Career
While working in animation on the feature film side, Smith furthered his interest in television animation by creating The Proud Family for Disney Channel in 2001. Initially pitched to Nickelodeon in 1998, a pilot was created for the network. He co-founded Jambalaya Studios, which worked in conjunction with Willard Carroll's Hyperion Pictures to produce the series, for which he worked on over 50 episodes as well as The Proud Family Movie (2005).
The name of the series, the first venture for Jambalaya Studio, came from something he told his co-founder, Tom Wilhite when he showed him the show's main characters drawn as though they were in a family portrait.
In 2004, he served as a supervising animator for Disney's Home on the Range. That same year, co-created and served as executive producer for the series Da Boom Crew for The WB. Smith later described the series as mixing concepts of Star Wars with Boyz-N-The Hood, and argued that the series tries to recreate the "black experience in animated form." Although 13 episodes were produced, only four of which aired; the series was a commercial failure.
In 2009, Smith returned to the Walt Disney Animation Studios and Duncan Studio Production to supervise 2D animation on The Princess and the Frog—for the character Dr. Facilier—as well as the 2011 film Winnie the Pooh—for the characters Piglet, Kanga and Roo. In addition, he served as the lead animator for the animated short Tangled Ever After. Smith's character design ability led him into visual development for the studio's subsequent projects, namely Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen.
In 2015, he served as part of the senior creative team for the direct-to-TV film Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast. In 2018, he served as an animator for Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. In 2019, he directed the short film Hair Love, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. In 2019, he worked on the traditionally-animated indie steampunk short series Hullabaloo.
He returned to The Proud Family with the reboot The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, which began airing on Disney+ in February 2022. This was spurred by the fact that on January 1, 2020, the original The Proud Family series began streaming on Disney+, and shortly thereafter, Disney executives approached Smith and Ralph Farquhar regarding a reviving of the series. On February 27, 2020, the show was formally ordered on the streaming service. Smith concurred with Farquhar, saying that the "show never really went away" and called it the "perfect time to bring back this show." Smith also argued that the series is "blazing a path...[in] this animated sphere," saying it has parts of the horror, sci-fi, and Western genres. The show is rated TV-PG, making this Disney Television Animation's first series to carry the rating.
In December 2020, he and Farquhar signed an overall deal with Disney to further produce television properties. On April 18, 2022, Disney+ renewed The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder for a second season.
