With a career that reaches from the Broadway Stage to the Hollywood Soundstage, singer/actor Carly Thomas Smith has entertained audiences around the world with her powerhouse vocals and emotional storytelling.
“How does that big voice come out of that little body?” is a question Carly has heard since her first high school performance. “To this day, I still get some version of that question almost every time I sing!” Honing her skills as a teenager surrounded by the “Minneapolis Sound,” she quickly found a style that was all her own, steeped in Jazz musicality, R&B soul, Pop accessibility, and tied together with the storytelling of Musical Theater. Because of this unique versatility as a vocalist and actress, she’s performed in almost every facet of the entertainment industry.
Carly’s breakthrough gig came shortly after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in New York, when she was cast in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning Broadway musical RENT. She’s racked up some pretty impressive Theater credits since then. In Las Vegas, Carly was handpicked by Queen’s Brian May & producer Robert De Niro for the role of “Oz” in We Will Rock You, and later went back to play “Lorraine” in the Tony Award winning musical Jersey Boys. Carly’s roof raising performance of “Pearl’s a Singer” in the Pasadena Playhouse’s production of Smokey Joe’s Café, inspired the show’s legendary composer, Mike Stoller, to say she was his “favorite Pearl.” Most recently, she returned to the theatre to play “Gertrude” in the musical version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Los Angeles.
In the Music Industry, Ms. Thomas Smith is an in-demand vocalist, able to sing both lead and background vocals across all styles. Starting out in the jazz clubs of Minneapolis, she made her New York City debut at Birdland with her quartet. Since then, she’s fronted countless bands & orchestras, including The Sydney Symphony Orchestra at Sydney Opera House, The Perth Symphony Orchestra, The Richmond Symphony Orchestra and The Columbus Jazz Orchestra. As a background vocalist, she’s sung with a wide range of recording artists, such as Taylor Swift, Patti Austin, Ali Woodsen (The Temptations), Lee Ritenour, Dave & Don Grusin, and Joe Walsh & Don Felder of The Eagles. Working with some of the best in the business, her singing television appearances include Don Grusin: The Hang, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with David Letterman, Ellen, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The View, The Tony Awards, The VMAs, & The American Music Awards.
Carly also has a solid resume of acting performances on screen, with appearances on the hit TV shows Curb Your Enthusiasm, Revenge, Two & A Half Men, Desperate Housewives, Friends, Star Trek: Enterprise, and in Independent Films and Web-Series such as Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, After School, A Detective Story, Front Seat Chronicles and various commercials.
When she’s not on stage in sequins, lashes, or character, Carly stays busy as an ASCAP songwriter, voice teacher, mother, wife, Yoga enthusiast and taco lover.