British Actors You Should Know: Matt Smith

With his imposing physical presence and interesting, not quite handsome face, and trademark fall of dark hair, Matt Smith has played everything from artists to time lords, princes, and pimps. Smith was born in 1982 in Northamptonshire, and his first love was football. He signed on as a youth player with his local club, Northampton Town, then Nottingham Forest, and Leicester City. Sadly, an injury put paid to what might have been a dazzling career, and the young Smith found himself without direction. One of his teachers persuaded him, with some difficulty, to become an actor, which at first embarrassed Smith as not being macho enough, but he took a role in a school production of Twelve Angry Men. He won a place in the National Youth Theatre, and studied Literature and Drama at the University of Norwich.

... [a] half blokeish lad next door, half exotic, otherworldly creature, with a passion for footie and poetry in equal measure. Rolling Stone UK

Stage roles followed – Alan Bennett's play The History Boys at the National Theatre in London, and Swimming with Sharks in the West End. Two of the productions in which he featured – That Face and On the Shore of the Wide World – won Laurence Olivier Awards. His big breakthrough was as the Eleventh Doctor in Doctor Who from 2010 to 2013, following which he was chosen to portray Patrick Bateman in the musical adaption of American Psycho at London's Almeida Theatre, despite having no prior singing experience.