All About Kevin Smith's Daughter Harley Quinn Smith
Get to know Kevin Smith’s only child, Harley Quinn Smith
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Kevin Smith and daughter Harley Quinn Smith in 2019Kevin Smith’s only daughter followed in her father’s footsteps at a young age.
The Silent Bob actor married journalist Jennifer Schwalbach in 1999 and welcomed daughter Harley Quinn Smith on June 26 that same year. As a toddler, she starred as the baby version of her father’s character in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, but the acting bug didn’t end there. Although she had her start in her father’s projects, she forged her own path by appearing in the Freeform series Cruel Summer as Mallory Higgins.
"I'm very happy for her," the proud father told E! Online of Harley's acting success on the show, which aired from 2021 to 2023. "I mean to see somebody get financial independence is great, but also to see her get creatively inspired when the show ended, she was just crying. So when you see your kids swept up in the arts like that means everything, especially being an artsy fartsy kid myself."
The father and daughter are also alike in many other ways. And while Harley has moved out of her parents’ home, she and her dad still see each other regularly.
"When you're at the weed store and you run into your kid," Kevin jokingly shared on Instagram in 2022. "Since @harleyquinnsmith got her own house, there have been moments when I ran into the kid by chance out in public."
Find out everything to know about Kevin Smith’s daughter, Harley Quinn Smith.
She was named after the famed Batman character
Harley Quinn/Smith Instagram
Harley Quinn SmithAs a huge comic book fan, Kevin named his only child after the iconic Batman villain. As an adult, Harley has spoken about people assuming that it is a stage name, especially after the DC film Suicide Squad premiered in 2016. In fact, she met the actress who portrayed Harley Quinn in the franchise, Margot Robbie.
Kevin recalled on The Ankler Hot Seat Podcast in 2022 that he was invited to the movie's premiere and brought his daughter as his date. Harley begged her dad to introduce her to Robbie, and the pair met and had a "cute conversation," Kevin said.
Years later, in 2019, Harley appeared in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood alongside Robbie, who starred as Sharon Tate — and the Barbie actress recalled their previous meeting.
“Margot says, without missing a beat, ‘Oh, the real Harley Quinn!’ And my kid like, could not f------ believe that she remembered,” Kevin said on the podcast. “[Margot] was like, ‘We met at the premiere’ — really, that’s a class act right there."
She is in a punk band
Harley is a singer and bass player for the band The Tenth. The group describes themselves as a “bubblegum punk band.” Taylor Blackwell is the other frontwoman who sings and plays guitar, in addition to Eden Hain on guitar and Kelly Cruz on drums.
The women released their debut EP, Boys We Don’t Know, in 2018, followed by the release of their debut full-length album, DUNES, in 2019.
She worked alongside her father numerous times
In 2001, Harley had her very first acting gig in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back as baby Silent Bob. She then portrayed “kid in window” in the 2006 film Clerks II. She developed a passion for acting in the 2014 movie Tusk, in which she portrayed a clerk.
“I only wanted to start acting after I did a small scene in my dad’s movie Tusk,” she explained to Comics Beat in 2019. “Before that, I had no interest in it, but I’ve been in my dad’s movies throughout my life, more as a thing that my family can look back on, like an intense scrapbook.”
In 2019, she had her first major role in their world with Jay and Silent Bob Reboot as Milly, followed by an appearance in the 2022 movie Clerks III as the same character.
She is a vegan
Harley gravitated toward veganism and led her father to the diet after he suffered a massive heart attack in 2018.
“That wasn’t so much advice as it was, ‘You have to do this,’ ” she told PEOPLE in 2019. “I didn’t really give him a choice. There was no way that was not going to happen.”
“Going vegan isn’t hard, but it’s definitely something you have to get used to, being super aware,” Harley added of the lifestyle change. “I’ve helped him through it, I’ve held his hand. It’s much easier to go through it when you have somebody.”
She hosts a podcast with her dad
Monica Schipper/WireImage
Kevin Smith and daughter Harley Quinn Smith speak at AOL Build Presents Kevin Smith and Harley Quinn Smith Discussing Their Film, "Yoga Hosers" on August 25, 2016 in New York City.Harley and Kevin launched their own podcast together in June 2020, called Vegan Abattoir. Their goal is to provide plant-based answers to questions from “a meat-eating and dairy-drinking audience.”
“When I went vegan, my best friend went vegan right before me, so she held my hand, and now I’m holding my dad’s hand for it,” Harley told PEOPLE of the diet change. “I’m really happy I get to be there for him for this.”
Meanwhile, Kevin said he “never imagined” he would go vegan, especially as he's not big on fruits and vegetables.
“Given a choice between a f------ kumquat or an eggplant and nothing, I’ll choose nothing,” he told PEOPLE. “So as a vegan, you wind up intermittently fasting by virtue of the fact that you’re like, well, none of this s--- sounds appetizing right now. You don’t do a lot of passion eating or boredom eating.”
She acknowledged her privilege
Harley Quinn/Instagram
Kevin Smith and daughter Harley Quinn Smith in a family photoNot many children can say that they acted in an A-list movie as a toddler. Harley knows that some of her roles were because of her famous father and has been keen to carve her own path in the industry.
“I was given a movie for my first job, and that just doesn’t happen,” she told Vanity Fair in 2016. “I was working with my family, my best friends and this cast of actors who I’ve looked up to for a very long time."
“Because of that, I’m constantly working hard and pushing myself out of my comfort zone to prove that I can and will work just as diligently as anyone else,” Harley continued. “I grind twice as hard because my dad is a director and I need to show everybody that I can act, and that even though I got here through him I intend on staying put.”
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