Kendall Schmidt

Kendall at the iHeartRadio awards

**Kendall Francis Schmidt** (born November 2, 1990)[1] is an American actor, pop rock singer-songwriter and music producer. He is best known for playing Kendall Knight in *Big Time Rush*, participating in a boy band with the same name, and playing small roles on several TV shows such as *ER*, *Without a Trace*, *Phil of the Future*, *Ghost Whisperer*, *Gilmore Girls*, and *Frasier*.[2] Schmidt's first single with Heffron Drive, Parallel, was released in March 2014 through his very own record label TOLBooth Records.

## Life and Career

### 2001-08: Career Beginning

Schmidt was born in Wichita, Kansas, to Kathy and Kent Schmidt. His brothers, Kenneth Schmidt andKevin Schmidt, are actors. He began his acting career at age five, appearing in a Chex TV commercial. When he was nine years old, he was one of two young actors who were hired to be Haley Joel Osment's stand-in and body double (they shared the same agent) in the Steven Spielberg film, *A.I. Artificial Intelligence*.  He celebrated his birthday on the set, and Spielberg and the cast surprised him with a birthday cake decorated with Star Wars figures. When he was 10 years old, his family finally made the move from Kansas to California. Schmidt soon landed recurring roles on *General Hospital*, *Titus*, *Raising Dad*, *Gilmore Girls* and *CSI: Miami*.

He guest-starred on a variety of TV shows, including *ER*, *MADtv*, *Frasier* and *Phil of the Future*. Most recently, Kendall guest starred on *Without a Trace* and *Ghost Whisperer*. On the big screen, he has appeared in *Minority Report* and *According to Spencer*.

### 2009-13: Big Time Rush

In 2009, Schmidt was cast as the lead of the TV show *Big Time Rush*. Kendall portrays a character like himself with the name of Kendall Knight, the calm and relaxed member of Big Time Rush. He also was a member of boy band Big Time Rush. Nickelodeon signed Big Time Rush and the debut album, titled *BTR*, was released on October 11, 2010 and debuted at number 3 on the *Billboard* 200. Later was certified Gold for shipments of 500,000 copies in the U.S. In November 2010, it was announced that a Christmas special of Big Time Rush would debut later that month, and that a Christmas EP would be released to coincide with the episode. On November 30, 2010, they released the Holiday EP *Holiday Bundle*, with two songs: "Beautiful Christmas" and the cover of "All I Want for Christmas is You", originally performed by Mariah Carey. On February 15, 2011, "Boyfriend" was released as the band's first official single to mainstream US radio and peaked at number seventy-two on the *Billboard* Hot 100, becoming their most successful song to date.

Schmidt and the group announced they would be recording their second studio album, just after Nickelodeon renewed the series for a third season. Their second album, *Elevate*, was released on November 21, 2011 and debuted at number 12 on the *Billboard* 200, selling over 70,000 copies in its first week. Though for a lower peaking than their previous, the album sold more copies than the previous album. The first single, "Music Sounds Better with U", was released on November 1, 2011. He announced would be starring in their full-length 2012 film, *Big Time Movie*. In 2013 Nickelodeon renewed the *Big Time Rush* series for a 13-episode fourth season, production started on January 7. The third album, *24/Seven*, was released on June 11, 2013 and many critics to draw comparisons between the band's third album and NSYNC's third album *Celebrity*.The band went on hiatus in March, 2014.

### 2014-present: Heffron Drive

In 2014, it was announced that Schmidt will be making solo music. He went on tour with his band, Heffron Drive. The tour was called the Heffron Drive Winter Tour. A 2015 tour that will take place around the world is being planned. Heffron Drive released their first single, "Parallel", on March 25, 2014, and their first album, Happy Mistakes, later that same year. The band made an acoustic version of the album, titled Happy Mistakes Unplugged. In 2015, Schmidt was featured on a Hilary Duff track called "Night Like This" from her new album Breathe In. Breathe Out..