Matt Smith

Matt Smith (birthname: Matthew Robert Smith), co-starring with Jared Leto in Marvel’s Morbius (2022), shot from obscurity to stardom when picked to play the eleventh iteration of Doctor Who in the long-running British science fiction series with a global cult following. Two years after his departure as the Doctor, Smith established himself as a major actor with his acclaimed portrayal of Prince Philip in The Crown (2016-2017).

Smith’s versatility was soon underlined by startling performances as real-life figures Charles Manson (in Mary Harron’s Charlie Says (2018)) and artist-photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (in Ondi Timoner’s Mapplethorpe (2018)). It’s difficult to think of a comparable case of an actor playing such wildly contrasting actual personages, whose only commonality is that all of them were tinged by scandal and worldwide controversy.

He continued his foray into true stories with Gavid Hood’s Official Secrets (2019), in which Smith played British journalist Martin Bright opposite Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, and Ralph Fiennes. His next notable screen appearances include a suspicious man in the wild, swinging London world of Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho (2021), opposite Anya Taylor-Joy, followed by Morbius (2022), a major new sub-franchise inside the MCU. 

2022 proves to be a busy year for Smith, starting with Morbius, and continuing with his ensemble appearance with Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes in Netflix’s drama, The Forgiven. But perhaps Smith’s biggest role arrives in later 2022 when he appears in the Game of Thrones spinoff series on HBO, House of the Dragon, as Prince Daemon Targaryen.

With his busy film and TV career going full steam, Smith—an alumnus of the National Youth Theatre–maintains a robust presence in British theater, most recently in 2019 starring in Duncan Macmillan’s play, Lungs, with his The Crown co-star, Claire Foy at The Old Vic.