[3][4] After receiving her BA from Brown, Castro Smith attended the Yale School of Drama for her Master's in Fine Arts (MFA).
[1] Although she was studying acting, she wrote a play Estrella Cruz [the junkyard queen] that was produced at the Yale Cabaret, the student-run theatre.
[5] After graduating, Castro Smith worked primarily as an actor until she was selected for the Van Lier Fellowship Program in 2012–2013 at the New Dramatists in New York.
[3] Her plays have been inspired by an eclectic mix of works, such as Shakespeare,[7] South Park,[7] Greek myths,[8] and 1970s horror films.
Acclaimed as a "gleefully revisionist riff on rampaging colonialism,"[10] The Hunchback of Seville was inspired by Smith's interest in how Americans handle the history of Columbus and the massacres that resulted from his actions.
[1][5][6] Inspired by Hamlet, 1970s horror films, and Jon Ronson's book The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry,[5] Feathers and Teeth centers on a 13-year-old girl who loses her mom and thinks her new step-mother is a demon.
In February 2024 it was announced that Academy award nominee America Ferrera would star in and executive produce an Amazon Prime Video series based on the Katz' 1990 book Naked by the Window: The Fatal Marriage of Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta.