Ilan Mitchell-Smith is a former Hollywood actor, perhaps best known for the role of Wyatt Donnelly from “Weird Science,” who now works as a professor of medieval literature at California State University, Long Beach.
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Contents
Early life and family
Ilan M. Mitchell-Smith was born on June 29, 1969 in Amherst, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, USA so he is of American nationality and his zodiac sign is Cancer. He is of Jewish-Russian descent. Ilan is the son of psychotherapist Clary Mitchell-Smith and an art history teacher at Massachusetts Community College Lawrence “Larry” Smith. His parents divorced in 1970, sharing custody of Ilan and his older sister Natania; she is now an artist and potter living in England and holds the position of Head of the Visual and Performing Arts Department at The Williston, Northampton School.
Their mother later left for Hawaii to get married a second time. Ilan was passionate about performing from his early years. He was fond of ballet and even attended the New York City Ballet Company’s School of American Ballet at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where he won a scholarship to dance.
Educational background
After graduating from Amherst Regional High School and earning a high school equivalency degree when he was 17 years old, Ilan focused on his acting career for ten years before returning to his education and enrolling at Santa Monica College, California. His educational background was later enriched with an AB in Medieval Studies from the University of California, Davis and an MA from Fordham University, New York. He later received his PhD from Texas A&M University in 2005.
Career
Acting career: first steps
Ilan was noticed by a casting director at the age of 11 while performing in one of his ballet shows. He was invited to be part of the cast of the drama “Daniel” (1983), which gave him the role of the young version of the title character of the film. In the same year, he appeared as Milo Crimpley in “How to Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days”, a TV movie directed by Joan Micklin Silver. In 1984, he played Jim Conrad in the comedy “The Wild Life”, starring Eric Stoltz and Chris Penn. He also played Anthony Ganucci in the episode “The Confirmation Day” of the hit TV series “The Equalizer” in 1985.
Starring “Weird Science”
In 1985, Ilan also landed the role he still calls his most recognizable; at age 15, he passed the audition to get the role of Wyatt Donnelly and joined the cast of “Weird Science”, a teen science fiction film. He shared the screen with Robert Downey Jr., Bill Paxton and Anthony Michael Hall, he was also admired by the star of the film, Kelly LeBrock – she even warmly once kissed him at one of the parties they attended together. Ilan was said to be very decent while working on set; his fellow actress Judie Aronson, who played Ilan’s on-screen girlfriend, shared her memories: “Although he shared the screen with future stars <…> he noticed anyway. All the other guys on set were extremely wild and carefree and crazy.
Ilan was very well-bred, well-mannered,” she said during her interview to People in 2000. “Weird Science” was a huge success, so the producers later created a TV series based on the film’s plot, which had the same title, starring John Mallory Asher as Gary Wallace and Michael Manasseri as Wyatt Donnelly. The role of ‘a perfect girlfriend’ named Lisa was landed by Vanessa Angel.
Further acting career and latest works on screen
After a huge success of “Weird Science”, in 1988 Ilan got the role of Bryan in “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. He then played Jerry Renault in “The Chocolate War” the same year, and Sebastian in “Identity Crisis” in 1989. From 1989 to 1991, he was in the recurring cast of “Superboy”, playing Andy McAlister.
He also appeared as Gabriel Evans in the episode “Men Seeking Women” in the TV series “Silk Stalkings” in 1991, but in the same year he finally understood that he no longer wanted to act and decided to focus on his academic career: ‘The feeling I had was that I don’t like this’ [acting] a lot; it gets in the way of what I really want to do, which is to be in academia,” he told People in his 2000 interview.
However, in 2015, he returned to acting to voice several characters in the episode “Heads Will Roll” of the animated series “Ax Cop”. He also appeared as Mr. Connelly in the episode “Weird Science” of the comedy series “The Goldbergs” in 2017.
Academic career
Ilan once said that he had always been fascinated by all things medieval: ‘From my first memory of watching a little knight on the horse by my father’s bed, I thought, ‘That’s it, that’s true. I love’, he shared his thoughts in one of his Interviews. So, disappointed with the Hollywood lifestyle, Ilan went back to college, as described earlier. While living in San Angelo, Texas, where he moved in 1998, Ilan spent several years as a professor of English medieval literature at Angelo State University. He then moved to Long Beach, California to work as an associate professor in the English Department of California State University (CSU Long Beach).
Ilan publishes extensively on chivalry and knights of the Middle Ages; he also publishes on video games, TV series and movies that refer to medieval culture.
Ilan Mitchell-Smith
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When asked about his choice to study Middle Ages to be valid, Ilan always says: answers it was the right choice, because it made him happy to do something he loved, ‘even when it comes to knights and chivalry’.
Personal life, wife Susannah Demaree
Ilan met his future wife, Susannah Demaree, in 1992 when he was a student at Santa Monica Junior College, as she also studied there. Susannah knew nothing about Ilan’s past acting career and couldn’t recognize a teenage actor in her new boyfriend. She only learned the truth about his previous career when they talked about their favorite movies: Susannah said that her favorite movie was “The Chocolate War”, which starred Ilan. He couldn’t stop laughing because Susannah didn’t recognize him then, so he finally explained to her why he was laughing so hard.
After dating for a few years, Ilan and Susannah married in 1995. They gave birth to their first child, a daughter they named Eloise in 1998. In 2000, the couple welcomed another child, a son named Asher. After graduating from Ernest S. McBride High School in 2018, Asher now studies film and electronic arts at California State University, Long Beach; he will graduate with a BA in 2022. Asher calls himself an aspiring screenwriter.
As for Susannah, she worked as an assistant special education instructor, but dropped out to care for their children. Her current occupation is unknown.
Hobbies, favorite things and interesting facts
Ilan loves table games. He has published many articles on Dungeons and Dragons and has also worked as a freelance writer for Talk Wargaming, Forces of Geek (where he has a column entitled “Playing the Nerd”) and many other online gaming resources.
Ilan sometimes volunteers as a technical writer and editor, and works for some small “indie” game studios that develop tabletop games; he also helps organize annual events for tabletop gamers in Southern California. Ilan is a staunch supporter of the “Black Lives Matter” manifestos and protests.
Ilan doesn’t like to be recognized by his students, so when he says he looks like the main character of “Weird Science”, he says answers: ‘Yes, everyone tells me that’.
Appearance, clothing style
Ilan has short dark brown hair and blue eyes. He is 1.78 m tall and weighs about 76 kg. When not at work, he likes to wear comfortable hoodies with game-related prints, Bermuda shorts and other casual outfits.
Wealth and salary
It is known that Ilan received $150,000 for the lead role in “Weird Science” in 1985. As of 2020, Ilan’s net worth is reportedly over $300,000.
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