Smear-ripened cheeses develop a viscous, red-orange smear on their surfaces during ripening. For this reason, they are also called red-smear cheeses or bacterial surface-ripened cheeses. During the past decade, tremendous progress has been made in the understanding of the microbiology of the surface microbiota of these cheeses. This progress stems from the knowledge of their microbial diversity gained through the use of culture-dependent and independent methods including high-throughput sequencing, the genomics of the microorganisms composing the smear microbiota with the sequencing of yeast and bacterial species of technological interest, the functions of these microorganisms and their interactions. In this chapter, we will review the current knowledge on the smear cheese microbiota including the factors affecting ripening of smear cheeses, their microbial diversity, the sources of these microorganisms, their genomic features and functions and the pathogens associated with smear cheeses and their control.