. A native of New York state and long-time resident of New York City
, he has appeared frequently on stage, particularly in avant-garde theatre works, and in film, sometimes as a voice actor.
, which opened on April 14, 2011. Previously on Broadway, he acted opposite Daniel Radcliffe
and Richard Griffiths
in the 2008-9 revival of Equus
. Other work in New York includes the 2010 production of Sarah Ruhl
's Passion Play as well as her Dead Man's Cell Phone at Playwrights Horizons
.
In 2007, he took part in a collaboration with artist/activist Paul Chan
, The Classical Theatre of Harlem
, and the public-arts presenters Creative Time
to perform Samuel Beckett
's play Waiting for Godot
in the outdoor areas of New Orleans which had been most devastated by Hurricane Katrina
. He has appeared in world premiere productions of plays by Richard Foreman
, David Greenspan
, Tanya Barfield
, and Doug Wright
.
; the feature Happy Tears
; the experimental feature Horrible Child, and Marie Losier
's experimental short film The Ontological Cowboy, shown at the 2006 Whitney Biennial
. He supplies the voices of Baron Ünderbheit and Otto Aquarius on the cartoon TV series The Venture Bros.
, the voice of Sander Cohen
in the videogame BioShock
, and appears in the annual Bloomsday
readings of James Joyce's novel Ulysses on radio station WBAI.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. A native of New York state and long-time resident of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, he has appeared frequently on stage, particularly in avant-garde theatre works, and in film, sometimes as a voice actor.
Stage
Smith is currently appearing in the Lincoln Center Theater production of War Horse (play)War Horse (play)
War Horse is a play based on the book of the same name by acclaimed children's writer Michael Morpurgo, adapted for stage by Nick Stafford. Originally Morpurgo thought "they must be mad" to try to make a play from his best-selling 1982 novel. He was proved wrong by the play's instant success...
, which opened on April 14, 2011. Previously on Broadway, he acted opposite Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Jacob Radcliffe is an English actor who rose to prominence playing the titular character in the Harry Potter film series....
and Richard Griffiths
Richard Griffiths
Richard Griffiths, OBE is an English actor of stage, film and television. He has received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actor and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor...
in the 2008-9 revival of Equus
Equus (play)
Equus is a play by Peter Shaffer written in 1973, telling the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious fascination with horses....
. Other work in New York includes the 2010 production of Sarah Ruhl
Sarah Ruhl
Sarah Ruhl is an American playwright. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship.-Biography:Ruhl was born in Wilmette, Illinois. Originally, she intended to be a poet. However, after she studied under Paula Vogel at Brown University , she was convinced to switch to playwrighting...
's Passion Play as well as her Dead Man's Cell Phone at Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work....
.
In 2007, he took part in a collaboration with artist/activist Paul Chan
Paul Chan
Paul Chan Mo Po, MH, JP is the member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong . He is an accountant and the former President of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants . He holds a BBA and a MBA degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong...
, The Classical Theatre of Harlem
Classical Theatre of Harlem
The Classical Theatre of Harlem is a professional theatre company founded in 1999 at the Harlem School for the Arts. CTH is the only year round theatre company operating on an AEA LORT contract in Harlem, and presents a world repertory ranging from Euripides to Derek Walcott...
, and the public-arts presenters Creative Time
Creative Time
Creative Time is a New York-based nonprofit arts organization. It was founded in 1973 to support the creation of innovative, site-specific, socially engaged works in the public realm, especially in vacant spaces of historical and architectural interest...
to perform Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
's play Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
in the outdoor areas of New Orleans which had been most devastated by Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
. He has appeared in world premiere productions of plays by Richard Foreman
Richard Foreman
Richard Foreman is an American playwright and avant-garde theater pioneer. He is the founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater.-Life :...
, David Greenspan
David Greenspan
David Greenspan is an award-winning American actor and playwright. In 1997 he received an Obie Award for his work in the off-broadway revival of Boys in the Band....
