Mitchell-Smith received his BA in Medieval Studies from UC Davis and his MA in Medieval Studies from Fordham University. He received a doctoral degree from Texas A&M University in 2005, and he is currently an associate professor in the English department at California State University, Long Beach. For several years prior to his appointment at Cal State, he was a professor at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas. Mitchell-Smith publishes on chivalry in the later Middle Ages, and he also publishes on cinematic, television, and video game versions of medieval culture.