Ian Michael Smith | |
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Born | Elmhurst, Illinois, U.S. | May 5, 1987
Occupation(s) | Actor, Software engineer |
Height | 3 ft 1 in (0.94 m) |
Ian Michael Smith (born May 5, 1987) is a former American actor, known for his sole starring role in Simon Birch . [1] [2]
His short physical stature (3 ft 1 in (0.94 m)) is a result of Morquio syndrome, [3] a rare enzymatic disorder affecting the circulatory, muscular and skeletal systems.
Smith was born in Elmhurst, Illinois. A Chicago-area hospital worker approached his parents about him auditioning for the leading role in The Mighty , a feature film about a character with Morquio Syndrome. Kieran Culkin was cast instead, but Smith was recommended for the title role of Simon Birch (1998), a film based loosely on John Irving's novel A Prayer for Owen Meany , which also called for a small child actor.
He graduated from York Community High School in Elmhurst in 2005. He has undergone several operations including a spinal fusion and two bilateral osteotomies. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009, and Gallaudet University in 2012 and now works as a software engineer. He is a co-founder of a nonprofit organization, Project Alloy, that gives assistance to underrepresented people in tech fields. [4] [5] In 2019, he joined a class action lawsuit against the City of Oakland for excluding people with disabilities from the city’s rent control program. [6] [7]