J. Smith-Cameron (born September 7, 1955) is an American actress.
Smith-Cameron was born Jean Isabel Smith in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of architect Richard Sharpe Smith.
She was raised in Greenville, South Carolina, and attended Florida State University for one year, where she was enrolled in the School of Theatre. There she met film director Victor Nunez, who cast her as a lead in his film Gal Young 'Un.
She added her family's name, Cameron, when told by the Actors' Equity Association that there was already a J. Smith and there was a rule that two actors cannot have the same professional name. She made her Broadway debut in 1982 when she replaced Mia Dillon in Crimes of the Heart. She appeared in the original Broadway cast of Lend Me a Tenor as Maggie in 1989.
She appeared in the Broadway production of Our Country's Good in 1991. Additional Broadway credits include Tartuffe (2003), Night Must Fall (1999) and After the Night and the Music (2005).
She has appeared in many Off-Broadway plays, including at the Public Theatre, the Second Stage Theatre, and Playwrights Horizons.
In November 1999 through April 2000 she appeared in Fuddy Meers as Claire at New York City Center, Stage II, for which she received a nomination for the Outer Critics Circle Award as Outstanding Actress in a Play.
In March through June 2004 she appeared in the Manhattan Theatre Club Off-Broadway production of ''Sarah, Sarah.
In November through December 2009 she appeared Off-Broadway at the Acorn Theatre in her husband's (Kenneth Lonergan) play, The Starry Messenger.
Smith-Cameron won an Outer Critics Circle Award for Lend Me a Tenor. She won an Obie Award for the Off-Broadway Drama Department production As Bees in Honey Drown (1997), which also earned her a Drama Desk nomination.[10] Additional nominations include the Drama Desk for Sarah, Sarah and The Naked Truth and the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in the play for Our Country's Good.
Smith-Cameron is married to playwright/screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan. They have one daughter, Nellie.
They met when Lonergan saw Smith-Cameron in a play and asked if she would be interested in doing a workshop of one of his plays.
Filmography J. Smith-Cameron