Did You Know ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith Is an Actor on a Popular Soap Opera?

While many TV watchers are used to seeing popular and sometimes controversial sports pundit Stephen A. Smith hoot and holler about everything from basketball to football on ESPN’s “First Take”—they may not know how he’s taking over yet another well-known show.

If you don’t know what we’re talking about, then allow us to be the first to tell you that Smith has a recurring role on ABC’s longstanding daytime soap opera, “General Hospital.” Yes, you read that right. The talkative, loud sports commentator that people love to hate takes off that hat every blue moon and gets into his acting bag on the daytime soap opera.

Now we know what you’re probably thinking at this point: how in the hell does someone like Stephen A. Smith get involved with a show like “General Hospital?” Well, the long and short of it has to do with the fact that Smith is a longtime fan of the show. Like, a serious one. In fact, he previously explained his affinity for the soap during an interview on ESPN’s “Front Row” in 2016.

“I have four older sisters and when we came home from school, all the TVs in the house were on ‘General Hospital. Since I wasn’t allowed outside until I finished my homework, I watched the soap every day,” he said at the time.

As luck would have it, he would end up meeting one of the show’s stars Maurice Bernard when he appeared as a guest on “First Take” in 2015. Bernard portrays the famous mobster Sonny Corinthos on the show and ended up finding out about Smith’s love of the show during his appearance. As a result, he went back to the show and worked it out so that Smith could have a role.

Thus “Brick”—the smooth-talking, surveillance expert for the Corinthos crew was born. Smith would pop up onscreen as Brick for the first time in March 2016 and pop in and out during different points of the show ever since, either serving up intel, curtailing another mob attack, killing crooked folks and more. His most recent appearance just happened earlier in May.

Reflecting on his first time on set, he told Soap Opera Digest in September 2025: “Since I have watched the show for so long, I know Sonny and his mannerisms. So the scene was like talking to a long-lost friend. I knew him and how he goes about things. I imagined all that and it helped relax me.”

For what it’s worth, Smith does a pretty good job in the role and is believable. Yet and still, for some fans who are just getting wind that he’s on there—seeing his face outside of a sports context is hilarious and incredulous.

“Soap operas are funny man tell me why I just saw Stephen A. Smith on General Hospital,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.

“Nah Stephen A Smith on General Hospital will never not be funny dawg why he just killed a lady with a silencer,” said another.

One other user wrote, “Stephen A. Smith on General hospital should be illegal.”

Added another: “I turned on my TV which was on ABC and apparently Stephen A Smith is an actor on the soap opera General Hospital.”