Biography
An Emmy award-winning filmmaker and writer, Daniel Blake Smith wrote and produced the award-winning feature film, Mr. Wonderful (Indie Rights, 2026), a drama starring Hollywood icon, Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs), now up on Prime Video and other digital platforms. Smith also co-wrote the film adaptation of the NYT bestseller Embraced by the Light, which Hollywood legend Ridley Scott will produce. Smith co-wrote and helped produce the crime thriller, Texas Heart (Indie Rights 2016), starring John Savage (The Deer Hunter), Lin Shaye (Insidious), which is available on Amazon and other digital platforms. He has other feature scripts in development: among them, Blood Born, a thriller; and Love & Money, based on his novel, Crazy Love (2019).
Among Smith's other works that he's written and produced, include feature narrative films and documentaries, including the Emmy-nominated February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, which was broadcast on PBS's "Independent Lens"; Smith also wrote the acclaimed, prize-winning feature documentary, Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy, hosted by Cherokee film star Wes Studi and narrated by James Earl Jones; Black Indians: An American Story, also narrated by James Earl Jones; and Terror of the Soul: Edgar Allan Poe, a docudrama starring Treat Williams and John Heard (with music by Philip Glass). He wrote and produced the feature documentaries, Envisioning Home,, about two visionaries in the public housing world of St. Louis (the film premiered at the St. Louis Int'l Film Festival) and is now available on Amazon; and Impact: After the Crash, a feature doc about the deadliest drunk-driving related crash in US history. It also was an official selection of the St. Louis Int'l Film Festival and is available on Amazon Prime (Indie Rights 2017).
Smith, who earned a Ph.D in American History at the University of Virginia and taught at the University of Kentucky, is also the author of four books in American history, among them the prize-winning An American Betrayal: Cherokee Patriots and the Trail of Tears (Henry Holt, 2011), The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown (Henry Holt, 2008) and Our Family Dreams: The Fletchers' Adventures in 19th Century America (St. Martin's Press, 2016). His most recent book, RUN: The Wilmot Collins Story, comes out in October. A native Texan, Smith now lives in St. Louis, Mo.
