Rob Smat
- Writer
- Director
Rob Smat is a writer and director from Texas and currently based in the Southwest. After graduating USC's cinema studies and screenwriting programs, Rob established himself as the youngest filmmaker to secure a Netflix license with the debut of 2019's The Last Whistle, an homage to small town sports dramas, which he and his classmates produced on a $100K budget.
Following Whistle's success -- yet hampered by the dawn of COVID -- Rob diversified his creative efforts between writing, directing, and books. Smat's spec work drew recognition from the Collyer Foundation/WGA East, BET's Project CRE8, and the Austin Film Festival. He published two non-fiction books with Gaudium Publishing in 2023 and 2024, followed by a series of short stories written for filmic adaptation, including the viral Reddit hit, Say Dada. His debut documentary feature, Walkout, debuted at the end of 2024, produced with under $10K.
Smat's screenwriting specs include a variety of genre hybrids including sports/heist Flu Game, sports/drama series Hometown, and an adaptation of Frank Deford's The Boxer and the Blonde. He's also completed work on his unreleased debut novel, The Early Man, which scored highly with the heralded Blacklist for film/TV potential in the sci-fi/action space. His next non-fiction book is titled The Birdhouse, blending the intense drama of Twisters with the true story of the Fort Worth tornado swarm.
Outside of film and TV, Rob is an avid fantasy football player, scotch collector, Halo 3 fan, bunker golfer, and dog dad.
Following Whistle's success -- yet hampered by the dawn of COVID -- Rob diversified his creative efforts between writing, directing, and books. Smat's spec work drew recognition from the Collyer Foundation/WGA East, BET's Project CRE8, and the Austin Film Festival. He published two non-fiction books with Gaudium Publishing in 2023 and 2024, followed by a series of short stories written for filmic adaptation, including the viral Reddit hit, Say Dada. His debut documentary feature, Walkout, debuted at the end of 2024, produced with under $10K.
Smat's screenwriting specs include a variety of genre hybrids including sports/heist Flu Game, sports/drama series Hometown, and an adaptation of Frank Deford's The Boxer and the Blonde. He's also completed work on his unreleased debut novel, The Early Man, which scored highly with the heralded Blacklist for film/TV potential in the sci-fi/action space. His next non-fiction book is titled The Birdhouse, blending the intense drama of Twisters with the true story of the Fort Worth tornado swarm.
Outside of film and TV, Rob is an avid fantasy football player, scotch collector, Halo 3 fan, bunker golfer, and dog dad.
