
Stacy
L.
Smith

Stacy
L.
Smith
Tabs
Stacy L. Smith is the foremost disrupter of inequality in the entertainment industry and a recipient of the 2025 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award. Smith is the founder of the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (AII), the leading global think tank studying issues of inequality in entertainment. Smith’s groundbreaking research examines gender, race/ethnicity, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities and mental health across film, TV and digital platforms and in the music industry. The Initiative also performs economic analyses to investigate the relationship between inclusion and financial performance. Smith’s work is covered in popular press outlets including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, CBS This Morning, and NPR.
She has authored more than 100 book chapters, articles, and reports, along with more than 75 studies at AII on various aspects of entertainment, including annual studies on top-grossing films and popular music. Smith speaks routinely on issues of inequality in the media. Her TED Talk has been viewed more than 1.1 million times, and she has spoken at the United Nations, the White House, Sundance Film Festival, and the Toronto Film Festival. She has also testified before the U.S. Congress on inequality in the entertainment industry.
Smith’s inclusion rider idea materialized with multiple co-authors and was shouted from the stage at the 2018 Academy Awards. Her 4% challenge for hiring women directors was embraced by Time’s Up and 120 actors, directors, producers, and executives took the pledge to work with and hire women helmers in 18 months. Smith advocates for Latino representation in film, working closely with Eva Longoria, and has done research on representation among critics with Brie Larson. In 2023, she launched the Proof of Concept Accelerator with Cate Blanchett and Coco Francini, supported by the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity.
Awards and honors
50 Agents of Change, The Hollywood Reporter (2019).
Women in Music List, Billboard (2018).
Mind the Gap Award, Mill Valley Film Festival (2018).
Trailblazer Award, Women in Hollywood (2017).
Most Influential Person in Los Angeles, L.A. Weekly (2015).
Studies
“Inclusion in the Director’s Chair: Analysis of Director Gender & Race/Ethnicity Across 1,300 Top Films from 2007 to 2019” (Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, 2020).
“Inequality in 1,300 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBTQ & Disability from 2007 to 2019” (Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, 2020).
“Inclusion in the Recording Studio? Gender and Race/Ethnicity of Artists, Songwriters & Producers across 800 Popular Songs from 2012–2019” (Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, 2020).