Born in Alaska, Kat Smith is from the Eagle clan of the Tsimshian tribe. She grew up in the Seattle area, spending her summers in her family's hometown, a fishing village called Metlakatla. She began theater in 1998, and over the years has trained in various disciplines of acting from training in Stanislavski to studying with Anthony Meindl in one of his final intro classes at his school.

She attained her Bachelor degree in Theater and Drama Arts with a minor in Psychology from Washington State University.

While in college, Kat starred as "The Green M&M" in her first short film titled "M&M Love". Her experience lead her to her first feature film "Juanita" starring Alfre Woodard and directed by actor/director Clark Johnson.