BIOGRAPHY

 

Rajiv Smith-Mahabir (or Jeeves as he's commonly known) was born in Newton, MA on April 7, 1987 to Cynthia Mahabir -- a Trinidadian college professor -- and Garwood Guy Smith -- an environmentalist, activist, and writer. The family soon moved back to Berkeley, CA in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is where he grew up.

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As a child, Rajiv developed an affinity for his grandmother's old Super 8 video camera in the closet which he often broke out to direct, shoot, and star in his own films. Having no way of actually editing together the footage, he would learn how to edit in-camera. Additionally, his father would take him to the movies each weekend and his love for photography and storytelling continued to grow.



Rajiv attended after school programs in video production and animation, and was the first person to sign up for photography class when it was offered at his middle school. From there, he and his photography teacher developed the film department in his high school, to what it is today. After winning awards as a young filmmaker in the Berkeley Film Festival, it became clear what he would do.



Rajiv attended USC's School of Cinematic Arts in the Production field, graduating early in 2007. While in school, he found his calling in editing and worked in Los Angeles for many years before most recently moving to Bogotá, Colombia.



In additional to making films, Rajiv also records music, plays semi-professional soccer, begs for followers on Instagram, and makes a point to travel as often as possible.