Tedd Smith was born in Brooklyn, New York. But he was not there for long. At age three, he appeared in the
“Peanut Gallery” on The Howdy Doody Show the same day his family moved away. He next found himself
living amongst the ducks on Long Island. When he was fourteen, his father, an NBC executive, took several
overseas postings and moved his family to West Africa and Saudi Arabia.

These were Smith’s high school years and they found him for most of that time as a student at a Swiss boarding
school. It was his experiences there that he turned into his first novel, Class of ’69.

While away in Switzerland, there was a coup d’état in Nigeria where his parents lived. Their chilling account of
the night the military swept through Lagos murdering the prime minister and several other government officials gave rise to Smith’s compilation of three one-act plays, Talking Drum.

Upon returning to the States, he attended Catholic University in Washington, D.C. where he studied drama.
Years later he wrote the unproduced screenplay The Benefit which is a retelling of the play The Visit by
Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The screenplay’s drama department setting is informed by his years at Catholic
University.

Following college, Smith took off for the bright lights and big city to pursue his life-long dream of becoming an
actor. One day while sitting at his bank teller window in midtown Manhattan waiting for Broadway to call, one
of his regular customers walked up. The guy worked for the Scott Meredith Talent Agency across Third
Avenue.

“I’m glad to be able to get out of the office this morning. All hell’s breaking loose over there,” the guy told
Tedd as he tossed the deposit on the counter.
“What’s going on?” Tedd asked.
“Norman Mailer’s locked up with Scott in his office and there’s a lot of yelling coming out of it.”
“What’s that about?”
“Didn’t you hear? Jack Henry Abbott, that jailhouse author Mailer brought to town a couple of days ago
murdered a waiter last night downtown.”

This became the inspiration for Smith’s play Perpetrator which enjoyed a limited New York City run.

When not writing, Smith likes puttering in the kitchen. In 2011, he entered a recipe that he had come up with for
Asian Barbecued Skirt Steak in the National Beef Cook-Off contest. He was surprised and pleased to accept the
American National CattleWomen naming him a contest finalist. He was also pleased to accept the $3,000 cash
prize.

Smith continues to let life inspire his creative pursuits with his latest novel, Fatal in the Dunes: Fundraising in
the Hamptons Can Be Murder. It is as much a crime novel as it is a distillation of his nearly thirty years of
working in the not-for-profit event business.