Sarah Adina Smith is an American film writer, director, and editor.^[1][2] Films she has directed include Buster's Mal Heart (2016),^[3] and The Midnight Swim (2014). She also directed two episodes from the television series Room 104. Her films often center around mysticism, spirituality and psychology, and the surreal.^[4] Smith also directed several acclaimed television pilots, including Hanna, Looking for Alaska, and Lessons in Chemistry. ^[5]

Smith was born in Fort Collins, Colorado. She graduated from Poudre High School in 2001, and studied philosophy at Columbia University in New York.^[6]

Smith's first feature as director, The Midnight Swim, was released in 2014. The film was noted for its shifts in visual style,^[7] and won six awards on the festival circuit, including the audience award from AFI Fest.^[8][9]

Her sophomore feature, Buster's Mal Heart,^[10] premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, and stars Rami Malek, DJ Qualls, and Kate Lyn Sheil.^[11]

Smith co-wrote the screenplay for the film Unlovable, which screened at the SXSW festival in 2018.^[12]

In 2018 Smith was chosen to direct the first two episodes of television adaptation of the film Hanna.^[13][14] In 2019, she directed one episode of the television adaptation of the novel Looking for Alaska.

She wrote and directed the 2021 film Birds of Paradise^[15] and the 2022 film The Drop.^[16]

In 2023, Smith directed two episodes of Lessons in Chemistry for Apple TV+.^[17][18] In 2024, she won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Limited Series for directing "Her and Him" from Lessons in Chemistry.^[19]