Shawnee Smith is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career at a young age, making her feature film debut at age 11 in Annie 1982. A few years later, she made her stage debut in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday 1984 and won a Drama-League Critics Award. In the late 1980s, she was cast in smaller roles before getting roles in The Blob 1988and Who's Harry Crumb1989.

She made guest appearances on Murder, She Wrote and The X-Files across the 1990s, before being cast in a main role of the sitcom Becker 1998–2004). She played Amanda Young in Saw 2004 and reprised her role in the sequels Saw II 2005, Saw II2006, Saw VI 2009 and Saw X 2023. She also had a supporting role in The Grudge 3 2009. Smith hosted season one of the VH1 acting competition Scream Queens 2008 and played Jennifer Goodson in Anger Management 2012–2014.

Early life

Smith was born on July 3, 1969, at Orangeburg Regional Hospital in Orangeburg, South Carolina. She is the second child of Patricia Ann née Smoak, an oncology nurse, and James H. Smith, a financial planner and former US Air Force pilot. When she was five months old, her family relocated from South Carolina to West Los Angeles, California. Her parents divorced when she was two years old and her mother remarried five years later when they moved to San Fernando Valley.

Career

Smith made her television debut in a McDonald's commercial at age eight. At age 11, she made her feature film debut in John Huston's 1982 adaptation of the Broadway musical Annie, as one of Annie Bennett Warbucks's fellow orphans. The next year, she sang on The Merv Griffin Show. At age 15, Smith won her first stage role in the Los Angeles play, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday where co-star Richard Dreyfuss noticed in rehearsals her potential and suggested she be given a leading part. She went on to win the Drama-League Critics Award for her performance.

In 1985, she had small parts in, Not My Kid, Cagney & Lacey and Iron Eagle 986. In 1987, Smith played a pregnant student Rhonda in Summer School.The following year, her first starring role came with the remake of The Blob In 1988, Smith starred in television film I Saw What You Did, a remake of the 1965 film of the same name.

Smith had a supporting role alongside John Candy and Annie Potts in the 1989 film Who's Harry Crumb?, where Smith plays a teen who helps Harry Crumb locate her kidnapped sister.That same year, she co-starred with Jennie Garth and Barbara Eden in the short-lived TV series Brand New Life.