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 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.

​

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 learned 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 at his high school. 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 at the University, he found his calling in editing and after graduating, worked in Los Angeles as an editor and cinematographer before moving to Bogotá, Colombia in 2015 and working on projects there for a number of years. He is now back in Los Angeles.



In additional to making films, Rajiv also records music, plays soccer, does aerial videography, and makes a point to travel as often as possible.