Life & Work with Grady Smith of Los Angeles / OC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Grady Smith.

Grady, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was poor and orphaned at a young age – probably why I like horror movies so much. When you see the things I’ve seen and been through the things I’ve been through, horror feels the most “normal” compared to other genres. My childhood was filled with violence, danger and death. After being on my own as a teenager and getting myself through college, I moved to Southern California and began working as an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist. I got married, became a parent – began living the suburban dream I had only dreamt of being able to achieve as a child. My creativity had been stifled, however, as my life had been so focused on survival and achieving stability. I attended a tour of a filming location from the movie ‘Scream,’ of which I am a HUGE fan (those movies got me through a lot of trauma), and I made friends with the fellow fans who were putting on the tours. This led to me becoming involved with the tours and events and suddenly the horror community began finding me. Suddenly I was slowly becoming a content creator part time and then that led to amazing opportunities including partnering with Paramount for the marketing of ‘Scream 7’ and getting to attend the premiere. My journey with content creation is still just beginning, but it’s already allowed me to pay back the genre that kept me alive in my youth and build community with others who love the spooky side of things just as much as I do.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Struggle is basically my middle name. As a child i came from nothing and somehow still managed to lose everything. I watched my mother try and murder my father in front of me, I was in car accidents, often had little to eat and eventually (at different times) watched each of my parents die. After orphaned, I lived with estranged family who ran their house with a cult mentality – super religious and cut me off from the world, which I spent most of my high school career living in. I eventually moved in with my high school chemistry teacher and his wife during my senior year where I was able to stay until heading to college – luckily, for some reason through it all, I was very good in school which became my ticket to freedom.
College was still tough – I had no money and no support system, but was able to finally experience the world and grow and plan for stability and safety.
Since being in my current phase in life, time is the biggest challenge. Time to manage my job, time to be a parent, time to be a husband and time to be a content creator. Balance is my biggest hurdle right now and one I don’t think I’ve mastered quite yet.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I live kind of a double life. Therapist by day – content creator by night. My day job allows me to help others with backgrounds like mine find their footing and that’s great.

But my journey as a content creator is what is truly fueling me and my spirit right now. I mainly cover things related to the horror community and genre of film. I think my status as not only a therapist, but also an LGBT parent and my overall unique background give me a unique connection and perspective when discussing horror and engaging with the community.

What makes me the most proud, though, is even though I still have so long to go before I feel like my journey as a creator is done, I’ve gotten as far as I have by being a genuine person. If I actually beat down doors and used the connections and network I’ve built, I’d probably be a much higher level of a creator, but community is so important to me. If I make it as a content creator, I want it to be because my community wanted me to because they saw me rooting for them first as a true friend and ally.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
For the most part, I avoid unnecessary risk, which sometimes I think holds me back. That being said, I think taking some risk is essential for growth. I’m terrified when I’m networking with people I think are higher level than me or when I’m doing content for an opportunity that I haven’t done before, but I’m always glad that I faced the fear and conquered it and I always become stronger and more well-rounded as a result. So yes, I avoid unnecessary risk if I can, but there’s definitely some necessary risk that I actually seek out.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/planet_grady

Image Credits
Frazer Harrison
Maya Dehlin Spach
Grady Smith