When he was in seventh grade, the family moved to Maryina Roshcha District, where Andrei continued his studies in a special French school.

As a director, he made his debut with the war film The Land of the Earth (1964, together with Boris Yashin) based on the story of the same name by Grigory Baklanov.

In his next film, Autumn (1974), he turned to the theme of love, with an unusual for that time boldness about the relationship between the thirty-year-old man and woman.

He wrote screenplays for the films Sentimental Journey to Potatoes (1986), I Did Everything I Could (1986), and also the episodes The Medicine of Fear in the second season of television series Beyond the Wolves (2004).

In 2011, he returned to filmmaking and made a national drama Once Upon a Time There Lived a Simple Woman, acting simultaneously as a screenwriter and producer.

Smirnov also starred in the series The Right to Defense (2002), The Idiot (2003), The Instructor (2003), Moscow Saga (2004), The First Circle (2006), The Apostle (2008) ), Heavy Sand (2008), Churchill (2009), The Thaw (2013), and Black Cats (2013).