title: Ian Michael Smith
text: # Ian Michael Smith
  
  Ian Michael Smith (born May 5, 1987) is an American actor, known for his starring role in Simon Birch.
  
  His short physical stature (3 ft 1 in (0.94 m)) is a result of Morquio syndrome, a rare enzymatic disorder affecting the circulatory, muscular and skeletal systems.
  
  ## Life and work
  
  Smith was born in Elmhurst, Illinois. A Chicago-area hospital worker approached his parents about him auditioning for the leading role in The Mighty, a feature film about a character with Morquio Syndrome. Kieran Culkin was cast instead, but Smith was recommended for the title role of Simon Birch (1998), a film based loosely on John Irving's novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, which also called for a small child actor.
  
  He graduated from York Community High School in Elmhurst in 2005. He has undergone several operations including a spinal fusion and two bilateral osteotomies. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009, and Gallaudet University in 2012 and now works as a software engineer. He is a co-founder of a nonprofit organization, Project Alloy, that gives assistance to underrepresented people in tech fields. In 2019, he joined a class action lawsuit against the City of Oakland for excluding people with disabilities from the city’s rent control program.
  
  