Hot Nerd of the Week: Kevin Smith!

We've had his wife, and one of his childhood friends hold the title of Hot Nerd, but never Kev himself! In honor of him launching SIR (SModcast Internet Radio) this week, I give you the big man himself, Kevin Smith.

Kev has been a nerd his whole life. He was a huge "Star Wars" fan as a kid, and often retells stories of playing with At-at's and making up "Star Wars" story lines while playing with friends. He has collected comics from an early age, and whenever he disobeyed his mother, she would threaten to knock all of his comics off the shelf if he didn't straighten up. His love of comic books would lead him to open a comic book store (Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash) later in life.

Success first came for Kevin in 1994 with the release of "Clerks". This critically acclaimed indie film won a number of awards including awards from the Cannes and Sundance film festivals. Smith followed up the success of "Clerks" with "Mallrats", "Chasing Amy" and "Dogma".

The new millennium boosted Kevin even higher with the 2001 release of "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back". Kevin followed that up with "Clerks II" in 2006, and "Zach and Miri Make a Porno" in 2008. He is currently working on the self written, self directed movie "Red State" which follows a couple of young men who go out looking for sex, and end up finding a very dark version of the Westboro Baptist Church. "Red State" is set to be released in October of 2011.

Kevin likes to keep busy, so whenever there was downtime from directing, he had a number of other projects going on. Projects including; writing comics (such as The Green Arrow, Batman: Cacophony, Batman: The Widening Gyre, Green Hornet, etc), as well as writing introductions for the Preacher and Hitman trade paperbacks. He has also released two books; "Silent Bob Speaks" and "My Boring-Ass Life".

In February 2007, Kevin and his longtime friend and producer, Scott Mosier, began recording weekly conversations between the two of them. These recordings would lead to a podcast which they refer to as SModcast. In 2010 Kevin decided to expand SModcast by allowing several of his friends to make their own podcasts and market all of them under the SModcast name. The brand got so big that this week Kevin will be launching SIR radio, a live version of the podcasts.

Anyone who has enjoyed a Kevin Smith movie, or listened to one of his interviews knows how great a guy he is. He's super hard working, and holds his wife, friends and family in the highest regard. His self-depreciating humor, and super dorky tendencies are the reason I chose Kevin Smith as Hot Nerd of the Week!