“My story is a story of letting the winds blow me around until the winds have landed at Hogwarts,” – Emmet Smith
The road to the Broadway stage is unpredictable, yet every performer needs a starting point. For Smith, his inspiration stemmed from his father and brother, which helped him decide to follow in their footsteps.
“My dad’s a Broadway music director, so I was always kind of around theatre, but it didn’t really cross my mind to act or do plays or musicals till my brother started,” Smith said.
Growing up, Smith attended Pied Piper Theatre in New York, and in high school, he decided to pursue a career in musical theatre. However, while attending Northwestern University, he realized he wanted to pursue musical theatre writing, before ultimately returning to a career in performing arts.
In 2024, Smith took on the role of Albus Potter, the son of Harry Potter, in the first national tour of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”
“It was really fun and it was getting to sort of build this piece that has been running for so long as kind of a new version,” Smith said. “It was a really cool experience, getting to travel the country and play at these amazing theatre destinations.”
The “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” community fosters a supportive environment for Smith, where he continues to build lifelong connections.
“This show breeds like a good community,” Smith said. “You have to trust and rely on each other. There are so many of us across generations that there’s a web of care and knowledge that we have to tap on every day.”
Aidan Close and Emmet Smith on the red carpet (Photo by Daniel Rader)
John Skelley and Emmet Smith performing in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” (Photo by Matthew Murphy)
Continuing to work alongside Aidan Close (Scorpius Malfoy) allows Smith to simultaneously improve his acting skills and strengthen their friendship.
“[Aidan and I] have built something profound together and we get to keep iterating on it every day,” Smith said. “To have someone who you know balances you to ride the waves makes the ship possible to sail.”
As a professional Broadway actor, having a perfect show is nearly impossible. But the beauty of performing on Broadway is that even when things don’t go as planned, the magic never disappears.
“The knowledge that there will never be a perfect show is what keeps us fresh and alive,” Smith said. “We keep whittling away at the spear to make it perfectly sharp, but you have to keep whittling every day to keep it maintained.”
Broadway doesn’t allow for a lot of hobbies as the schedules are very demanding. Outside of performing, Smith enjoys a good game of baseball.
“Broadway does have a softball league that starts soon, and my greatest joy of my childhood was baseball,” Smith said. “Getting to play softball with my Broadway colleagues will probably be the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”
