Brian J. Smith

he/him
Job title
actor  
Identity categories
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cis   man   gay   White American  
Born

Dallas, Texas, United States of America (1981)

Alternate names

Brian Jacob Smith

Images
The poster features an abstract portrayal of eight heads spiralling out from a central point, resembling a sample under a microscope. The eight heads belong to the main characters of the series, Sun Bak (a South Korean woman portrayed by Bae Doona), Nomi Marks (a white trans woman from San Francisco protrayed by Jamie Clayton), Kala Dandekar (an Indian woman portrayed by Tina Desai), Riley Blue (a white Icelandic woman portrayed by Tuppence Middleton), Wolfgang Bogdanow (a white German man portrayed by Max Riemelt), Lito Rodriguez (a Mexican man portrayed by Miguel Ángel Silvestre), Will Gorski (a white man from Chicago portrayed by Brian J. Smith), and Capheus Onyango (a black Kenyan man portrayed by Aml Ameen). The background is a mixed gradient of various greens and blues. The series title, "Sense8," is written with "Sense" in light green and "8" in black across the centre of the poster. Above the title, centered between two heads is the series tagline "I am we."
The eight central characters are arrayed in a diagonal cluster along the upper right side of the poster. Beneath them, a mirrored projection of the London cityscape slices diagonally downwards and cuts them out of the poster's bottom left corner, which features the series title, "Sense8," as well as the second season's tagline, "Survive. Together." At the top left of the cluster of people is Sun Bak, a South Korean woman with short black hair in a bright blue prison uniform, portrayed by Bae Doona, who stares achingly off to the left. Below her is Will Gorski, a white man with close-cropped brown hair and facial stubble wearing a plain grey shirt, portrayed by Brian J. Smith, who stares slightly down past camera with a frown. A little further to the right is Lito Rodriguez, a Mexican man with black hair and facial stubble wearing a dark blue shirt, portrayed by Miguel Ángel Silvestre, who also stares down past camera with a frown. Above Will and Lito, to Sun's right, Wolfgang Bogdanow embaces Kala Dandekar from behind. Wolfgang is a white German man with blonde hair and a beard wearing dark clothes, portrayed by Max Riemelt. Kala is an Indian woman with long black hair wearing a sheer black dress with bare shoulders, portrayed by Tina Desai. Both are smiling. Beneath them, to the right of Lito is Capheus Onyango, a bald black Kenyan man with a light blue shirt portrayed by Toby Onwumere, who looks off to the left mid-speech. To the right of and slightly above Capheus is Nomi Marks, a white trans woman with long brown hair wearing a peach dress, portrayed by Jamie Clayton, who stands in profile and looks off to the right. Finally, at the bottom right of the cluster is Riley Blue, a white Icelandic woman with bleached-blonde hair featuring a prominent streak of blue paint, wearing a dark red hand-knit sweater, portrayed by Tuppence Middleton, who stares off slightly to the right.
The eight central characters stand in a lineup on a rooftop with a sliver of a modern city-scape visible at the level of their knees, and a vast cloudy sky behind them rendered in the same light blue-green color as the Season 1 poster. Large blocky white text above the characters reads "Together until the end", and smaller text below the characters reads "Sense8: The Series Finale." Front and centre in the lineup is Sun Bak, a South Korean woman with black hair in a bob-cut, wearing a black-and blue checkered shirt and yoga pants, portrayed by Bae Doona. Behind Sun on the left is Lito Rodriguez, a Mexican man with short black hair wearing a dark blue dress shirt and black pants, portrayed by Miguel Ángel Silvestre. Behind Lito on the left is Capheus Onyango, a bald black Kenyan man wearing a blue-and-white sweater over a red shirt with grey pants, portrayed by Toby Onwumere, with his arms crossed in front of his chest. Behind Capheus on the left is Riley Blue, a white Icelandic woman with bleached blonde hair featuring a prominent streak of blue paint, wearing a black coat and a brown skirt with dark blue leggins, portrayed by Tuppence Middleton, with one arm reaching across her chest to grasp the elbow of her other arm. Behind Riley on the left is Will Gorski, a white man from Chicago with close-cropped dark hair, wearing a black leather jacket over a dark blue shirt with black pants, portrayed by Brian J. Smith, with his hands in his jacket pockets. Behind Sun on the right is Nomi Marks, a white trans woman from San Francisco with long brown hair, wearing a sweater with an orange, blue and grey pattern and a short dark blue skirt, portrayed by Jamie Clayton. Behind Nomi on the right is Wolfgang Bogdanow, a white German man with short blonde hair wearing a black leather jacket over a dark shirt with jeans, portrayed by Max Riemelt. Behind Wolfgang on the right is Kala Dandekar, an Indian woman with long black hair, wearing a purple-patterned shirt and a knee-lenght beige skirt, portrayed by Tina Desai.
Metadata
Biography

Brian Jacob Smith (born October 12, 1981) is an actor, known for his role as Will Gorski in the Netflix-produced series Sense8, Lieutenant Matthew Scott in the military science fiction television series Stargate Universe, and his Tony Award-nominated role as Jim O'Connor (The Gentleman Caller) in the 2013 revival of The Glass Menagerie.

Smith is a native of Allen, Texas. He studied at the Quad C Theatre program at Collin County Community College in Plano, Texas. After he was an apprentice for one year at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, Smith moved to New York City to attend the Juilliard School Drama Division's four-year acting program (Group 36: 2003–2007). Smith graduated from Juilliard with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

While enrolled at Collin College, Smith worked as theatre technician. He was later cast as Alex in A Clockwork Orange in a Quad C Theatre production to a positive review from the Dallas Observer. In 2005, he portrayed Trey, a gay man facing intolerance from the son of a fundamentalist preacher, in Hate Crime, an independent film that featured at gay and lesbian film festivals around the United States.

Upon graduating from Juilliard, Smith briefly considered joining the US Army due to several setbacks in his career.

Smith eventually received acting roles in two more independent films, Red Hook and The War Boys. In 2008, he appeared on Broadway in the play Come Back, Little Sheba as the character Turk. Smith was cast as Lieutenant Matthew Scott, a lead role in the 2009 Stargate television series, Stargate Universe, until its cancellation in 2010. He also guest-starred on Law & Order in 2009.

In 2011, Smith recurred on The CW's Gossip Girl and starred in the SyFy original film Red Faction: Origins. In April 2012, he began his run as Andrei in the hit Broadway show, The Columnist, which ended in July 2012. His next projects included the mini-series Coma from producer Tony Scott and an appearance on Warehouse 13 for SyFy.

From September 2013 to February 2014, he played The Gentleman Caller in a Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie at the Booth Theatre. This role earned him 2014 Drama Desk and Tony Award nominations as Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play.[citation needed] In 2015, he appeared in the pilot episode of Quantico as one of the new FBI recruits.

Smith was a lead cast member on the Netflix original series Sense8 (2015–2018) playing the character Will Gorski. He followed up with main roles on Treadstone, a serial spin-off of the Bourne films, and the BBC World War II drama mini series World on Fire in 2019.

Smith played Berg in The Matrix Resurrections in 2021 and in 2023, was cast as Daniel Lennix, a lead character in FX on Hulu's series Class of '09 and as Ken in Essex County a Canadian television drama.

On November 7, 2019, Smith came out as gay in an interview with Attitude.

“Brian J. Smith.” In Wikipedia, June 10, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brian_J._Smith&oldid=1159436715.
Filmography
References
“Brian J. Smith.” In Wikipedia, June 10, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brian_J._Smith&oldid=1159436715.