Renée Felice Smith (born January 16, 1985)[1] is an American actress. She is known for portraying Nell Jones on NCIS: Los Angeles, since joining the series in 2010 and played the character until 2019 when she left the show after season 11 but did appear as a guest in the season 12 premiere.
While at NYU, she co-created the student dance troupe, Pulse Dance Project.
Career
Smith's first acting job was a national television commercial for Danoneyogurt in 1991 at age six.[4]
Smith started off in theatre, having made her debut in Second Stage's Wildflower.[5] She was cast for a sitcom on The CW directed by Amy Sherman-Palladino, tentatively titled Wyoming, but only a pilot was produced since the project was not picked up by the network. The pilot movie is called The Wyoming Story.[6]
In 2010, Smith was cast to appear as Nell Jones on NCIS: Los Angeles. Initially planned to be only a recurring character, Smith's role was expanded to main cast after she impressed the producers with her acting.[7] Following the show's twelfth season, she left the show.[8] Smith reprised the role of Nell as a guest star in the series finale that aired in May 2023.[9]
In 2011, Smith appeared as a supporting character, Missy, in Detachment.[5] A year later she began co-creating with her partner Christopher Gabriel a children's book series based on her French bulldog, Hugo.[3]
In April 2014, Smith played the role of Frankie in Code Academy, a short sci-fi production in which young men and women are kept apart until a certain age[10] and in April 2015, she starred in the short film Baby, which she also produced and which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival.[citation needed]
Smith and her partner Christopher Gabriel co-directed their first feature film, The Relationtrip in 2017, which premiered at SXSW in March 2017.[11] In March 2021, Smith and Gabriel released their first picture book entitled, "Hugo and the Impossible Thing".[12]
.jpg)
