Born in Brooklyn New York, in 1981, Lee Edward Smith Jr was always an entertainer at heart.  Family members recall that he would perform dancing and singing shows to entertain them.  At the age of eight, he saw his first Broadway musical, Cats.  For weeks, his family had to sit through his eight-year-old rendition of the show.  Actually he was probably part of the reason they closed the show.  But he took his creative talents and at age ten began singing with the Famed Singing Boys of Pennsylvania Choir.   

After two years of touring throughout the East Coast, he became interested in magic after his Aunt Emily took him to Tannen's Magic Shop in New York City.  After performing his first magic show at the age of twelve, his tunes turned to the art of magic.  He finished High School with honors and continued to share his talents.  He put on a production raising over $3,200 for a student who had leukemia.  Lee, also worked with such organizations as Big Brothers, Growing Hope and Joey's Eagles, always willing to donated his time.  This gained him the George Mason Univ. Service of the Year Award as a Freshman.

  In addition to this, Lee pursued his quest to be on the top College Speech Team at George Mason University.  After two years on the team he became an award winning author and winner of over a hundred awards and is a two-time district champion and quarter finalist at the National Collegiate Level of Competition.  That day that changed his life was when he walked into his first formal dance class, "World Dance 120."  There he learned Salsa from his first dance instructor Jim Lepore.  As he says. "that three credit course changed me forever!"  Lee has studied dance from leading dancers in LA, but truly has developed his own unique style, making his dancing original, fun and sexy.  He graduated from George Mason in 2003 with a degree in International Politics and a minor in Legal Studies.

  Lee El Gringuito  has traveled around the world performing his exciting Latin dance and magic shows.  He has taught and DJed at night clubs in DC for the past four years honing his craft.  In addition to this, over the past thirteen years he has performed for hundreds of thousands in over 47 States and six countries.  In fact, in the last four years alone he has taught taught well over 100,000 people how to Latin dance throughout the United States and has taught more College Students to Latin dance then anyone in the World, performing at over 400 Colleges nationwide!

  Recently he has made appearances on Ambush Makeover, FOX Television, NBC, ABC Univision, Telemundo and appeared on the final episode of America's Got Talent.  In 2005, he was nominated as Salsa Instructor of the year by his peers in DC.  In 2006, Lee El Gringuito was chosen to represent Latin America at the World Bank International Showcase of Talent seen by thousands in over a hundred countries around the world.  In 2007, he taught over 6,000 Microsoft employees to Latin dance at Coors Field in Denver Colorado and were nominated as Novelty Act of the Year by the APCA Entertainment Bureau.  In 2007, he debuted his first Instructional DVD, which is being called "the most comprehensive beginner Salsa DVD ever made!"  2008 has brought many exciting opportunities including starting the world's first Bachata Meet Up with over 500 members and growing as well as debuting three instructional Bachata DVDs due out in June.  Lee will be traveling around the country this Summer for his Bachata Baby Beach Tour! Whether doing magic, public speaking, DJing, teaching, performing, or running his Entertainment company, Lee "El Gringuito" is an entertainer in every sense of the word...