Russell Wayne Groves began his film & business career in 2002 while attending the University of Texas at Austin. Alongside classes, he joined a civil engineering construction firm and quickly rose to Chief Estimator, helping to secure and manage $250 million in civil construction projects over a span of 3 years. Though successful there, his love and interest for filmmaking lead him to “moonlight” on several short films before becoming a full-time producer in 2008.



Russell soon partnered with talented filmmakers Andrew Lee, Bradley Jackson and David James Ward, first garnering attention with their 2010 festival-favorite short film “The Man Who Never Cried”, before founding Austin, Texas based production company Ralph Smyth Entertainment in March 2011. Since then, Russell has produced a wide array of projects from viral sketches and commercials to critically-acclaimed feature films like “Balls Out” aka “Intramural”, an epic sports-comedy featuring rising stars like Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon and Beck Bennett, premiered at Tribeca 2014 and picked up by MGM/Orion for VOD & limited theatrical release in 2015, and “Lord Montagu”, a documentary following the fascinating story of one of England's most controversial and iconic aristocrats, premiered at BAFTA to an audience including members of the British Royal Family and released by Gravitas Ventures and Espresso TV in 2015.

Russell’s current projects in various stages of development and production include “Dealt”, a feature documentary in post-production telling the story of Richard Turner, widely considered one of the world’s greatest card magicians… and who’s also completely blind; “Jumpshot”, a documentary about the amazing life of Kenny Sailors, who revolutionized the game of basketball and then disappeared from public view; and Crunch Time Season 1, a sci-fi comedy series to be released by Rooster Teeth and Fullscreen Media.