Cory Michael Smith

Cory Michael Smith (born November 14, 1986) is an American actor. He is best known for his main role as Edward Nygma/The Riddler in the Fox television drama series Gotham. He appeared in 2013 in Breakfast at Tiffany's on Broadway, which starred Emilia Clarke. He has also appeared in several of Todd Haynes's films, including Carol (2015), Wonderstruck (2017), and May December (2023).

Early life
Smith grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Hilliard Darby High School in 2005. He had aspirations ranging from becoming a concert pianist to a lawyer. While at Otterbein University, he was cast in such plays as The Scene, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Tartuffe. He majored in art musical theater and minored in jazz piano, although he considered dropping out of art musical theater for philosophy or pre-law.

Career
In 2011, Smith was seen in the New York City premiere of The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World at Playwrights Horizons and in 2009 to early 2012 could be seen in various regional theatre productions for the likes of New York Stage and Film. He starred in The Fantasticks at both Barrington Stage Company and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. He was also seen in Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them.

Smith made his Broadway debut in Breakfast at Tiffany's in 2013. In the same theatre season, he also starred Off-Broadway in both the U.S. premiere of Cock a.k.a. The Cockfight Play by Mike Bartlett and The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter, which had its world premiere at Denver Center for the Performing Arts with the New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons. His first feature film was Camp X-Ray, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in January. He appeared in a short horror movie, Dog Food, co-starring Amanda Seyfried and premiered at the 2014 South by Southwest in March. Smith also appeared in the HBO mini-series Olive Kitteridge and the film Carol. In 2018, he starred in his first leading role in the independent drama 1985. Smith also appeared as Georgie in the 2023 drama May December.

Smith has also narrated an episode of The New York Times Modern Love Podcast, for which he read Kalle Oskari Mattila's essay about catfishing.

Gotham
He appears in Gotham as Edward Nygma. Of playing the character, Smith said in an interview: "What I'm really excited about is the bottom of that curve. Going from this quite innocent, well-intentioned, joyful person to starting to find this other part of him that he didn't know he had [...] realizing that when you start taking control of situations like that, you can gain power that way." His journey, Smith says, will be to "claim his identity and claim his power and perhaps finally become someone that is a player in the field and not just this irritating, flimsy young lad."

Personal life
In a March 2018 interview, Smith stated that he is queer.