Smith was born at Orangeburg Regional Hospital, Orangeburg, South Carolina, the second child of Patricia Ann (née Smoak), an oncology nurse, and James H. Smith, a financial planner and former US Air Force pilot. When she was one year old, her family relocated from South Carolina to Van Nuys, California. Her parents divorced when she was two; and her mother remarried when she was eight. She attended Ranchito Avenue Elementary School in Panorama City, Los Angeles and Madison Jr. High in North Hollywood, Los Angeles. She then attended North Hollywood High School, graduating in 1987.\n', '

Smith began acting as a child appearing on stage in A Christmas Carol repertory from ages 8 to 11 and starred in a stage play with Richard Dreyfuss at age 15. She performed in the original stage production of To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday and won the Dramalogue Critics Award for her performance, becoming the youngest actor up to that time to receive such an honor. She made her television debut in a McDonald\'s commercial titled "Best Friends" in 1978. \n', '

She joined the Screen Actors Guild at age nine and made her feature film debut in John Huston\'s 1982 adaptation of the Broadway musical Annie, as one of Aileen Quinn\'s fellow orphans. In 1985, she co-starred in two troubled-teen melodramas, Not My Kid and Crime of Innocence. \n', '

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