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Matthew Robert Smith (born 28 October 1982), more commonly known as simply Matt Smith, and currently portrays the Eleventh Doctor on Doctor Who and in the 2010 two-part storyline Death of the Doctor for the Doctor Who spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Biography
Early life
Smith grew up in Northampton and attended Northampton School for Boys, mocked for having a face "with elbows".[1]. He originally wanted to be a footballer but had to give up this ambition after a back injury. He excelled at sports in school. Matt supports Blackburn Rovers.[2] [1] After encouragement from his drama teacher, he joined the National Youth Theatre. He studied at University of East Anglia, reading Drama and Creative Writing. He never went to a Drama University.
Career
Smith appeared opposite Billie Piper (who played former companion Rose Tyler) in The Ruby In The Smoke, The Shadow In The North, and Secret Diary Of A Call Girl. On stage, he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for That Face in 2008. At twenty-six years of age, Smith is the youngest actor ever to have played the Doctor on television (a record held for more than a quarter-century by Peter Davison) and the first to be born after the death of the First Doctor, William Hartnell. Following the conclusion of contract negotiations around Christmas 2008, Smith's casting was formally announced during a special broadcast of Doctor Who Confidential on BBC Three on 3 January 2009. Smith began filming his first full episodes as the Doctor in late July 2009.
The exact date of when Smith was cast is uncertain. It is known that Russell T Davies was informed on or just before 10 December 2008[3], but during interviews conducted in March and April 2010 to promote Series 5, Smith repeatedly stated that he had to keep quiet about being cast for three months before the announcement, suggesting he may have been cast as early as October 2008.
As noted above, Smith has begun to expand his portrayal of the Doctor beyond the main series. Besides appearing in The Sarah Jane Adventures, he also voiced the character for Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, and has also recorded narration on at least two audio books for BBC Audio. On 6 May 2011, he also appeared on NBC's Today Show.
On 10 November 2010, Smith became only the second Doctor actor ever to make an appearance on a major American network chat show when he appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (the first was Tom Baker, who made a pre-Doctor Who appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1972). He has since made three more appearances on the show.
Since being cast as the Doctor, Smith has also starred opposite Eva Green in the science fiction drama Womb (released on DVD as Clone), and has starred as the writer Christopher Isherwood in the BBC television film Christopher and His Kind.
External links
- Matt Smith at the Internet Movie Database
- Official London Theatre Guide, The Big Interview with Matt Smith
- (Fresh Face: Matt Smith) London.Broadway.com A 2007 interview with Matt Smith while in Swimming With Sharks