Biography
Jamil Smith is an American journalist who is a senior writer for Rolling Stone magazine. Smith has drawn notice for his commentary on topics such as race and racism, police brutality, feminism and gender roles, and national politics.
After several years as an assistant at the William Morris Agency, Smith began his career in television and film production as a production assistant with CNN and HBO Sports. He worked for six years as a producer for NFL Films and for another four producing segments at MSNBC for both "The Rachel Maddow Show" and "Melissa Harris-Perry." Smith joined The New Republic magazine in 2015, writing regular columns, essays, and profiles. He also launched and hosted The New Republic's first podcast, "Intersection."
Naming Smith to its 2015 Root 100 list of top black influencers, The Root said Smith "hits on cultural touch points from campus rape to the Rev. Al Sharpton, banging out a nice mix of opinion, headlines and original reporting."
Smith covered the 2016 presidential campaign for as senior national correspondent for MTV News, where he worked alongside journalists such as Ana Marie Cox and made frequent appearances as a commentator on cable news and public radio. While at MTV, Smith also hosted "The Racket," a limited YouTube series on politics. He also was a regular voice on the MTV News podcast "The Stakes," where he interviewed Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Let America Vote founder Jason Kander, and film director Ava DuVernay. He also hosted a special Stakes episode commemorating the 25th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles uprising.
He joined Rolling Stone after more than nine months as a freelance reporter and opinion writer, contributing regularly as a columnist with the Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, and HuffPost. During that time, Smith wrote "The Revolutionary Power of Black Panther," the cover story for Time magazine's February 19, 2018 issue. Examining the cultural significance of the Marvel hit film, he argued that "Black Panther is poised to prove to Hollywood that African-American narratives have the power to generate profits from all audiences. And, more important, that making movies about black lives is part of showing that they matter." In the fall of 2017, Smith wrote a feature story for The New Republic, profiling former NAACP president Benjamin Jealous's campaign for Maryland governor. Smith's political and cultural commentary has also appeared in The Washington Post, Esquire, BuzzFeed, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times, where he has written both op-eds and book reviews.
In the fall of 2017, Smith joined two other journalists to host "One Year Later," a special six-week series for KCRW and Public Radio International to "speak honestly about America's differences and look for ways to bridge the country's divides" 12 months after the election of President Donald Trump.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Smith attended Shaker Heights High School and the University of Pennsylvania. He now resides in Southern California with his wife.
