Allison Smith's career started at the age of nine in the Broadway musical "Evita", which was quickly followed by her landing the title role of "Annie" on Broadway in the musical, "Annie", at the age of ten. She was the longest-running and youngest star of a Broadway musical at that time and played the role to rave reviews for nearly 3 years. She recurred in all seven seasons of NBC's The West Wing (1999) in the role of "Mallory O'Brien" and is forever remembered in the pilot for giving Rob Lowe a hard time as he realizes she is the Chief Of Staff's daughter. She was in the CBS miniseries Helter Skelter (2004), in which she portrayed real-life Charles Manson murderess Patricia Krenwinkel, and gave a stellar performance starring as the guest in the pilot of The Closer (2005). She has starred in several regular television series: Buddy Faro (1998), Spy Game (1997), and, as a teen, she played Jane Curtin's daughter "Jennie Lowell" in the Emmy-winning Kate & Allie (1984). She played the lead in the independent feature, A Reason to Believe (1995), and supporting roles in such features as Holes (2003) and Switchback (1997). Her theater work included starring in the L.A. premiere production of David Mamet's "Oleanna". She performed in "QED" opposite Alan Alda at the Mark Taper Forum and with Randy Newman in his musical, "The Education of Randy Newman", at South Coast Rep, for which her vocal performance got rave reviews. She has sung at Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall and The White House. She was born in New York City and was raised in Bergen County, New Jersey.