Hillary B. Smith originated the role of Nora Hanan in September 1992, a headstrong attorney whose quick wit has kept her smiling through some difficult times. Ms. Smith received the Daytime Emmy Award as Outstanding Lead Actress in 1994 for her portrayal of the incredibly charming, irrepressible Nora, and was nominated again for the award in 2000.

The youngest of four girls, Hillary was raised in Palm Beach, Florida. At 14 she returned to Massachusetts, where she was born, to attend boarding school. While enrolled at Dana Hall School, she worked with a geneticist at the New England Medical Center. She attended Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, where she headed the drama club, and transferred to Sarah Lawrence College because it had a Masters program in genetics as well as theater. It wasn't long before she turned her attention from gene screening to screen-testing.

While still a senior in college, Smith performed off-Broadway in Song Night in the City. She has also appeared in the off-Broadway production of World of Black and White and the Broadway musical A Real American Hero. She also performed in Wendy Wasserstein's Broadway play, The Heidi Chronicles, and off-Broadway in Lips Together and Teeth Apart.

Motion pictures in which she has appeared are Purple Hearts, Love Potion #9, It Had to Be You, and Life Breath with Luke Perry. Hillary appeared in the feature film Maid in Manhattan starring Jennifer Lopez and filmed a role in Todd Solondz's film Palindromes.

Smith's primetime television experience includes starring opposite Gene Wilder in Something Wilder, and a co-starring role on the series No Soap Radio, with Steve Guttenberg. Daytime audiences are familiar with Smith on The Doctors, as nurse Kit McCormick, and on As the World Turns, where she played policewoman Margo Hughes for six-and-a-half years. She left As the World Turns in 1989, after the birth of her second child, Phips, who originated the role of Adam Hughes, Margo's son.

In June 2003, Hillary and her OLTL co-star Catherine Hickland debuted their live comedy show A Couple of Soap Chicks at The Brokerage in Bellmore, NY.

Smith is an inveterate lover of word and card games and an avid tennis and golf player. She and her husband, Phillip "Nip" Smith -- whom she met at age 14 -- have two children, Courtney and Philip IV.

For an exclusive Soap Central interview with Hillary, please click here.

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Who's Who: Read a biography of Nora Buchanan.

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