Alumni Spotlight: Sy’Rai Smith Turns Family Legacy Into Her Own Sound
Sy’Rai Smith didn’t come to The Los Angeles Film School to follow in anyone’s footsteps — but her grandmother made sure she got here anyway.
“The reason why I went to school to begin with is because of my grandmother,” Sy’Rai says in our new video interview. Sonja Norwood, a veteran talent manager who has taught in LAFS’s Entertainment Business program since 2018, kept coming home raving about the school. “She always came back and was like, ‘It’s so great, I think you should go there.'” Sy’Rai enrolled – and stayed. She’s now a double LAFS alumni, graduating summa cum laude with degrees in Entertainment Business.
What sold her wasn’t the classroom alone. “Just seeing the studio, seeing all the creatives, meeting real industry professionals – even just engineers, knowing what they’re doing – I was like, I wish I could do that.” She credits the people as much as the program: “Being around other creatives definitely shaped me. I made my best friends here.” In a cohort where “some are artists, some are producers, some are engineers,” collaboration wasn’t optional — and that turned out to be the point. “We’re forced to collab because we’re in a class together, but we actually make genuine connections.”
Sy’Rai’s path to LAFS was already unusual. She went viral at 17 and has been building a public life – and now a solo music career – in the open ever since. Singles like “On My Own,” “Not About You,” “Bad Guy,” and this year’s “Late Night” have staked out her own identity alongside collaborations with her mother, Grammy winner Brandy, and a 2025 acting debut opposite her in the Lifetime film Christmas Everyday. She’s candid about the tool social media has become for independent artists: “We ain’t paying $30,000 for our face to be on a billboard. So if one thing goes viral, we’re popping off” – though she’s quick to add it’s “a tool, but it’s also kind of difficult to navigate.” Her take on where music should sit in an artist’s career is just as direct: “It shouldn’t be the last thing, it should be the first thing. Make your music your brand, and then everything else will come.”
Her advice to current students is refreshingly practical: network relentlessly, get to know the staff (“they’re really here for you”), and show up to every event LAFS offers. “There’s opportunities you can get from just going to these events. Take advantage of the stuff that they provide.”
As she works on her debut album, Sy’Rai says her time at The Los Angeles Film School played an important role in her creative development: “I wouldn’t be making that album if I wasn’t here.”
Ready to build your own foundation in the business side of entertainment? Explore our Entertainment Business degree.