Jim Field Smith

British writer, director and actor Jim Field Smith established himself as a sketch comedy and radio performer shortly after graduating the University of Birmingham in 2001. He was a member of the successful sketch comedy troupe Dutch Elm Conservatoire, which appeared at the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Smith co-wrote the BBC Radio comedy series "Deep Trouble," on which he played a stealth nuclear submarine captain. He has also directed several successful television commercials for his production company, Idiotlamp, which he co-founded with writer/producer George Kay. He made several well-received short comic films before making his feature film directorial debut with the nerd-dates-beauty comedy "She's Out of My League," starring Judd Apatow regular Jay Baruchel. His second feature, the satire "Butter," involves a politically fraught butter-sculpting competition. Jason Micallef's script for the project appeared on the "Black List" of outstanding unproduced screenplays, as chosen by film executives. The film, starring Jennifer Garner, Ty Burrell, and Hugh Jackman, was shown at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. Smith also directed all nine episodes of the second series of the BBC/Showtime sitcom, "Episodes," starring Matt LeBlanc as himself, alongside Stephen Mangan and Tasmin Greig as married comedy writers, in a parody of contemporary Hollywood television production. He is active on Twitter, and posts details about his professional life on his blog at jimfieldsmith.com.