Brian Michael Smith

Brian Michael Smith (born January 29, 1983) is an American actor and LGBT advocate.

He is known for playing Paul Strickland in 9-1-1: Lone Star.

Smith was raised on the east side of Ann Arbor, Michigan by his mother, Ingrid Smith, an event planner and Ford Motor Company employee, with the support of a close-knit family.

He and his mother spent his early years living with aunts, cousins, and a brother.

Although assigned female at birth, he identified and was perceived as male throughout his childhood.

He challenged pressures to conform to his assigned gender role through performance and athletics.

While attending Ann Arbor Pioneer High School, he played defensive end and fullback on the boys football team during the fall, and set records in shot put and pole vaulting on the girls track & field team in the spring.

On September 17, 1999, during a game at Traverse City, Smith became the first person assigned female at birth to score a varsity touchdown in the State of Michigan.

He began training under Terry Knickerbocker at the William Esper Studio in 2011.

While studying, he earned featured roles on a few TV shows and a Toyota commercial opposite Eli Manning.

He has also explored the stage, performing stand-up, sketch, and improv comedy as a member of numerous troupes including Gotham City Improv, as well as acting in off-Broadway and regional theater in a handful of plays, including Women Are Crazy Because Men Are A**Holes and Mitch Albom's Duck Hunter Shoots Angel.

In 2015, he earned his first speaking credit in Season 4 of HBO's Girls opposite Jemima Kirke and Adam Driver.

This followed with similar roles on TV shows including Blue Bloods, Person of Interest, and Law & Order: SVU.

In 2017, Smith was cast in the role of Officer Antoine "Toine" Wilkins on OWN's series Queen Sugar.

Toine is a trans man.

Executive-produced by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey, the Louisiana-set drama focuses on the lives and loves of the estranged Bordelon siblings.

The show is based on the novel Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile.

The role was one of Smith's first opportunities to play a transgender character and explore his own life experiences in his acting.

As he has put it:

"Toine and Ralph's relationship is much more reflective of the experiences I've had with long-time friends and I hadn't seen that on screen yet. I was excited at the thought of sharing this with people who may not know that they know trans people in their personal life."

Smith publicly revealed he was transgender in 2017.

In 2018, Ava DuVernay won a GLAAD Excellence in Media Award for her advocacy for inclusion of LGBT people in front of and behind the camera on her projects, particularly for creating Toine Wilkins and casting a transgender actor for the role.

In February 2018, he was a special guest and panelist at the University of Michigan's 4th Annual Trotter House Lecture Series, My Life, My Story!

His role as Toine Wilkins, a police officer, in Ava DuVernay's Queen Sugar, (OWN), launched him into a series of high-profile roles including political strategist Pierce Williams in Showtime's The L Word: Generation Q (2019) cast.

In 2019, Smith was cast Showtime's drama series The L Word: Generation Q a follow-up to the original hit series, The L Word starring Jennifer Beals, Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig.

Smith played "'Pierce Williams' a buttoned-up, fastidious, expert political strategist and a veteran of LA politics. Unlike his colleagues, Williams is not quick to share details about his personal life, choosing to put all his energy into winning campaigns."

Smith became the first black openly trans man in a series regular role on network television when he was cast as firefighter Paul Strickland in FOX's 9-1-1: Lone Star (2020).

Other appearances include NBC's Chicago P.D., HBO's Girls and Showtime's thriller Homeland.

Smith studied acting and video production at Kent State University.

Upon graduation, he began teaching drama and media literacy to teens until he moved to New York City to pursue a career in acting.

In 2020, Smith was cast in 9-1-1: Lone Star as Paul Strickland, a transgender male firefighter.

Through the role, Smith became the first openly black trans man cast as a series regular on broadcast TV.

In 2021, Smith's appearance and performance as Strickland was praised by People Magazine, making Smith the first trans man featured in People's "Sexiest Man Alive" list.

In 2022, Smith was featured again in People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" list.

Speaking on his second year of inclusion, Smith said, "My hope is that my visibility can encourage and empower others who want to be their full selves but are afraid or can't see a future for themselves, to take a step towards being who they are."

Upon graduating from Kent State, Michael returned to Michigan and began teaching and mentoring youth through filmmaking through the Gear Up Program at the University of Michigan.

In New York, he continued his media literacy and mentoring programs with Wingspan Arts, Maysles Documentary Center and the Tribeca Film Institute's Tribeca Teaches Program.

He discovered the importance of community and visibility while he worked with LGBT youth at the Manhattan LGBT Center

On NBC News, Smith said: "I worked with young people and I just saw how important it was for young LGBT people, no matter where they were in their experience, to see what is down the road for them."

Since Queen Sugar, Smith has used his visibility and platforms to advocate for better trans representation in television and film and to encourage LGBTQ youth to create their own media.