Smith and Pyle

During a recent road trip to the Coachella Music Festival, Shawnee Smith and close friend Missy Pyle, both actresses who met while filming a Warner Bros./ABC comedy pilot entitled Traveling In Packs (from Will and Grace writer Jhoni Marchinko), began joking about forming their own band. It so happens that fronting a band was one of Pyle’s lifelong fantasies, and by the end of the trip Pyle had badgered Smith into actually doing it. But their partnership only started there. Smith and Pyle have also founded their own production company and record label, Urban Prairie, as well as a web site entitled Our Urban Prairie.com in order to distribute their music the way they feel it should be done. The album that resulted from that fateful trip to Coachella, a splash of roots-oriented country rock called It’s Okay to Be Happy, was recorded in Joshua Tree, California at Rancho de la Luna and was produced by founding member of Masters of Reality Chris Goss, who is widely credited as the godfather of desert rock. Goss has also helmed albums by Queens of the Stone Age, The Cult, Screaming Trees, The Duke Spirit, Stone Temple Pilots and Scott Weiland. The producer also plays guitar and bass in the Smith and Pyle band and is preparing a new Masters of Reality album on which Smith and Pyle have been invited to appear.

About Shawnee Smith:
Shawnee Smith was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and at the age of eight moved to Van Nuys, California where she landed her first paying gig in a McDonald’s commercial. A member of the Screen Actors Guild at age nine, she made many more commercials before transitioning to the big screen as one of the dancing orphans in John Huston’s film version of the Broadway smash Annie. An appearance at age 15 on stage in a play starring Richard Dreyfuss stoked her love for the stage, where she eventually won the Dramalogue Critics Award for her performance in the original stage production of To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, the youngest actor up to that time to receive such an honor.

Smith has appeared in such television shows as Cagney and Lacey, All is Forgiven, Murder, She Wrote, The X-Files and 129 episodes as a regular cast member of the hit series Becker starring Ted Danson. Her feature film work, which began with Annie, includes Iron Eagle, Summer School, The Blob (with Entourage’s Kevin Dillon), Who’s Harry Crumb? starring John Candy, Desperate Hours directed by Michael Cimino, The Stand, Leaving Las Vegas, Armageddon, A Slipping-Down Life, Breakfast of Champions, The Island and the first four of the groundbreaking Saw horror series. She can soon be seen in the upcoming thriller Slaughter as well as Saw V.

In addition to being hard at work on her first screenplay, Smith is a gifted musician, a dedicated mother of two, and will soon be embarking on a series of projects with actress Missy Pyle. The two close friends have formed a business partnership, including a production company, a nascent record label, and an accompanying web site, and have just finished recording their first album together as Smith and Pyle.

About Missi Pyle:
Born in Texas and raised in Tennessee, Missi Pyle attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and moved to New York after her graduation to pursue a career in theater. While there, Pyle continued working in Off-Broadway theater, where she performed opposite John Malkovich in Steppenwolf Theater Company’s The Libertine. She soon made her film debut opposite Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets and moved on to land major roles in television and feature films.

Pyle’s film credits include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, 50 First Dates, Big Fish, Bringing Down the House, Soul Plane, Just My Luck, Feast of Love, and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Pyle gained attention for her hilarious portrayal of the alien Laliari in Galaxy Quest with Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Tony Shalhoub. Pyle’s resume also includes a number of notable television appearances, including Heroes, The Sarah Silverman Show, Boston Legal, My Name is Earl, Two and a Half Men, The Wedding Bells, Friends and Ally McBeal.

Pyle will next be seen in the upcoming films Spring Breakdown with Amy Poehler, Amber Tamblyn, and Rachel Dratch, Harold and Kumar 2 with John Cho and Rob Corrdry, Patriotville, again with Rob Corrdry and Justino Long, Visioneers with Judy Greer, James LeGros, and Zach Galifianakis, and Pretty Ugly People with Josh Hopkins and Melissa McCarthy.

Pyle is gearing up to star in the independent feature Wendy the Soccer Mom, in which she will play both a soccer mom and a male Italian soccer star. She currently resides in Los Angeles, has been training for her 6th marathon, sings and plays guitar with Shawnee Smith in their band Smith and Pyle, volunteers through Planned Parenthood, and has two dogs, J.J. and Ellie.
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During a recent road trip to the Coachella Music Festival, Shawnee Smith and close friend Missy Pyle, both actresses who met while filming a Warner Bros./ABC comedy pilot entitled Traveling In Packs (from Will and Grace writer Jhoni Marchinko), began joking about forming their own band. It so happens that fronting a band was one of Pyle’s lifelong fantasies, and by the end of the trip Pyle had badgered Smith into actually doing it. But their partnership only started there. Smith and Pyle have... (read more)