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Despite having entered into the indie film community only a few years ago, Kevin Smith has seen it all -- from the surprise critical and commercial success he received for his debut film Clerks, to the disappointing critical and commercial drubbing he took on his second outing, Mallrats. He caught a break on his third film, the critically hailed Chasing Amy, managed not to get killed by religious zealots over his fourth film, the comedic meditation Dogma, and made a very profitable ninety-five minute in-joke with Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back. The joke, however, was on him once Jersey Girl hit screens. Mercifully, there was the made-classy-with-Roman-Numerals Clerks II to the rescue, the film that offered a second visit with both the characters (Dante and Randal) and the accolades (an eight-minute standing ovation in Cannes and the Audience Award at the Edinburgh Film Festival) that launched his career.

Along the way, Smith has also found time to make himself a nuisance by smearing his name all over John Pierson's indie-film bible, Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes. He's published the screenplays to six of his films, written comic books featuring not only his own characters (the multiple-printed Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob), but also legendary mainstays of the superhero world (the award-winning Daredevil and Spider-Man and the Black Cat at Marvel Comics, and the award-winning Green Arrow at DC Comics), and written a monthly column for UK based Arena Magazine -- the lion's share of which were reprinted in the bestselling book Silent Bob Speaks. With his View Askew partner, Scott Mosier, he's also executive-produced four low-budget, first-film efforts (including Bryan Johnson's Lions Gate release Vulgar), one large-budget, multiple Academy Award winner (Good Will Hunting), and a pair of Sundance-selected documentaries (Reel Paradise and Small Town Gay Bar).

Besides Mallrats and Jersey Girl, however, Smith has survived other humbling creative experiences that he's inexplicably failed to suppress -- including his animated series version of Clerks, which was unceremoniously aired only twice.

Smith was one of the first filmmakers to venture into cyberspace, establishing the insanely popular View Askewniverse website (www.viewaskew.com) in the midnineties, which in turn spawned a bevy of other Smith-centric sites, including his online diary entitled My Boring-Ass Life, found at www.silentbobspeaks.com.

And if the film thing doesn't pan out, there's always retail: Smith owns two comic book stores, both named Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash (one in Red Bank, New Jersey and the other in Westwood, Los Angeles).

As for the hood ornaments he's collected, there's plenty of tin to go around: the Filmmaker's Trophy at Sundance for Clerks, the Prix de la Jeunesse and the International Critic's Week Award at the Cannes Film Festival, also for Clerks, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for Chasing Amy, and a Humanitas Award for Good Will Hunting.

Smith also received the Defender of Democracy Award from Norman Lear's People for the American Way for his production of Dogma. For his writing in the comics field, Smith has received a Harvey Award, a Wizard Fan Award, and an Eagle Award; in addition, Green Arrow: Quiver was named as one of 2003's Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Association's Young Adult Library Service. In the fall of 2002, the town of Paulsboro, New Jersey named a street after him: Kevin Smith Way. In 2004, the Video Software Dealers Association gave Smith the DVD Visionary Award, and in 2005, he collected the Independent Spirit Award from Britain's Empire Magazine. Most recently, in April of 2006, he was given UCLA's Jack Benny Award for Comedy, joining a prestigious list of previous honorees that includes Johnny Carson, John Belushi, David Letterman, John Cleese, and Adam Sandler.

At the end of the day, the two titles Smith touts most proudly are husband and father. He married wife Jennifer in April 1999 and celebrated the birth of their daughter, Harley Quinn, in June of that same year (you do the math).

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