Jean Isabel Smith (born September 7, 1957), credited professionally as J. Smith-Cameron, is an American actress. She gained prominence for her roles in the television series Rectify (2013–2016) and Succession (2018–2023), the latter of which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

She spent a majority of her career in theatre, making her Broadway debut in the 1982 Beth Henley play Crimes of the Heart. She went on to receive a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play nomination for the Timberlake Wertenbaker play Our Country's Good (1989). She was also nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for Seán O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock (2014).

For her role in the film Nancy (2018), she was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. Her other notable films include 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Sabrina (1995), In & Out (1997), You Can Count on Me (2000), Margaret (2011), and Christine (2016). She also appeared in the television series True Blood (2010–2011), Divorce (2016–2018), Search Party (2017–2020), and Fleishman Is in Trouble (2022).

Smith was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of architect Richard Sharp Smith and granddaughter of architect Richard Sharp Smith.^[1] She was raised in Greenville, South Carolina.

She attended Florida State University for one year and was enrolled in its School of Theatre, where she met film director Victor Nuñez, who cast her as a lead in his film Gal Young 'Un (1979).^[2] She also studied acting at HB Studio^[3] in New York City.

She began being credited as "J. Smith" in college out of concern that her first name, Jeannie, was too girlish.^[4] She added a family name, Cameron, when the Actors' Equity Association told her there was already a J. Smith, and there was a rule that two actors could not have the same professional name.^[5]

She made her Broadway debut in August 1982, replacing Mia Dillon as Babe Botrelle in Crimes of the Heart.^[6][7][8] She appeared as Maggie in the original Broadway cast of Lend Me a Tenor in 1989.^[9] The cast of that play won an Outer Critics Circle Award, Special Awards.^[10] She appeared in the Broadway production of Our Country's Good in 1991, where she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.^[11][12]

Her other Broadway credits include Night Must Fall (1999),^[13] Tartuffe (2002),^[14] and After the Night and the Music (2005).^[15]

She has appeared in many Off-Broadway plays, including at the Public Theater, the Second Stage Theatre and Playwrights Horizons.^[16] She appeared in the Paul Rudnick play The Naked Truth Off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre in 1994,^[17] for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination.^[18]

She won an Obie Award for the Off-Broadway Drama Department production As Bees in Honey Drown (1997), which also earned her a Drama Desk nomination^[19] and Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding Actress In A Play.^[20] She was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Sarah, Sarah (2004).^[21]

From November 1999 through April 2000, she appeared as Clare in Fuddy Meers at New York City Center, Stage II, for which she was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award as Outstanding Actress in a Play.^[22] In March through June 2004, she appeared in the Manhattan Theatre Club Off-Broadway production of Sarah, Sarah.^[23] In November through December 2009, she appeared Off-Broadway at the Acorn Theatre in her husband Kenneth Lonergan's play The Starry Messenger.^[7] From October 2013 to December 2013, she starred in the Off-Broadway Irish Repertory Theater production of Juno and the Paycock as Juno Boyle. The New York Times' theatre critic Charles Isherwood wrote: "In one of the finest performances of her distinguished career on the New York stage, Ms. Smith-Cameron imbues her Juno with a steely pragmatism, but more important an emotional pliancy that makes her more prepared than the rest of her clan to beat back the onslaughts of ill fortune that beset them."^[24]

Smith-Cameron later transitioned to more film and television roles to focus on her family.^[25] She portrayed seven different characters in all three primary shows of the Law & Order franchise. She played Janet Talbot, the mother of a death row inmate, in Sundance TV's Rectify for four seasons.^[25] She played lawyer Gerri Kellman, a role originally written for a man, on the HBO series Succession (2018–2023).^[26] The role earned her nominations for two Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.^[27] In 2023 she acted in a revival of the play Love Letters opposite Victor Garber at the Irish Repertory Theatre. She acted in a limited engagement from September 19 to 24.^[28]

Smith-Cameron is married to playwright, screenwriter, and film director Kenneth Lonergan. They have one daughter, Nellie.^[4][5]