She ultimately graduated from Brown University in 1997 with a double degree in creative writing and economics, and spent seven years working as an economist at the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
In 2007, she attended an International Playwriting Residency with the Royal Court Theatre in London, which was where she developed the play Boom.
The company's roots lie in her belief that "new voices and stories need to be given a platform to be heard, and writers need a supportive environment to learn and grow.
"[4] Tay's earliest plays explored the subjugation of women under traditional Chinese patriarchy, as in the case of Water from the Well, which looks at female infanticide, and The Knot, which shows a woman escaping the bonds of marriage.
[5] Her later works consider family ties in broader terms, as in the case of Everything but the Brain deals with a woman whose physicist father is dying of a stroke, and Boom, in which a son attempts to persuade his mother to let allow her apartment to be demolished.