Kevin Smith WIki: Filmmaker, Net Worth, 'Clerks' & Facts To Know

Kevin Smith is an American filmmaker, author, comic book writer, actor, and podcaster. He is famous for movies and television series like Clerks, Tusk, Mallrats, Comic Book Men, and Dogma. His career as a filmmaker, writer, actor, and author has contributed to his net worth. Smith is against any form of abuse and this is evident through his support for abuse victims like his daughter Hailey Smith and his friend Stan Lee.

Kevin Smith was born on 2 August 1970 in Red Bank, New Jersey. His birth name is Kevin Patrick Smith. Smith's parents are Donald E. Smith and Grace Smith. His father was a postal worker and his mother was a homemaker. Smith has two older siblings, a brother called Donald Smith Jr., and a sister called Virginia Smith. He grew up in a Catholic family in a town called Highlands. Smith spent most of his time hanging out at his father's workplace. He attended Henry Hudson Regional High School. Smith did very well at school and he loved to record the basketball games of the school and he made sketch comedy skits that were similar to Saturday Night Live. Smith was overweight and he loved doing comics as a way of making friends. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at The New School, which was in New York but he never managed to graduate.

Kevin Smith was inspired to become a filmmaker after he watched a movie called Slacker on his 21st birthday. The movie made him to aspire to make movies of his own and film them in his own town. He enrolled at Vancouver Film school where he attended for four months and later abandoned the course halfway so that he could save up to make his first movie. Smith went back to New Jersey and got a job at a convenience store called Leonardo so that he could start saving for his first movie called Clerks. He raised $27,575 that was required to make his first movie. The major parts of the movie Clerks were played by Smith's friends and acquaintances. In 1994, Clerks was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival and it later won a Filmmaker's Trophy. In the same year, Clerks was screened at Cannes International Film Festival. This made it win the Prix de la Jeunesse and International Critics' Week prize. Clerks managed to make $3.1 million. Smith's second movie was Mallrats, which was Jason Lee's first time to have a leading role. Mallrats was not as successful as his first movie. It made $2.2 million when it was released at the box office. However, Mallrats was a hit at the home video market. Kevin Smith wrote and directed Mallrats and Sean Daniel, James Jacks, and Scott Mossier directed it. In 1997, Smith's breakthrough was in a movie called Chasing Amy. The movie had some actors from Mallrats appear on it like Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, and Joey Lauren Adams. The movie made $12 million at the box office and it won two Independent Spirit Awards for supporting actor for Lee and screenplay. Smith's fourth movie was called Dogma. The religious-themed comedy Dogma found itself in a controversy. Dogma had all-star casts like Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Rock, Alan Rickman, George Carlin, Salma Hayek, Linda Fiorentino, and Jason Lee. Dogma made $30 million at the box office after its release. Smith made another movie called Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. The movie was a hit and it made $30 million at the box office. Jersey Girl was another movie by Kevin Smith and it starred actors like Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, Raquel Castro, and George Carlin. Despite having all-star actors, the movie did poorly at the box office because it had been budgeted at $35 million and it only made $36 million. In 2006, Smith made Clerks II, which was a sequel for Clerks. The film had positive reviews and it made $25 million at the box office. It starred actors like Jason Mewes, Jeff Anderson, Rosario Dawson, and Brian O'Halloran among others. In 2008, he made another movie called Zack and Miri Make a Porno. The movie was an epic fail and it got very bad reviews. It even made his relationship with Harvey Weinstein who is a producer to become strained. In 2009, Smith directed a movie called Cop Out. This is the first movie that he has directed and not written. The main stars of the movie were Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. The movie was a hit despite the bad blood between Smith and Bruce Willis. In 2010, Smith made a horror movie that was financed independently called Red State. The movie starred actors like John Goodman, Melissa Leo, and Michael Parks. The movie was a disappointment at the box office and it only made $1,104,682. In 2012, Smith made an American reality television series called Comic Book Men. Comic Book Men was inspired by his comic book shop called Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. Comic Book Men has seven seasons with 94 episodes. Comic Book Men airs on AMC network. After the failure of Red State, he announced that he would stop directing and that his last movie to direct would be Clerks III. However, in 2013, Smith announced that he would only make movies that were originally his. In the same year, he made a horror movie called Tusk. The movie Tusk had been inspired by a story that Smith and Scott Mosier had read. The filming of Tusk began on November 4 and ended on 22 November. Tusk was later released in 2014. In 2014, Smith made a movie called Yoga Hosers that starred his daughter Harley Smith and Lily-Rose Depp. The movie was a spin-off for the movie Tusk. In 2015, Smith announced that Mallrats 2 would be his next movie and not Clerks III. However, the filming of Mallrats 2 has not yet started and the project might fall out like Clerks III. In 2017, he started on another horror movie called Killroy was Here. This is the first movie that he has co-written with someone and he will share credits. Smith's career as a filmmaker has contributed to his net worth.

