‏Candace Smith‏

Candace Smith was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio where she began performing at a young age at the Dayton Playhouse. Throughout high school and college, she participated in Drama as well as athletics. While attending the University of Dayton on a full academic scholarship, Candace studied media and communications for a summer at the University of London, where her love for theatre grew on the West End. She returned from London and graduated from the University of Dayton with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a minor in Communications.Candace went on to attend Northwestern University School of Law. While studying in Chicago, Candace immersed herself in the experience by volunteering for an outreach program at the juvenile detention center and traveling to Cuba as a group leader for a research project. Upon graduating, Candace returned to Ohio to be close to her family. She was admitted to the Ohio Supreme Court and began practicing commercial real estate. While practicing, Candace won the prestigious title of Miss Ohio USA 2003. Once she concluded her duties as Miss Ohio USA 2003, she made the move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment full time as an actress, producer and model.Candace stars alongside Joe Anderson in the feature film My Father, Die (2016) written and directed by Sean Brosnan and produced by Pierce Brosnan, Orian Williams and Sanja Banic. Candace plays Nana, the heroine of this gritty action thriller set in the South. In 2013 Candace appeared in the independent film Gimme Shelter (2013) as Marie Abeanni, a social worker of African descent alongside Rosario Dawson and Vanessa Hudgens. In 2012 Candace had the opportunity to play a distraught mother opposite Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña in David Ayer's film End of Watch (2012), which debuted No. 1 opening weekend.Candace's lifelong passion for comedy led to her performing stand-up, studying at Upright Citizens Brigade and appearing in three of the comedy troupe, Broken Lizard's films; including her film debut as Naomi in Warner Brothers' Beerfest (2006), The Slammin' Salmon (2009) as Michael Clarke Duncan's sister and the The Babymakers (2012).In television, Candace has appeared on Bravo's The Millionaire Matchmaker (2008), TBS's Conan (2010), NBC's Heroes (2006) and Joey (2004), HBO's Entourage (2004) and Fox's Method & Red (2004). She has also appeared in numerous national print and television campaigns.As a producer, Candace had the opportunity to work with Nelson George on the VH1 documentary Finding the Funk. In 2014, she produced an unscripted television series, which premieres on WE TV in 2015. She is developing both unscripted and scripted projects.