Hello, good people of the internet. It is time, once again, to meet the Angry Reader of the Week, spotlighting you, the very special readers of this website. Over the years, I've been able to connect with a lot of cool folks, and this is a way of showing some appreciation and attention to the people who help make this blog what it is. This week's Angry Reader is Peter James Smith.
Who are you?
...feels like a big, complicated question. I have limited time to write these responses and I don’t really know you well enough, reader, to do a deep dive. So here are a couple of small, simple answers: My name is Peter James Smith (“Peter Smith” was already taken by another Screen Actors Guild member when I joined the Guild, so I had to add my middle name when I joined). I’m most widely known for playing a minor character that appeared in all seven seasons (40+ episodes) of The West Wing.
What are you?
I'm a male-identifying actor. I've always said I'm Chinese, Mexican and Irish. However, ancestry.com has shown I'm a lot more nuanced than that.
Where are you?
Currently: Los Angeles, CA, USA, Earth, Milky Way, The Human Known Universe.
Where are you from?
I was born in Taipei, Taiwan to a U.S. Air Force man and a local record store clerk woman. I had my early childhood in small-town, Illinois and my teen and early adult years in San Diego, CA.
What do you do?
I act when and where I can. I'm most active in the Los Angeles theater scene reading new developing plays in full length readings and smaller excerpts of new scripts in various writer's labs around town. For money, I'm mostly playing medical professionals on one of those TV shows you watch.
What are you all about?
My ultimate goal as an actor is sparking empathy in the audience. If I have the opportunity to play a character far outside the experience of an audience member, yet am still able to relay a moment or an experience that that audience member can feel and recognize as something felt and recognizable within themselves, that is the biggest success I can have.
What makes you angry?
When a person’s words and actions don’t align.
