Physical Production
Director of Photography
Passionate about filmmaking and dedicated to the art of storytelling, Troy Smith has devoted his life to cinematography. After finishing film school at NYU, Troy returned to his hometown of Seattle. Still in his 20s, he started his DP career with a bang, shooting iconic music videos that helped define the Grunge era of music. Moving to LA he quickly made a name for himself in the high-end music video world, lensing more than 400 over the course of his career. With his cinematography featured in the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame and more than 2 billion (and counting) views on the internet, his work has made a lasting impact around the globe.
He soon added commercials (Mattel, Disney, Sunny D, Bridgestone, Sony, et al.) and feature films to his repertoire. He DPed the films Shiloh Season (Ann Dowd, Scott Wilson), Blast (Ed Lauter, Denis Arnet), Ascension Day (Peter Dinklage, Anthony Mackie), Role of a Lifetime (Scott Bakula, Kathryn Morris), and MegaPython Vs. Gatoriod (Tiffany, Debbie Gibson).
In television Troy has recently wrapped Season 2 of “Kenan” (Kenan Thompson, Don Johnson) for NBC Universal. Before that he shot Season 3 of Liza on Demand (Liza Koshy, Kimiko Glenn), one of YouTube Premium’s highest rated scripted shows. That came on the heels of wrapping his second season of the standout comedy, Mixed-ish (Mark Paul Gosselaar, Tika Sumpter) for ABC. He served as DP for BBC’s Top Gear America (William Fichtner), shooting automotive short films across North America.
He shot the recently completed the feature documentary, “I Stand Alone: The Sully Erna Story” set for release on many streaming platforms including Amazon and Apple TV in early 2024.
For more than 25 years Troy has continued striving to advance his craft, deepening his passion for cinema with each and every opportunity that presents itself.