Marc Smerling produced the HBO series “Mind Over Murder”, which was nominated for Independent Spirit and Gotham Awards. He directed and produced “A Wilderness Of Error “with Errol Morris for FX Networks. He produced and shot “The Jinx - The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst”, a six-part series for HBO, which received a Peabody and six Primetime Emmys nominations - including Best Cinematography for Smerling - and won for Outstanding Nonfiction Series. Smerling co-wrote and produced the feature film “All Good Things”, starring Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst. He produced the Sundance darling documentary “Catfish”, later released by Universal Pictures. Smerling produced “CatfishTV”, now in its eleventh season on MTV. Smerling's first feature documentary was the landmark “Capturing the Friedmans”, which was nominated for an Academy Award and won 18 major international prizes including the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the New York Film Critics Circle Non-Fiction Film Award.

In podcasts, Smerling made “Operation: Tradebom” for Apple Originals, which recently won a Gold Medal at the Signal Awards as well as an LA Press Club Award. Smerling’s first podcast, “Crimetown: Providence “ landed on many 2017 top ten lists, including The New York Times and Atlantic Monthly. Interview Magazine said it was an "ambitious, anthropological epic." Smerling made “The Ballad Of Billy Balls”, ranked No. 2 on Atlantic Monthly's top 100 podcasts of 2019. He made a companion podcast for his series “A Wilderness of Error,” called “Morally Indefensible”. He produced and edited the podcast “Firebug”, which inspired a scripted series on AppleTV, starring Taron Eggerton. His sequel to “Crimetown”, called “Crooked City” released its third season about Dixon, Illinois. The first season of “Crooked City” about Youngstown, Ohio is being developed as a TV series for FX Networks. For his collective contributions to the podcast industry, iHeartRadio named Smerling its 2019 Podcast Innovator of the Year.

Smerling began his career working for Tom Brokaw on the documentaries “Gangs, Cops & Drugs” and “The New Hollywood” for NBC News. He has a Masters from the film school at USC, where his thesis documentary, “Driving The American Dream”, won a Focus Award and a Golden Eagle. He attended the Newhouse School of Journalism and the Maxwell School of Politics at Syracuse University while working as a newspaper writer. He earned a dual degree in Journalism and International Relations.