Christina Schmidt

Biography

Schmidt was born and raised in the Kitchener-Waterloo area and currently resides in Bradford, Ontario. Schmidt took acting classes with television actor Dean Armstrong, known in the United States for his participation on Showtime's Queer as Folk series. She also trained, before becoming an actress, with Kids on Camera, and The Second City, two prestigious training companies for aspiring actors. Her classes led to her first appearance, in the 2000 short film Notes from Mother.

Her big break came when she was hired to play Terri McGreggor in the Canadian television hit Degrassi: The Next Generation. Playing Terri represented a challenge for the teenage actress, because the character is insecure about her self-image and appearance and soon later on, becomes entangled in an abusive relationship near the end of her run on the show. Schmidt was credited as a regular character on Degrassi through seasons 1-3 (2001–2004). After that, Christina left the show to continue her career in modeling. The producers explained to the audience that her character, Terri, left Degrassi due to fear of being around her abusive on-screen boyfriend Rick, who put Terri in a coma near the end of the third season.

By 2005, Schmidt had begun to gain worldwide fame, as Degrassi was being seen in countries such as Australia and the United States, where it is broadcast by Nickelodeon's The N channel.

Christina is represented for fashion and print modelling by B&M Models in Toronto. She appeared in the Fall 2007 ad campaign for MXM, which is a Canadian junior plus-size clothing line, has modelled for Torrid, and currently appears in the campaigns for Nygard. She also stars as one of the professional runway models in the show How To Look Good Naked Canada on the W Network.

Awards

At the 2005 Young Artist Awards in Los Angeles, Christina won the award for "Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) - Supporting Young Actress" for her role as Terri on Degrassi: The Next Generation.