Hillary B. Smith originated the role of Nora
Buchanan in September 1992, a headstrong attorney whose quick wit has kept her
smiling through some difficult times. Ms. Smith received the Daytime Emmy Award
as Outstanding Lead Actress in 1994 for her portrayal of the incredibly
charming, irrepressible Nora, and was nominated again for the award in 2000.
The youngest of four girls, Ms. Smith was raised in Palm Beach, Florida. At 14
she returned to Massachusetts, where she was born, to attend boarding school.
While enrolled at Dana Hall School, she worked with a geneticist at the New
England Medical Center. She attended Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill,
Massachusetts, where she headed the drama club, and transferred to Sarah
Lawrence College because it had a Masters program in genetics as well as
theater. It wasn't long before she turned her attention from gene screening
to screen-testing.
While still a senior in college, Smith performed off-Broadway in Song Night
in the City. She has also appeared in the off-Broadway production of
World of Black and White and the Broadway musical A Real American Hero.
She also performed in Wendy Wasserstein's Broadway play, The Heidi
Chronicles, and off-Broadway in Lips Together, Teeth Apart, by
Terrence McNally.
Motion pictures in which she has appeared are Purple Hearts, Love
Potion #9, It Had to Be You and Life Breath with Luke Perry.
Ms. Smith appeared in the feature film Maid in Manhattan, starring
Jennifer Lopez and recently completed filming a role in Todd Solondz's next film
Palindromes.
Ms. Smith's primetime television experience includes starring opposite Gene
Wilder in Something Wilder, and a co-starring role on the series No
Soap Radio, with Steve Guttenberg. Daytime audiences are familiar with Ms.
Smith on The Doctors, as nurse Kit McCormick, and on As the World
Turns, where she played policewoman Margo Hughes for six-and-a-half years.
She left As the World Turns in 1989, after the birth of her second child,
Phips, who originated the role of Adam Hughes, Margo's son.
In June 2003, Ms. Smith and OLTL co-star Catherine Hickland debuted their
live comedy show A Couple of Soap Chicks at The Brokerage in Bellmore,
NY. The show is an offshoot of Smith and Hickland's real-life friendship and
work experience with a lot of audience participation on topics that all women
can relate to.
Ms. Smith is an inveterate lover of word and card games and an avid tennis and
golf player. She and her husband, Phillip Nip Smith — whom she met at age
14 -- have two children, Courtney and Phips.