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Ian Michael Smith (born May 5, 1987) is an American actor, known for his starring role in Simon Birch.

His short physical stature (3 ft 1 in (0.94 m)) is a result of Morquio syndrome, a rare enzymatic disorder affecting the circulatory, muscular and skeletal systems.

Life and work

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. 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.

References

1. Holden, Stephen (September 11, 1998). "FILM REVIEW; Tiny Boy With an Enormously Consuming Quest". The New York Times.
2. "SIMON BIRCH". British Board of Film Classification. 1998-10-06. Retrieved 2012-12-20.
3. Ian Michael Smith at Hollywood.com
4. "Beyond Disability 101: Ian Smith's Hopes for Tech | Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability". longmoreinstitute.sfsu.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-09-28. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
5. "Reasons to be cheerful". TechCrunch. 30 April 2017. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
6. "Renters with disabilities sue Oakland for housing discrimination". The Mercury News. 2019-08-28. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
7. "Disabled Tenants Sue Oakland Over Rent Control Laws, High Cost Of Accessible Homes". 2019-08-28. Retrieved 2019-11-23.

External links

• Ian Michael Smith at IMDb
• Ian Michael Smith at Hollywood.com

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• 1987 births
• Male actors from Illinois
• American male child actors
• American male film actors
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• People from Elmhurst, Illinois
• 20th-century American male actors
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
• Gallaudet University alumni
• American film actor, 1980s birth stubs