Matt Smith

Matthew Robert Smith (born 28 October 1982)^[1] is an English actor. He is best known as the eleventh form of the Doctor on the British television series Doctor Who. He received a BAFTA Award nomination for the role in 2011.^[2]

Matt Smith
Smith at the San Diego Comic-Con International in 2011
Born	Matthew Robert Smith (1982-10-28) 28 October 1982 (age 42) Northampton, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2003 – present
Height	182 cm (6 ft 0 in)

He wanted to be a professional footballer. A back injury made him stop playing the sport. He joined the National Youth Theatre and studied Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Smith became an actor in 2003. He performed in plays like Murder in the Cathedral, Fresh Kills, The History Boys and On the Shore of the Wide World in London theatres. On West End, he has performed in Swimming with Sharks with Christian Slater,^[3] and That Face.^[4]

Smith's first television role was in 2006. He portrayed Jim Taylor in the BBC version of Philip Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow in the North. His his first major role in television came as Danny in the 2007 BBC series Party Animals. Smith is the youngest person to play the character in the British television series.^[5]

Early life and education

Smith was born on 28 October 1982 in Northampton, England. He attended Northampton School for Boys. He planned to be a professional football player. Smith had played for the youth teams of Northampton Town F.C., Nottingham Forest F.C. and Leicester City F.C.^[6] After an injury, he began to study acting. After school, Smith studied Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.^[7]

Professional acting career

While acting in On the Shore of the Wide World, the play moved to the Royal National Theatre in London. After finishing, he took on the role of Lockwood in the Alan Bennett play The History Boys. After The History Boys, he acted in Burn/Chatroom/Citizenship and Swimming with Sharks. ""Swimming with Sharks was his first West End play.^[7] His first television role was as Jim Taylor in the BBC version of the Sally Lockhart series of books The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow in the North. He acted along with Billie Piper in the series. He acted with Piper a third time in an episode of Secret Diary of a Call Girl.^[8] Piper is well known for playing the part of Rose Tyler on Doctor Who.

Doctor Who

Matt Smith as Eleventh Doctor, with Karen Gillan as Amy Pond (2009)

"The Doctor is a very special part, and it takes a very special actor to play him. You need to be old and young at the same time, a boffin and an action hero, a cheeky schoolboy and the wise old man of the universe. As soon as Matt walked through the door, and blew us away with a bold and brand new take on the Time Lord, we knew we had our man."

Executive producer Steven Moffat on Smith's casting.^[9]

Smith was revealed as the Eleventh Doctor in the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who in January 2009^[10] to replace David Tennant, who announced that he left in October 2008.^[11] Smith was not as well known as many of the actors who were thought to be likely to get the part. These included Paterson Joseph, David Morrissey, Sean Pertwee, James Nesbitt, Russell Tovey, Catherine Zeta Jones, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Robert Carlyle and Billie Piper.^[12]

Doctor Who filming, with Matt Smith as Eleventh Doctor, and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond

Smith was one of the first actors to audition for the role. Producer Steven Moffat and BBC Wales Head of Drama and executive producer, Piers Wenger immediately liked him for the part.^[10] Smith had auditioned for the role of John Watson in the Moffat-created Sherlock at the same time. He did not get the part of Watson because Moffat believed his acting style was closer to Sherlock Holmes but they had already cast Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes.^[13] At 26 years old, Smith was three years younger than Peter Davison was at the time of his casting as the Doctor in 1981. He was younger than any other actor suggested for the role.^[10] After three weeks of auditions, Moffat and Wenger agreed that it had "always been Matt".^[10] The BBC were was not certain that a 26-year-old could not play the Doctor correctly. Some fans of the show believed that Smith was too young for the role. Others supported him based on what he had shows of his acting ability.^[14] For his work in his first series he was nominated in the "Outstanding Drama Performance Category" of the National Television Awards.^[15]

In June 2010, he appeared on stage with Orbital. They performed a version of the Doctor Who theme at the Glastonbury Festival.^[16] Smith hosted the Doctor Who Prom at the Royal Albert Hall on 24–25 July 2010.^[17] In June 2011, the BBC said that Smith had been signed to do fourteen more episodes of Doctor Who as the Doctor.^[18]

