Christopher Smith (15 October 1984 in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England) is an English actor and producer.

Career

Smith attended Stage 84 drama school in Bradford, where his mother was choreographer, and at the age of four, he was picked from 50 auditionees when

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

visited the school searching for a new boy to play

Robert Sugden Robert Sugden (also Sugden-Dingle) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale''. The character originally appeared on the show regularly between 22 April 1986 and 3 October 2005. During that time he was first played a ...

in the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

Emmerdale ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, '' ...

''. His father, Richard Smith, also acts and appeared in a minor role in ''Emmerdale'' before Smith joined the cast. Smith is best known for playing Robert Sugden from 1989 until 2001, when he was axed and replaced by

Karl Davies Karl Davies (born 6 August 1982) is an English actor, and voice actor, who portrayed Lyle Anderson in the TV series ''Kingdom''. Previously he had portrayed Robert Sugden in the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale''. Career Davies took over the role o ...

. In September 2001, Smith sued Yorkshire Television for

unfair dismissal In labour law, unfair dismissal is an act of employment termination made without good reason or contrary to the country's specific legislation. Situation per country Australia (See: '' unfair dismissal in Australia'') Australia has long-standing ...

from his part as Robert. The axing was due to the producers' intentions to feature Robert in more adult plots, therefore requiring an older actor for the part. The recasting took place while Robert was off-screen visiting his grandmother,

Annie Sugden Annie Sugden (also Pearson, Kempinski and Brearly) is a fictional character from the British television soap opera ''Emmerdale''. She was played by Sheila Mercier as a regular character between 1972 and 1994, with occasional guest appearances in ...

, in Spain after learning his adoptive brother

Andy Andy may refer to: People *Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds *Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and piano ...

was responsible for starting the barn fire that killed his stepmother. Smith currently works as a producer on the acclaimed talk show ''

Talking Dead ''Talking Dead'' is a live television aftershow in which host Chris Hardwick discusses episodes of the AMC television series '' The Walking Dead'', '' Fear the Walking Dead'' and '' The Walking Dead: World Beyond'' with guests, including celebrity ...

''.

External links

*
Interview with Christopher Smith
from ''Inside Soap'' magazine 2003 (Andy Baker) {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Christopher 1984 births Living people Male actors from Bradford People educated at St. Mary's Catholic High School, Menston