The mountain is as high for an acting career as it is for an athlete.
With training and dedication working with innate talent, reaching the professional ranks of stage and screen is an attainable goal for any aspiring Prince George actor.
There are plenty of past examples to look to: Demitri Goritsas, Linda Carson, Izaak Smith, Grace Dove, Steven Cree Molison, Donna Starnes-Feore, Sonya Salomaa, Kim Selody, Robert Seeliger, Chad Willett, Nicholas Harrison, and many others.
The latest name to be seen in lights is Madison Smith, and the young screen star will be back in his hometown this coming week to meet the public, talk a bit about how he earned his way into film and television casts, and how others can follow a similar path.
He is one of the VIPs coming to Northern FanCon.
He isn't coming on stale-dated credits, either. Smith has been a hot commodity as a co-star in two series, NarcoLeap and Salvation, that are both getting rave reactions in the public.
He was also in a 2019 episode of Supergirl, guested on Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, and on Valley Of The Boom, plus he was in the recently released TV movie Valentine In The Vineyard.
Oh, and, he was just named one of this year's nominees for the coveted Leo Award (Best Performance Male-Web Series for his work in NarcoLeap).
"It's insane to be nominated for a Leo award," he told The Citizen.
"It's one of the goals every B.C. performer strives for so to get that recognition for an amazing project like NarcoLeap is an amazing honour. I knew when we were on set that this project was something special. Our team could feel it too. We had an amazing director in Kate Green, our writer David Schmidt, and our other lead cast members like Chelsey Reist, Austin Eckert, Alecks Paunovic and Nicole Oliver. I really hope that NarcoLeap is a show that gets to be made for a major audience like it deserves to be."
This is the second time Smith has been a featured face of FanCon. Back in Year 1 of the pop-culture convention, he was spotlighted as a rising star in the B.C. industry, which happens to be one of the global hotbeds for the screen arts.
All his successes in the five years since then go to show the value of his hometown fan fair. He said it was important to him to come back having lived up to that early profile.
"My career has had some amazing highs and a few lows," he said.
"But I'm so happy with where things have taken me. Last year is a testament to being patient and putting in the work. I started the year off with NarcoLeap and clearly that was an amazing opportunity for me, earning me my Leo nomination and then came my series regular role as Nate Ryland on CBS' hit series Salvation. I don't know what's next but I know that even greater things are still to come."
Another step will come soon. Smith is in the cast of the psychological thriller movie Don't Look There directed by Richard Zelniker and starring a youthful buzz-list of rising Hollywood names like Natalie Alyn Lind, Keesha Sharp, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Kenny Johnson and Kirk Acevedo in this thick ensemble cast.
Northern FanCon runs May 3-5 at CN Centre. Tickets are on sale now at the arena box office or the Tickets North website.
