Gather round and hear the tale of Maggie Lyle Smith
Maggie Lyle Smith is a comedy writer and actor (5’5”, willing to shave facial hair) based in the USA. Born on a Navy base in northern Washington, she spent her childhood moving around the world with her parents and two little brothers, going wherever her Dad was stationed. Bouncing between the west coast, east coast, Europe, and the Middle-East, Maggie learned at a young age that travel is awesome and that no matter where you are in the world, people are mostly the same–hungry and bad at driving.
Almost every year, she would build a completely new life, with new friends, and a new environment. This childhood of repeatedly rebuilding herself over and over again might have something to do with her passion for acting and storytelling. However, her whirlwind childhood came to an abrupt halt in 2002 when all military dependents were ordered to immediately evacuate from the country of Bahrain, which–what a coincidence–is where Maggie lived. Maggie’s mom had a week to find them a new place to live. She chose Wisconsin where they lived in an empty duplex without their Dad for a full year.
And then…Maggie had a shockingly normal high school experience. She began acting in earnest as well as competing in musical theater vocal competitions. For years, performing remained her one true passion until one evening, watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer on a portable DVD player inches from her face, she had an epiphany–that it was somebody’s job to WRITE television. In that moment she knew something: she was no longer going to be an actor. She was going to be a writer-actor.
After a confused four years at Northwestern University where she experimented with depression (just a phase) and queerness (not a phase), she found her people at the famous Second City theater in Chicago. There she discovered the marriage of her passions, writing and acting, in the form of improvisation. Honing her comedy skills, she worked at Second City as a cast member and teacher there for many years, leading to her first agent and her first writing job as a contributor for The Onion. It also led to an ill-fated job as a cruise ship performer, where she discovered on the second day that she suffers from seasickness.
Since then, she has moved to LA where she has written several acclaimed comedy TV pilots, including a sci-fi comedy that takes place inside a woman’s nightmares, a period comedy called That 1770s Show, and a semi-autobiographical showbiz comedy based on her time working at The Second City. Her animated YA adventure pilot Alfie placed in the LA International Screenwriting Awards.
Always drawing from her wayfaring childhood, she uses her writing as another means of exploration, whether it’s building fantastical new worlds or satirizing the one we live in. Currently, she is working on a movie about extreme birders, and in her spare time, she’s probably singing or taking swordfighting classes.
