Christie Lynn Smith

One word that instantly comes to mind when describing Christie Lynn's
acting talent is versatile. With her natural beauty and strong
emotional depth, Christie has been termed a chameleon for her ability
to morph from character to another character. Equally adept at drama
and comedy, she is now a veteran of over forty television series and a
wonderful collection of films.Christie spent most of her childhood growing up in the small town of
Orange Park, Florida. Her acting career started during high school,
doing local commercials and industrials. But her love for acting began
years earlier when, as a child, she would pretend to be
Olivia Newton-John from the film,
Grease (1978), and act out scenes with
neighborhood friends.She earned her Screen Actors Guild card right out of high school by
landing a guest spot on the television show,
Super Force (1990), and followed
it up with an even bigger guest-starring role on the series,
Swamp Thing (1990), that had
local casting directors taking notice of this young talent. Christie
Lynn knew she had to move to Hollywood to pursue her love of acting and
storytelling and that's what she did. She dove into acting classes with
famed acting coaches Cameron Thor,
Howard Fine,
Jay R. Goldenberg, the renowned
Uta Hagen,
Eric Morris and the Los Angeles
comedy troupe, "The Groundlings".Her hard work was quickly rewarded. Christie was snapped up to star in
the soap opera, Forever (1996), that
would take her on location to film in Mexico City for a year. With 160
episodes under her belt, she returned to Los Angeles and landed her
first lead role in a television pilot,
USMA West Point (1998).
Christie then started to work consistently in television,
guest-starring on many of
Aaron Spelling's hit shows, like
Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990),
7th Heaven (1996) and
Charmed (1998). Her most recent
television credits range from recurring roles on
Bones (2005),
Malcolm in the Middle (2000),
General Hospital (1963) and
Days of Our Lives (1965) to
guest appearances on
Justified (2010),
Chase (2010),
Castle (2009),
Boston Legal (2004),
House (2004),
Three Rivers (2009),
Saving Grace (2007),
ER (1994),
Las Vegas (2003),
Monk (2002),
Without a Trace (2002) and
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000),
to name a few.Christie Lynn's film career started out with a bang in 2001, when she
was hand-picked by the most prestigious casting directors in Hollywood,
Jane Jenkins and
Janet Hirshenson
(A Beautiful Mind (2001),
The Da Vinci Code (2006)) for
the lead role of "Susie Downey", the perky church girl with a hidden
secret, in the comedy,
What Boys Like (2003) (aka "What
Boys Like").She followed that film with the role of "Catherine Carter Corbin", the
demure Southern belle in Ted Turner's
Civil War epic,
Gods and Generals (2003),
starring Robert Duvall,
Stephen Lang and
Jeff Daniels.Other film roles include the thriller,
The Last Stop Cafe (2003), for
which she was nominated for Best Actress at the Eerie Horror Film
Festival for her role as a serial killer on the run. Christie then
starred in the dark psychological drama,
Inside Irvin (2004), portraying a
tortured agoraphobic. She received rave reviews, the most complimentary
of all from Todd Davis at CBS
Radio, who said, "Kudos to... actress Christie Lynn Smith, whose work
here is worthy of Academy Award acknowledgment".Soon after, Christie starred in
Grace (2006), as one of only two
characters in the award-winning short film. Actor/director
Laurence Fishburne praised the film's
"sensitive, illuminating performances". Christie's raw portrayal of the
suicidal "Rae" also garnered her a Leading Actor Accolade film award in
2007 and a Best Actress nomination from the film festival Method Fest.In 2008, Christie took on her biggest and best role yet, becoming a new
mom. She gave birth to her beautiful daughter, Abby Ryder, on March 14,
2008.After taking some time off to spend with her new baby and husband,
actor John Fortson, Christie booked two
films back to back. The first was the lead role of "May Keifner", the
dry-witted, ballsy woman in the feature
Ticket Out (2012), also starring
Ray Liotta and
Billy Burke. The film was produced
by Oscar-nominated director Chris Noonan
(Babe (1995) and
Miss Potter (2006)). Christie then
went straight into production on
The Crazies (2010), the remake of the
classic George A. Romero film,
playing "Deardra Farnum", a protective mother living in a small town
beset by death. The film is directed by
Breck Eisner
(Sahara (2005)) and produced by
Michael Aguilar
(The Departed (2006)).When Christie is not acting, she loves spending time with her family,
practicing yoga, hiking, traveling, surfing, cooking, having afternoon
tea and playing gin rummy - more specifically, beating her husband at
gin rummy.Great things lie ahead for this beautiful, multi-talented chameleon who
continues to create real and moving characters time and time again.