In 1996, Kevin Smith was hired to write a script for Superman. However, his script was never used because Tim Burton was hired as director and he brought his own people including a scriptwriter. In 1997, he rewrote a script for the movie Overnight Delivery, which was a blockbuster teen movie. Smith was never given any credit for the movie. In 2004, he wrote a screenplay for a movie called The Green Hornet. However, the project for the movie failed and Smith's screenplay was turned into a comic book miniseries for The Green Hornet.

In 1996, Kevin Smith was hired to write a script for Superman. However, his script was never used because Tim Burton was hired as director and he brought his own people including a scriptwriter. In 1997, he rewrote a script for the movie Overnight Delivery, which was a blockbuster teen movie. Smith was never given any credit for the movie. In 2004, he wrote a screenplay for a movie called The Green Hornet. However, the project for the movie failed and Smith's screenplay was turned into a comic book miniseries for The Green Hornet.

In 2005, Miramax Books published Kevin Smith’s first book called Silent Bob Speaks. The book mostly talked about his personal life, pop culture, and the movie business. Smith's second book was called My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith, which was published by Titan books. The book was made up of a collection of his published essays from his time blog. The book became number 32 on The New York Times Bestsellers List. In 2009, Smith's third book called Shooting the Shit with Kevin Smith: The Best of the SModcast was released. Smith has been a comic fan for a long time and he has written comic books of his own. He has written comic books like Oni Double Feature No. 1 and Oni Double Feature No. 12. Smith has also written a series of Clerks comics like Clerks: The Comic Book, Clerks: Holiday Special, and Clerks: The Lost Scene. Smith wrote a miniseries called Chasing Dogma that was inspired by the movies Chasing Amy and Dogma. He wrote Guardian Devil that led to the making of Daredevil by Marvel Comics, which was a hit series. Smith also wrote Green Arrow for DC Comics. He wrote two more miniseries for Marvel namely Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target and Spiderman/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do. The two miniseries were released in 2002. Smith wrote a series called Batman: Cacophony, which aired from November 2008 to January 2009. In 2010, he wrote a Batman miniseries called The Widening Gyre. Still, in the same year, Smith published a Green Hornet story that he wrote for Dynamite Entertainment. In 2011, Dynamite Entertainment released a movie based on his story The Bionic Man. In 2014, Smith wrote a story on Batman and Green Hornet called Batman '66 Meets the Green Hornet. His career as an author has contributed to his net worth.

Kevin Smith is famous as an actor for his appearance in movies and series like Clerks, Chasing Amy, Mallrats, Comic Book Men, Dogma, Clerks II, and Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back. He also had a cameo appearance in the movie Scream 3. Smith appeared in an MTVU show called Sucks Less With Kevin Smith, which suggests ideas to college students on what to do over the weekend. He has also appeared in View ASKew movies like Vulgar, Big Helium Dog, and Drawing Flies. Smith has appeared in shows like Now You Know and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He has had a cameo role on Daredevil and has appeared on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Smith has also appeared in Catch and Release, Live Free or Die Hard, Bottoms Up, Joey, Law and Order, Duck Dodgers, Yes Dear, and Veronica Mars. He has appeared in five documentaries namely An Evening with Kevin Smith, An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Even Harder, Sold Out: A Threevening with Kevin Smith, Kevin Smith: Too Fat for 40 and Kevin Smith: Burn in Hell. Smith has appeared as himself in video games like Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Zombies. He has appeared in a late night talk show called Geeking Out and in an animated movie called Teen Titans: The Judas Contract.

