The acting bug came early for Kerr Smith '94. 

“The first thing I told my parents was that I wanted to be a clown.” 

He describes the look on their faces then, in their suburban Philadelphia home, “akin to when George Costanza told his parents he wanted to be a ventriloquist.”  

Years later, in fifth grade, Smith discovered a passion for health and human anatomy and found that “'doctor’ went over much better.” 

His sophomore year of high school, he got reeled back in by an acting teacher named Mrs. Moran. Her students would perform scenes from plays and present them at local elementary schools.

After his groundbreaking role as Jack McPhee on the 90s cult-classic television show, Dawson’s Creek, Smith became a licensed pilot, a brewmaster, and is on the brink of releasing his first book — a blend of memoir and tell-all on the famed show. 

The project has given him some perspective on his early life. He sat down with us from his home on California's Central Coast to reflect on his time at UVM and his career.

The UVM Years 

Tripled up in Wilks on the Redstone campus, Kerr Smith began the process of learning how to exist on his own – the overarching lesson from his UVM days. 

The long frigid walks to campus eventually led him to an apartment off School Street, shared with friends during his sophomore and junior years.  

Smith hit the Greek scene, joining Kappa Sigma as a freshman. His senior year, he moved into the fraternity house, becoming its treasurer and chief justice of the Greek judicial board. 

As for his major, it wasn’t theatre. Smith pursued a dual degree in finance and accounting. Tied up with two demanding majors, extracurriculars — which included one season on the ski patrol at Stowe — and the demands of Greek life, he also discovered university productions were limited to theatre majors at the time. 

But that hunger for performing was irrepressible. It would fester soon after graduation, following a six-month stint back home working in marketing, and lead him to New York City. 

This time, he took his parents aside and told them he didn’t want to wake up someday with a lot of "what-ifs." So, he sold his truck, and with that money, moved to New York. 

Smith got to work quicker than most, landing a contract role within nine months and before he'd even signed with an agent.  

“I ended up getting the job myself. Around that time, a friend of mine in New York had just been cast as the new villain on As the World Turns. One day he reached out and said, 'Kerr, there's a role opening up here that has your name written all over it.'"

Smith prepared for the audition. Not only did he book the role, he would remain on the soap for 18 months.  

"It was bootcamp for actors. I mean, if your storyline even is remotely popular, you're doing 20 pages a day -- which to me now, as prime time and movie guy, that's ridiculous. We don't do that. We do a couple pages a day in movies and maybe, maybe five or six in prime time...So, I call it bootcamp for actors because if you don't learn quickly, you're out.” 

After about two and a half years in New York, Smith set his sights on Los Angeles. 

"And that's when a whole new chapter of my life started.” 

A moment is crystallized in Smith’s memory along that four-day drive to Venice Beach: 

This is the part that leans stranger than fiction. 

One of Smith’s first auditions? Party of Five, as the love interest of Julia Salinger, played by Neve Campbell.

Around that time, Smith landed a general meeting that included a one-on-one with the head casting director of the Warner Brothers network, Kathleen Letterie.  

"When I got up and started to walk out of that meeting, she said, ‘Kerr. I don't know what it is, but I'm going to find a place for you on our network.’” 

Seven weeks later, Smith flew to Wilmington, North Carolina to shoot Dawson’s Creek in the role of Jack McPhee, alongside Meredith Monroe, playing his sister Andie, both written as newcomers to Capeside High. 

Reflecting on these windfalls as luck or something else, Smith says, “the universe just kind of has to catch up to what you already believe to make it real for you. That's exactly what happened [for me].” 

From UVM to Capeside

When Smith and Monroe arrived in Wilmington, they were soon met with warmth from the cast.

"I remember on that day I got a call from Katie [Holmes], whom I had never met,” Smith says. “And she's like, ‘Alright, you're playing my boyfriend. Let's go get some dinner.’"

This connection with Holmes, who played Joey Potter, made it easy for Smith to integrate into the cast, who at that point had only been together for 13 episodes.

"I remember meeting Josh [Jackson] for the first time and he's like, ‘Get ready, man. Your life is about to change. Give it about two, three months.' And he was right. Never the same.” 

It wasn’t long before Jackson’s comment reverberated for Smith. Everyday tasks, like going to the grocery store, came under the sudden glare of the public eye. 

Smith is referring to the evolution his character made on the show. In 2000, deep into the third season (alongside show creator Kevin Williamson, producer Greg Berlanti, and the writing team), Smith helped make television history by sharing the first male gay kiss on American TV with co-star Adam Kaufman, an important milestone for queer visibility. 

The Reunion

After Dawson's came a string of other projects in both film and television, including Charmed, Final Destination, and Riverdale.

Throughout all that, his friendship with the late James Van Der Beek, who played the titular role on Dawson's Creek, deepened as it transformed.

They became on-set friends dealing with the strangeness of fame in a small town; then, as grown men riding out divorces to their first wives and converging during media conventions on the road. Its last phase, as fifty-year-old men with unusual lives, was bittersweet. 

The Dawson’s Creek cast decided to throw a reunion in support of Van Der Beek, who had by then publicly shared his colon cancer diagnosis. Event proceeds also supported the organization F Cancer.

Van Der Beek was slated to attend the event, called "Class Reunion," for a live reading of the show’s 1998 pilot episode but was admitted to the hospital just before the September 2025 event. 

"One of the highlights for me was watching James' family walk out into the audience before the show and receive an overwhelming standing ovation.” 

Van Der Beek passed away on February 11, 2026.

"Heart Lasts Forever"

It's not surprising that Smith has been giving his Capeside High years a lot of thought. So much so that he’s working on a book about the experience, and the show itself, called I Don’t Want to Wait, My Life on Dawson’s Creek.

He handed in the manuscript last Thanksgiving, and the book is set to release almost one year later on November 10th, 2026.

He says there’s “a little bit about me in the beginning...but it’s about Dawson’s Creek. And it’s as if you’re sitting on my shoulder and I’m taking you through that experience with me.”

Somewhere in the mix, Smith also had a six-year stint as a brewery owner in Venice Beach (and still enjoys his own homebrews), and became a licensed pilot, with a small side company that sells different accessories he creates for flight simulation.

Despite being semi-retired, Smith keeps busy. Reflecting on his career, he offers this advice to other Hollywood hopefuls:

Smith's book is now available for preorders, here or wherever books are sold.