Arthur Smith

Since the start of his career, Arthur Smith has earned a sterling reputation as one of the good guys in the business while redefining the boundaries of non-fiction storytelling with heart. An unprecedented rise through the ranks of CBC culminated in Smith becoming, at 28, the youngest-ever head of CBC Sports where he oversaw the entire division including thousands of hours of television, 3 Olympic Games, and producing countless memorable broadcasting moments.  He was recruited to LA by TV legend Dick Clark where he produced a wide variety of entertainment programming including major award shows. He then returned to network sports to join the nascent Fox Sports where he headed up programming and production, executive producing countless major sporting events and launching 22 sports networks.

On the heels of a successful run with Fox Sports Net, Smith went out on his own, launching A. Smith & Co. Productions in 2000. During an enviable, 25 year (and counting) run, he has created, produced some of the longest-running, culture-defining television series in history. “Hell’s Kitchen” on FOX was the first and remains the longest-running primetime food competition on television, spawning an entire sub-genre of modern TV. Seven-time Emmy Award nominee “American Ninja Warrior” on NBC  made the previously unheard of jump from cable to network primetime, and created a worldwide phenomenon.Complementing mega-titles like “Hell’s Kitchen” and “American Ninja Warrior,” Smith’s prodigious body of work includes more than 200 shows for over 50 networks, among them: “Kitchen Nightmares,”“The Floor is Lava,”“Welcome to Plathville,”  “The Titan Games With Dwayne Johnson,” “NFL’s Pro Bowl Games.” “Trading Spaces,” “Unsung,” “American Gangster” “Pros vs. Joes,”“Mental Samurai,” “American Ninja Warrior Junior,” “UFC Countdown","I Survived a Japanese Game Show,”“The Swan,” and “Paradise Hotel,”  to name just a few.

Smith was named Broadcasting & Cable’s “Producer of the Year” in 2020, inducted into the Realscreen Awards Hall of Fame in 2021, honored as one of Variety’s “Titans of Unscripted TV” in 2022, released his memoir, REACH: Hard Lessons and Learned Truths from a Lifetime in Television in 2023, unveiled the Arthur Smith Virtual Production Studio at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2024, and in 2025 was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame.  In addition to his role as Chairman and CEO of A. Smith & Co., Smith also serves as Chairman of Tinopolis Group U.S., and oversees the unscripted powerhouse Magical Elves, the Emmy Award®-winning producer of   “Top Chef,” “Nailed It!,” “Sugar Rush” and more.