Kevin Smith has a website called The View Askewniverse, which he opened in 1995. He has an online blog called My Boring Ass Life that led to a book with a similar name to be published. In 2007, Smith together with Scott Mosier started a comedy podcast called SModcast. In 2010, the podcast became a network called SModcast podcast network. In 2011, the network opened its digital radio station called SModcast Internet Radio. In 2012, it opened an internet television channel called SModCo Internet Television. In 2015, Smith started posting on YouTube his series called Fatman on Batman. In late 2015, Smith together with Jason Mewes started a web series called What's in the Box?, which aired on Screen Junkies website.

Kevin Smith owns a bookstore called Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash located in Red Bank, New Jersey. He bought the store in 1997 using the money he got from his first movie as a filmmaker. Smith opened a second Secret Stash store in Westwood section of Los Angeles in 2004. Walt Flanagan manages his store in New Jersey while Bryan Johnson manages the one in Los Angeles. In 2009, Smith's store in Los Angeles closed down leaving the one in New Jersey in operation.

Kevin Smith dated Joey Lauren Adams for some time. He even declared his intentions to marry her in Time magazine. However, the two started growing apart and they even had an argument when Chasing Amy was being filmed. The two later broke up in 1997. Smith later met his current wife Jennifer Schwalbach Smith when she interviewed him for USA Today. They dated for a while and they got married on 25 April 1999 at Skywalker ranch. On 26 June 1999, their daughter Harley Quinn Smith was born. Smith is a hockey fan and he supports New Jersey Devils and the Edmonton Oilers.

Kevin Smith started smoking when he was filming his first movie called Clerks. In 2008, he decided to stop smoking and instead switched to smoking cannabis. Ever since he was small, Smith has had weight issues. He lost 50 pounds after he met his wife. In 2008, Smith was overweight and his weight was over 400 pounds. He decided to lose his weight by dieting and his weight became 210 pounds. On 25 February 2018, Smith suffered a heart attack after doing a stand-up comedy show at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California. The heart attack was caused by a total blockage of the left anterior descending artery. He was taken for surgery at Glendale Adventist Medical Center where he later recovered. Smith has now become a vegetarian because of the incident.

Kevin Smith has recently been talking about abuse and giving support to victims of abuse. He has supported people like Stan Lee. A report recently came out, which suggested that Stan Lee was a victim of elderly abuse. A Hollywood reporter alleged that Stan Lee has been in disagreements with people close to him including his daughter about his estates and finances. It is alleged that the disagreements have led to Stan Lee being a victim of abuse. Smith went to Twitter where he offered Stan Lee to go stay with him or to let his fans buy him a house to get away from the abuse. Another person Smith has spoken about regarding abuse is his daughter Harley. His daughter was a recent victim of abuse from an online troll. The troll had commented on Harley's recent photo she had posted and said that she was ugly. Smith and his daughter quickly responded to the troll and managed to shut down the abuse.

Kevin Smith has an estimated net worth of $25 million. He has accumulated his net worth through his career as an actor, filmmaker, author, and writer. Smith's net worth has also been due to the success of movies and series like Clerks, Dogma, Tusk, Comic Book Men, and Mallrats. He also owns a podcast network company and a comic book store, which contribute to his net worth. Kevin Smith is a filmmaker who has managed to rise in Hollywood through his work in the comedy industry. He is an inspiration to many who want to follow his example. Despite having some setbacks and failures in his career, Smith has managed to endure all that and he looks ahead with a smile on his face. He encourages everyone to live a happy life despite the problems they have. Just wait and see what comedy movie or series Smith comes up with next.