In 1996, Tracy D. Smith received a B.A. in English Literature from the University of British Columbia. She returned to UBC in 2000 for graduate school and attained an M.F.A. in Creative Writing with an emphasis on fiction and screenplay.
From early 2003 to January 2006, Tracy was part of the Brightlight Pictures' Development Department in which she was active in the development of projects such as "Going the Distance" (2004) for CHUM Television and Bruce Sweeney's feature "American Venus".
In 2004, she participated in the Praxis Screenwriting Story Editor Internship Program where she was mentored by screenwriter and story editor Sharon Riis.
Her short film "Sandra Gets Dumped" (Carly Pope) which she wrote and directed, was one of the five winning shorts for the 2005 Crazy8s Film Competition and was nominated for four Leo Awards including Best Short Drama. Tracy's subsequent short project, "Sandra Goes to Whistler aka Sandra Get Laid" was produced as one of the three projects for the Whistler Film Festival's Whistler Stories Program and screened as part of the Opening Gala Event in December 2005.
In January 2008, Tracy guest taught screenwriting at her alma mater in Creative Writing Department at UBC. Recently, Tracy has been a director for the Vancouver Film School's Writing Department Portfolio Shorts Program in which guest directors bring writing students' short scripts to the screen. She has completed twelve projects for them, one of which, "Unbearable Love" screened at the 2007 Montreal Worlds Film Festival.

In 2007, she was also a participant in the NSI Features First Program as director of "Saddlebags", a feminist western comedy written by Christine Lippa. The script is currently in development with Telefilm with Angela Heck as producer. Tracy also wrote and directed a series of 65 three-minute segments starring CBC's national show "Living Vancouver" with hosts Christine Lippa, Carmen Moore and Lynda Boyd.
Her feature film debut entitled "Taming Tammy", a lively modern adaptation of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" starring Aleks Paunovic, Sarah-Jane Redmond and Garry Chalk, premiered at the 2007 Vancouver Film Festival to a sold out audience. The film was one of five films to be nominated for the CityTV Western Canada Feature Film Award.
In the summer of 2008, she entered the Mighty Asian Movie Marathon and collaborated with writer Ian Tang, actress Maggie Ma and editor Greg Ng to make "Curse of the Jade Falcon" which garnered first prize as Best Short Film of the competition. It also screened as part of the Vancouver Asian Film Festival in November 2008.
Her short film "The Brute" starring Lynda Boyd was screened as part of the 2008 Vancouver International Film Festival. The short was funded as part of the Naitonal Film Board's Filmaker's Assistant Program.
Determined to make a film outside of her usual comedy genre, Tracy entered the Bloodshots 48 hour Fast Film Contest and with her first attempt at the horror genre won both the Grand Prize and Audience Award for "No Means No".
Her most recent project is a short film, funded by the BC Arts Council, entitled "Homestead" (starring Laura Mennell and Christine Lippa) which is a Gothic Western about a mail order bride who arrives at her new home, an isolated homestead, to find a pistol totting squatter laying claim to the meagre cabin and no husband in sight. With nowhere else to go, she finds herself defending not only her claim on the property but also fighting for her life.