Credits

Movies

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	In Bruges	Young Harry Waters	Deleted scene
2010	Womb	Thomas
2011	Christopher and His Kind	Christopher Isherwood
2012	Bert and Dickie	Bert Bushnell
2014	Lost River	Bully
2015	Terminator Genisys	Alex / Skynet / The T-5000[19]	Credited as Matthew Smith
2016	Pride and Prejudice and Zombies	Parson William Collins
2018	Mapplethorpe	Robert Mapplethorpe
	Patient Zero	Morgan
	Charlie Says	Charles Manson
2019	Official Secrets	Martin Bright
2020	His House	Mark Essworth
2021	Last Night in Soho	Jack
	The Forgiven	Richard Galloway
2022	Morbius	Loxias Crown	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	The Ruby in the Smoke	Jim Taylor	Television film
2007	The Shadow in the North	Jim Taylor	Television film
	Party Animals	Danny Foster
	Secret Diary of a Call Girl	Tim	Episode: "Episode 1.6"
	The Street	Ian Hanley	2 episodes
2009	Moses Jones	DS Dan Twentyman
2010–2014	Doctor Who	Eleventh Doctor	46 episodes
2010	The Sarah Jane Adventures	Eleventh Doctor	2 episodes
2013	An Adventure in Space and Time	Eleventh Doctor	Cameo[20]
	The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot	Matt Smith	Television film
2016–2017	The Crown	Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh	20 episodes
2021	This Time with Alan Partridge	Dan Milner	Series 2 Episode: "Episode 3"
	Superworm	Superworm	Upcoming animated special
2022	House of the Dragon	Daemon Targaryen	Upcoming series

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Murder in the Cathedral	Thomas Becket	National Youth Theatre
2004	The Master and Margarita	Basoon	Lyric Hammersmith
	Fresh Kills	Arnold	Royal Court Theatre Upstairs
2005	On the Shore of the Wide World	Paul Danzinger	Royal Exchange Royal National Theatre
2005–2006	The History Boys	Lockwood	Royal National Theatre
2006	Burn/Chatroom/Citizenship	Tom/William/Gary
2007	That Face	Henry	Royal Court Theatre Upstairs
2007–2008	Swimming with Sharks	Guy	Vaudeville Theatre
2008	That Face	Henry	Duke of York's Theatre
2013–2014	American Psycho	Patrick Bateman	Almeida Theatre
2016	Unreachable	Maxim[21]	Royal Court Theatre
2019	Lungs	M	The Old Vic

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Doctor Who: The Adventure Games	Eleventh Doctor
	Doctor Who: Return to Earth
	Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth
2012	Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock
2015	Lego Dimensions		Archive audio

Short film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	Together	Rob
2013	Cargese		Director
2021	Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: We're on Our Way Now	Man	Music video

References

1. Northampton School for Boys
2. Plunkett, John (26 April 2011). "Doctor Who's Matt Smith and E4's Misfits win Bafta nods". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
3. "Entertainment | Who on earth is Matt Smith?". BBC News. 2009-01-03. Retrieved 2009-03-16.
4. "That face to watch| Theatre". This is London. Archived from the original on 2009-01-23. Retrieved 2009-03-16.
5. "Press Office — Network TV Programme Information BBC Weeks 51/52 BBC ONE". BBC. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
6. "Meet the Eleventh Doctor". Doctor Who microsite. BBC. 5 January 2009.
7. "That face to watch". This is London. 6 May 2008. Archived from the original on 23 January 2009. Retrieved 3 January 2009.
8. "Matt Smith Is New Doctor Who". Empire Online. 3 January 2009. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2009.
9. "Matt Smith is the New Doctor". BBC Press Office. 3 January 2009. Retrieved 3 January 2009.
10. "The Eleventh Doctor". Doctor Who Confidential. Series 4. Episode 15. 3 January 2009. BBC. BBC One.
11. "David Tennant quits as Doctor Who". BBC News. 29 October 2008. Retrieved 3 January 2009.
12. "Doctor Who: The runners and the riders". BBC News. 3 January 2009. Retrieved 3 January 2009.
13. French, Dan (4 February 2010). "Matt Smith rejected for BBC's 'Sherlock'". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 7 February 2010. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
14. Moss, Lyndsay (5 January 2009). "Doctor who? Newcomer divides programme's fans". The Scotsman. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
15. "National TV Awards winners". BBC News. 26 January 2011. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
16. "Doctor Who's Matt Smith performs with Orbital at Glastonbury | Metro.co.uk". Archived from the original on 2012-02-19. Retrieved 2011-12-27.
17. "Doctor Who's day at the Proms". BBC News. 25 July 2010. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
18. "Matt Smith to return for new Doctor Who series". BBC News Online. 8 June 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
19. Lesnick, Silas (2 July 2015). "Matt Smith's Terminator Genisys Character Explained". ComingSoon.net. Archived from the original on 6 October 2018. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
20. Jeffery, Morgan (21 November 2013). "'Doctor Who' biopic's surprise ending is "wonderful", says Mark Gatiss". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
21. Billington, Michael (10 July 2016). "Unreachable review – Matt Smith searches for the magic hour". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.

Further reading

• Smith, Oli (2010). Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor: Matt Smith. London: BBC Children's Books. ISBN 978-1-40590-687-6

Other websites

• Matt Smith on IMDb