, Tanya Barfield
Tanya Barfield
Tanya Barfield is an African-American playwright and actress whose works have been presented both nationally and internationally with such festivals and companies as the Arena Stage, The Royal Court Theatre, the New York Theatre Workshop, Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Hartford Stage.Her plays...
, and Doug Wright
Doug Wright
Doug Wright is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004 for his play, I Am My Own Wife.-Early years:Wright was born in Dallas, Texas...
.
Film, television and voice
Film and TV work includes playing "The Trickster" in the cyber-horror film BrainscanBrainscan
Brainscan is a 1994 horror film starring Edward Furlong, Frank Langella, Amy Hargreaves, Jamie Marsh and T. Ryder Smith. Music was composed by movie composer George S...
; the feature Happy Tears
Happy Tears (film)
Happy Tears is an American independent comedy-drama film by Mitchell Lichtenstein. It stars Parker Posey, Demi Moore, Rip Torn, Sebastian Roché and Ellen Barkin...
; the experimental feature Horrible Child, and Marie Losier
Marie Losier
Marie Losier is an experimental filmmaker and a 2006 Whitney Biennialist. Most recently, she collaborated with filmmaker Guy Maddin on the short film "Manuelle Labor." Her film The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye, a documentary centered on Genesis P-Orridge and Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, is...
's experimental short film The Ontological Cowboy, shown at the 2006 Whitney Biennial
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennale exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, USA. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932, the first biennial was in 1973...
. He supplies the voices of Baron Ünderbheit and Otto Aquarius on the cartoon TV series The Venture Bros.
The Venture Bros.
The Venture Bros. is an American animated television series that premiered on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on February 16, 2003. The series mixes action and comedy together while it chronicles the adventures of the Venture family: well-meaning but incompetent teenagers Hank and Dean Venture; their...
, the voice of Sander Cohen
Sander Cohen
Sander Cohen is a character in the 2007 2K video game BioShock. Cohen lived among the most famous individuals in Rapture. As one of Rapture's more respected musicians, playwrights and poets, Cohen resided in a lavish apartment in Mercury Suites, along with other Rapture celebrities such as Frank...
in the videogame BioShock
Bioshock
BioShock is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston and designed by Ken Levine. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on August 21, 2007 in North America, and three days later in Europe and Australia. It became available on Steam on August 21, 2007...
, and appears in the annual Bloomsday
Bloomsday
Bloomsday is a commemoration observed annually on 16 June in Dublin and elsewhere to celebrate the life of Irish writer James Joyce and relive the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904...
readings of James Joyce's novel Ulysses on radio station WBAI.
Awards
- He shared a 2007 Drama Desk AwardDrama Desk AwardThe Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
for Outstanding Ensemble Cast as a member of the 3-actor, 50-role Off-Broadway play Lebensraum by Israel Horowitz. - He was nominated for a 2001 Drama Desk AwardDrama Desk AwardThe Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
as Outstanding Solo Performer for Glen BergerGlen BergerGlen Berger is an American playwright.Berger has received commissions from the Children’s Theater of Minneapolis, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Alley Theatre, and the Lookingglass Theater...
’s Underneath the LintelUnderneath the LintelUnderneath the Lintel is a play by Glen Berger that premièred in 2001. The sole character—the Librarian—embarks on a quest to find out who anonymously returned a library book that is 113 years overdue...
. - He received a 2006 Craig NoelCraig NoelCraig Noel was an American theatre producer. He was the founding director of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California and led it for more than 60 years...
Award for Outstanding Lead Performance in the world-premiere of John Strand’s play Lincolnesque at San Diego’s Old Globe Theater. - He received a 2005 Charles Bowden Award for Exceptional Contribution to the Theatrical Community, presented by NYC’s New Dramatists.
External links
- Lincoln Center Theater War Horse production website.
- American Theater Magazine Profile September 2006
- Playbill Radio podcast: T. Ryder Smith and Anna Camp talk about Equus
- Interview on NYTheatre.com
- T Ryder Smith on the Leonard Lopate Show discussing Sarah Ruhl's Passion play
- Radio interview about Marat/Sade on WNYC Lenord Lopate show
- Time Out NY magazine article