Biography
Charise Castro Smith is an American writer, playwright, producer and director. She was born on 30 August 1983 in Miami, Florida, and is Cuban American. She holds a BA from Brown University and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
She began her career as a playwright, with works including El Huracán (premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre) and Estrella Cruz: The Junkyard Queen. She later moved into television, writing episodes of The Exorcist (2016), The Haunting of Hill House (2018) and Sweetbitter (2019), and serving as a producer on several of these series.
Castro Smith co-wrote the story and screenplay for the Disney animated film Encanto (2021) and co-directed it with Byron Howard and Jared Bush.
