Matt Smith

**Matthew Robert Smith** (born 28 October 1982) 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.

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, and _That Face_.

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 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.

## 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. After an injury, he began to study acting. After school, Smith studied Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

## 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. 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_. Piper is well known for playing the part of Rose Tyler on Doctor Who.

### _Doctor Who_

Smith was revealed as the Eleventh Doctor in the British science-fiction television series _Doctor Who_ in January 2009 to replace David Tennant, who announced that he left in October 2008. 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.

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. 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. 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. After three weeks of auditions, Moffat and Wenger agreed that it had "always been Matt". 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. For his work in his first series he was nominated in the "Outstanding Drama Performance
Category" of the National Television Awards.

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

### Movies

|Year|Title|Role|class="unsortable"|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|Credited as Matthew Smith||
|2016|_Pride and Prejudice and Zombies_|Parson William Collins|||
|rowspan=3|2018|_Mapplethorpe_|Robert Mapplethorpe||
|_Patient Zero_|Morgan||||
|_Charlie Says_|Charles Manson||||
|2019|_Official Secrets_|Martin Bright|||
|2020|_His House_|Mark Essworth|||
|rowspan=2|2021|_Last Night in Soho_|Jack||
|_The Forgiven_|Richard Galloway||||
|2022|_Morbius_|Loxias Crown|Post-production||

### Television

|Year|Title|Role|class="unsortable"|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2006|__|Jim Taylor|Television film||
|rowspan="4"|2007|__|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||
|rowspan="2"|2013|_An Adventure in Space and Time_|Eleventh Doctor|Cameo|
|_The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot_|Matt Smith|Television film|||
|2016–2017|_The Crown_|Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh|20 episodes||
|rowspan="2"|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|Series released||

### Stage

|Year|Title|Role|class="unsortable"|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2003|_Murder in the Cathedral_|Thomas Becket|National Youth Theatre||
|rowspan="2"|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|rowspan="2"|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|Royal Court Theatre||
|2019|_Lungs_|M|The Old Vic||

### Video games

|Year|Title|Role|class="unsortable"|Notes||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="3"|2010|_Doctor Who: The Adventure Games_|rowspan="5"|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|class="unsortable"|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2009|_Together_|Rob|||
|2013|_Cargese_||Director||
|2021|_Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: We're on Our Way Now _|Man|Music video||

## Further reading

- Smith, Oli (2010). _Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor: Matt Smith_. London: BBC Children's Books.

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Matt Smith
- **image**: Matt Smith by Gage Skidmore.jpg
- **imagesize**: 220px
- **caption**: Smith at the San Diego Comic-Con International in 2011
- **birth name**: Matthew Robert Smith
- **birth place**: Northampton, England
- **occupation**: Actor
- **height**: 182 cm
- **yearsactive**: 2003 – present