Zak Smith

Zak Smith (born July 16, 1976), also known as Zak Sabbath, is an American artist, role-playing game author, and adult film actor.

Early life and education
Smith was born in Syracuse, New York and grew up in Washington, D.C. After receiving a BFA from Cooper Union in 1998, he studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine and went on to receive an MFA from Yale University in 2001.

Career
Apart from his work as role-playing game author and artist Smith is also known as a hardcore porn actor.

Public collections containing Smith's art include the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center and Saatchi Gallery. Some of his works are shown on Artsy. Zak Smith is represented by Fredericks & Freiser Gallery in New York City. He is known for his portraiture in a style that blends influences including abstract painting and comic book art. These portraits include his series of paintings of strippers, Girls in the Naked Girl Business.

His work Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow is a multimedia composition of 760 drawings, photos, and paintings, one for each page of the novel's first printing. It was exhibited at the 2004 Whitney Biennial and is now owned by the Walker Art Center.

Personal life
Smith lived and worked in Brooklyn, New York until October 2007, when he moved to Los Angeles. He was formerly in a long-term relationship with adult industry performer Mandy Morbid. Smith describes himself as an anarchist.

Sexual abuse allegations
Due to allegations of abuse by several women including Morbid, Wizards of the Coast announced in February 2019 they would be removing all references to Smith from the print and digital editions of Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition. Kenneth Hite, a former RPG collaborator, apologized to the women and said he would donate the proceeds from their upcoming book to a non-profit addressing domestic violence. OneBookShelf announced it would no longer work with Smith and would donate revenue generated from existing titles with Smith to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. Smith was also banned from attending Gen Con. Smith denied the accusations and filed a defamation lawsuit against Morbid.

Art

 * Zak Smith: Pictures of Girls (New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 2005). ISBN 978-1-933045-22-1
 * Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow (graphic representation of novel/illustration) (Portland, Oregon: Tin House Books, 2006). ISBN 0-9773127-9-8
 * We Did Porn: Memoir and Drawings. (Portland, Oregon: Tin House Books, 2009). ISBN 978-0-9802436-8-0
 * The Worst Breakfast (illustrator, with writer China Miéville, Akashic Books, 2016). ISBN 978-1-6177548-6-9

RPGs

 * Vornheim: The Complete City Kit (Lamentations of the Flame Princess, 2011). ISBN 978-9-5259042-4-6
 * A Red & Pleasant Land (Lamentations of the Flame Princess, 2014). ISBN 978-9-5259046-0-4
 * Death Frost Doom (Lamentations of the Flame Princess, 2014). ISBN 978-9-5259048-3-3
 * Maze of the Blue Medusa (with Patrick Stuart, Satyr Press, 2016). ISBN 978-0-9832437-5-5
 * Frostbitten & Mutilated (Lamentations of the Flame Princess, 2018). ISBN 978-9-5272380-2-8