JB Smoove Signs Multi-Year Unscripted First-Look Deal With Fox Entertainment Studios

Fox Entertainment Studios has signed JB Smoove to a multi-year unscripted first-look deal, bringing the Emmy-winning comedian, actor and producer into the studio’s growing slate of talent-led programming. Smoove’s production company, Alternate Side Productions, will executive produce all projects that come out of the arrangement, with Smoove, Rick Dorfman and Miles Grose attached as executive producers across the board.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

The deal positions Smoove as a creative collaborator on an unscripted slate spanning multiple formats and genres, with Fox Entertainment Studios producing. It adds a recognizable comedic voice to a studio that has built much of its unscripted identity around personality-driven formats — “The Masked Singer,” “I Can See Your Voice” and “Name That Tune” among them.

Smoove is best known to television audiences as Leon Black on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” a role he has played since 2007 that gave him one of the more distinctive recurring characters in contemporary comedy. Before that he spent time as a writer and performer on “Saturday Night Live.” His credits since have ranged across formats — “Real Husbands of Hollywood,” “Mapleworth Murders,” the film “Spider-Man: No Way Home” — and he has hosted and appeared in unscripted projects throughout his career, which the studio is clearly treating as a selling point for this particular deal.

Alternate Side Productions, which Smoove runs alongside Dorfman and Grose, focuses on comedy-driven and format-based content with an emphasis on elevating Black, Indigenous and People of Color voices.

“JB brings an unmistakable comedic voice and a fearless, spontaneous energy that makes him a natural fit for the unscripted genre,” said Allison Wallach, Head of Unscripted Programming at Fox Entertainment Studios. “Together with Rick, Miles and the team at Alternate Side Productions, JB has a sharp eye for original concepts and an ability to connect with audiences in a way that feels fresh, energizing and highly entertaining. We’re excited to build a slate that fully taps into that original perspective.”

Smoove was characteristically direct about what drew him to the format.

“Let me tell you something…unscripted is where the magic really happens,” he said. “You can’t plan it, you can’t fake it, you just gotta jump in and let it fly. That’s my lane! Partnering with Allison and the FOX Entertainment Studios crew gives us the space to get wild with ideas, find the funny in real life, and bring some shows to the screen that people didn’t even know they needed yet. We’re going to have a lot of fun with this.”

Smoove is represented by Authentic Talent and Literary Management, UTA and attorney Roger Pliakas.

Information sourced from Fox.