Yandy Smith is an American producer, entrepreneur, actor, and reality television star who is most known for her performance on VH1’s ‘Love & Hip Hop: New York.’ She first appeared on the show in the second season in 2011, and has since gone on to play a key role in subsequent seasons, becoming one of the show’s longest-serving casts. She has worked for Violator Management, Warner Bros. Music, and Monami Entertainment as an entrepreneur. Everything Girls Love, her accessories line, has evolved into a women’s lifestyle company that produces the EGL Magazine, which features material on a variety of issues like wellness, finance, fashion, and love. She was named one of Billboard Magazine’s “Top 30 Executives Under 30” in 2008. With the indie feature film Life, Love, Soul, she made her debut as a producer in 2012. ‘Two Days in Harlem,’ a short crime drama she produced and acted in, was released in 2014. In the same year, she also co-produced an Off-Broadway musical. In 2016, she published a handbook eBook for businesses called ‘The Beauty Of Branding In Business.’ She intends to write a series of children’s books as well as a book for working mothers.
Career of Yandy Smith
Yandy Smith began an internship with Violator Management after college, working as an executive assistant to Mona Scott-Young. She oversaw several of the company’s celebrity clients, including LL Cool J, 50 Cent, Missy Elliot, and Busta Rhymes, while working there.
Mona became the firm’s president after founding the television production company Monami Entertainment. During this time, she met rapper Jim Jones while flying to Detroit for a hip-hop summit on a private jet. She began unofficially assisting him and eventually became his manager. Jones’ life was originally intended to be the subject of the VH1 reality TV show Love & Hip Hop: New York.
When Jones grew too busy, Yandy, with the help of Mona, repurposed the show as a show about the women who work behind the scenes in hip-hop. She appeared on the show in its second season as his seven-year manager. She quickly rose to prominence as one of the show’s main characters and is still one of the show’s most popular cast members. Her love with her partner Mendeecees Harris has been a significant selling point for the show, and their wedding ceremony was televised live in a special episode titled “Love & Hip Hop Live: The Wedding” on May 25, 2015.
Scandals & Controversies
Following the live telecast of Yandy Smith’s marriage to Mendeecees Harris, some viewers speculated that the wedding was staged. Surprisingly, Yandy admitted that they did not follow the paperwork to legitimize their marriage in the seventh season of the show.
The audience began to doubt her conduct after she repeatedly stated on the show that she is Mendeecees’ “wife,” primarily to pit herself against his prior companions Samantha and Erika.
Many regarded her refusal to sign the legal documents as a ruse to avoid paying child support to Mendeecees’ ex-partners while he is in prison. While she initially stated that her husband wanted to postpone the process until his drug trafficking case was completed, it was later found that she continued to postpone it even after he began serving his sentence. After word got out that she kept it hidden even from her spouse, people started attacking her on social media. She defended herself, claiming that she didn’t want to put her children in a financial bind.
Personal Experiences of Yandy Smith
Yandy Smith-Harris was born in Harlem, New York, to Ralph and Laura Smith on March 21, 1982. After viewing the 1990s hit sitcom ‘A Different World,’ which showed student life at a fictional Black college in Virginia, she was encouraged to go to college. She went on to Howard University in Washington, D.C., one of the schools featured in the television show, and finished with a degree in business management.
She has two children with Mendeecees Harris, a boy named Omere and a daughter named Skylar Smith, whom she dated for a long period. Judy Harris, her mother-in-law, is a regular on her reality show and assists her in raising her children.
Her parents also made an appearance on a special episode of her reality show in which her marriage to Mendeecees was highlighted. Despite the fact that she did not legitimize her marriage after it was broadcast on television, she has since stated that she is anxious to do so. Mendeecees, on the other hand, is currently serving a 97-month sentence in prison. Yandy Smith, a philanthropist, aided young voters in signing up for the healthcare plan during the Obamacare campaign.
Estimated Net Worth
Yandy Smith has a net worth of $15 million dollars as a music producer and reality television personality in the United States. Yandy Smith began her professional career as an Executive Assistant at Violator Management in the entertainment sector. Yandy Smith rose to national prominence as one of the most popular cast members on the VH1 reality show “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta.”