Catching Up with Kerr

November 1999

The name says it all. Even though Kerr Smith may have a common last name, he’s as exceptional as his unique first name implies.

Smith has recently taken up residence on the popular WB hit breakout series “Dawson’s Creek.” He plays Jack McPhee, a shy and troubled teenager, who along with his sister Andie (played by relative newcomer Meredith Monroe) moves to the town of Capeside to escape a terrible past.

Smith’s first name Kerr, bequeathed unto to him by his grandmother, who wanted her maiden name to live on, was born and raised in the Philadelphia surbub of Exton, Penn. Growing up, Smith was competitive, excelling in baseball, snow skiing and even in student politics, beginning as his class president and later as his high school’s ASB president.

It wasn’t until he signed up for an acting class in his sophomore year of high school and found that he was having a lot of fun. He was bitten by the acting bug. A year later, Smith portrayed a role in his high school’s dramatic production of “The King and I.”

After graduation from high school, Smith decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and enrolled in and earned his undergraduate degree in Business Adminstration-Finance and Accounting from the University of Vermont. While in college, Smith was in the Kappa Sigma fraternity, the Chief Justice of the Greek Judicial Board and a member of the Stowe, Vermont ski patrol.

With his business degree in hand after graduating, Smith returned to Exton and started a business marketing firm with his father. Although he loved making presentations in front of hundreds of potential clients, he loathed the selling aspect of the job and knew it was time to try his luck and become an actor.

Smith’s first acting job was as an extra, next to his mother, in Bruce Willis’ “Twelve Monkeys” and which coincidentally fell on his own birthday. He soon landed his first commercial and with the money he got from selling his prized Bronco, moved to New York City to audition for more roles.

Smith, when he first auditioned for “As the World Turns,” after hearing about the audition from ex-ATWT star Bronson Picket, read for the role of Paul Ryan, but his naturally youthfulness deemed him too young for the role. But three weeks later, the producers called him to play the role of Ryder Hughes, and his performance on the show earned him the Best New Actor Award from Soap Opera Magazine.

Earlier, this year, Smith and his girlfriend Ali made the cross-country journey from New York City to Venice Beach, Calif.

During his brief stay in Los Angeles, he read for, but unfortunately blew a role on the Fox hit “Party of Five.” Smith did, however, befriend one of the head casting directors at the WB Network, landing the role of Jack McPhee. One month later, he was making the 3,000 mile, cross-country trip to Wilmington, N.C., where “Dawson’s” is filmed. Although he is now living in Wilmington while the show is filming, he keeps his Los Angeles home, which even has its own recording studio.

In the coming months, Smith will be seen in not one. but two independent films he shot before landing on “Dawson’s Creek.” In “Kiss and Tell”, the story of four couples who end up on a televised blind date, he plays the womanizing Kelly and in the film ‘Hit and Runaway,” Smith plays Joey, a young gay man who is the boyfriend of the male writer in the story. Both roles gave Smith the opportunity to play someone that he normally wouldn’t be able to play.

Smith recently completed a one episode guest-starring role on the popular David Hassolholf series “Baywatch” playing a fraternity brother, who along with another fraternity brother buries a pledge in the sand and later has to help rescue the pledge when the sand begins to sink in around the pledge.

In rare spare time, Smith enjoys spending time with his new “Dawson’s” cast-mates and getting to know them. He also enjoys playing the piano and writing music but hasn’t had time to record anything in his LA studio yet. Smith is also hard at work on a screenplay about a college incident but will keep it a secret until he’s finished writing it.

Watch out James Van Der Beek and Joshua Jackson, Kerr Smith may just become the newest heartthrob of the ‘Creek!