Early Life and Education
Smith was born and brought up in Northampton, Northamptonshire. He attended Northampton School for Boys. He had planned to be a professional football player, having played for the youth teams of Northampton Town, Nottingham Forest, and Leicester City. After a serious back injury, his drama teacher introduced him to acting by signing him up as the tenth juror in an adaptation of Twelve Angry Men without his consent. Although he took part in the play, he refused to attend a drama festival for which his teacher had also signed him up, as he saw himself as a football player and did not view acting as socially acceptable. Nonetheless, perform in plays. His drama teacher persisted, and eventually persuaded him to join the National Youth Theatre in London.
After leaving school, Smith studied drama and creative writing at the University of East Anglia, graduating in 2005. His first theatre roles as part of the National Youth Theatre were Thomas Becket in Murder in the Cathedral and Basoon in The Master and Margarita. His role in the latter earned him an agent and his first professional jobs, Fresh Kills and On the Shore of the Wide World. His new professional roles led him to seek an agreement with his university so that he could graduate without attending lectures in his final year.
Read more about this topic: Matt Smith (actor)
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