About
I was born Douglas Smith in New York City on February 7th, 1964, the day the Beatles came to America. Guess I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
My family came out to California in the mid-70s. I was at an age just old enough to understand and appreciate this incredible state of ours, to see its great beauty and the complex melting pot of a population it is. To this day, I still hold a mighty reverence for what California, and especially Los Angeles, represents, but more importantly, with change and hard work, what it can become.
I like to think I have a New York state of mind and a California soul. I’m always outspoken, in a laid back kind of way, but also never back down from a challenge.
To me, Southern California is a culture of pinnacles, shaping us from the past to the present and beyond.
From film to music, aerospace and agriculture, big tech, low tech, and everything in between, it is a bastion of achievement. The land where dreams are actualized.
California not only is the 5th largest economy in the world, it is also 1st in American manufacturing, with over 35,000 manufacturing firms employing over 1.2 million people.
It’s the quintessential promise of the West.
Southern California, “where the spring comes in the fall, and the fall comes in the summer, and the summer comes in the winter, and the winter never comes at all.”
-Inez Haynes Irwin.
I’m not so sure these platitudes qualify me for much, except maybe to prove that, like you, I care deeply for this place we call home. I want it to be a safer and more fulfilling place than ever.
Living in Malibu and Point Dume with my family, after High School I moved into Hollywood while attending UCLA and Otis Parsons before embarking on a forty year long career as a stage manager in television. During that time I bought a house and for the last 20 years I have called Reseda home, while embracing my wanderlust and musical pursuits recording and touring America and Europe with Indie bands Idaho, Scenic, and The Mooks.
During my Stage Manager career I am proud to have achieved a certain modicum of success and can count almost every award show, America’s Got Talent, The Voice, Dancing with the Stars, both Opening and Closing Ceremonies of Atlanta and Salt Lake City’s Olympic games, as well as four Democratic Conventions and 30 years of The Kennedy Center Honors as achievements on my resume.
I’m also proud that during the last 15 years I have served for 3 terms as a Council member at the Director’s Guild of America. It was there, and with my experience and participation in the parliamentary process, that I witnessed the necessity and loyalty it takes to represent people who vote you into that position. The importance of union labor cannot be overstated. I have always fought hard for better wages, additional residuals, and cost of living increases that don’t just keep up with inflation, but exceed it.
In similar pursuits, I chaired the Bi-Coastal Committee and Interactive Committee to connect and empower DGA members on both coasts to modernize the way our union conducts business with its members. Creating the MorePerfect.blog website gave members an open forum democratizing technology in our union’s efforts.
During COVID I urged keeping our members employed during lockdown, putting “people over profit” in our industry, that wasn’t always the most popular thing to say. I held onto what I thought was right, regardless of the risk.
Most recently it happens to be that I DID NOT support the DGA signing a contract to avoid a strike this summer, seemingly in betrayal of its sister unions, the WGA and SAG/AFTRA, that led to upending our work life as many of us had to endure.
AI itself still remains one of the most, if not THE MOST, important and crucial work-related philosophical issues we may ever face. PERIOD.
We must get it right.
I have always acted faithfully and responsibly to our colleagues at the Director’s Guild and assume it will be no different to the way I respond to the people I represent in California’s Congressional District 32 if I’m so lucky.
-Doug Smith