The story centers on drug dealer Louie's brother Peter, who has Asperger syndrome but makes the drug deliveries in gentrified South Brooklyn. In January 2018, his next film, Jordana Spiro's directorial debut "Night Comes On", had him portraying a store clerk. The work is a revenge piece with Angel Lamere (Dominique Fishback) avenging her mother's murder. It debuted at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In September 2018, Curiel's next film, "Monsters and Men", debuted; it had premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival. Written and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, the drama centers on three Black men who struggle to reconcile their lives "as they marinate in guilt and complicity-by-inaction". Set in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, the film starts with one of "frequent murders of black men by unpunished white police officers", and follows the three men while exploring issues of violence and systemic racism towards black people, racial profiling, and police brutality. Curiel was in college at Pace University and after three years he left to be a cast member on FX's drama series "POSE". The show is about the African-American and Latino trans, gay and gender-nonconforming ballroom culture scene in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s. Featured characters are dancers and models who compete for trophies and recognition in the underground culture, and who support one another in a network of chosen families known as Houses. Curiel plays a young Dominican orphan named Lil Papi who is a runaway and streetperson before he is adopted into the House of Evangelista, becoming Lil Papi Evangelista. In season two Papi starts dating his roommate Angel played by Indya Moore. Curiel's other films to date include Reinaldo Marcus Green's "Monsters and Men," and Jordana Spiro's "Night Comes On." Both "Monsters" and "Night" were featured in the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In December 2018, filming of John Leguizamo's "Critical Thinking" feature about a chess team completed in Florida. Set in Miami in 1998, the story revolves around five players on the Miami Jackson Senior High School team. Curiel plays Rodelay Medina, one of the players from the underprivileged school, whose team wins the National Chess Championship in 1998, and in later life becomes a Chess master. In July 2019, Curiel was nominated for a 2019 Imagen Award in the "Best Supporting Actor – Television" category for his work as Lil Papi Evangelista on FX's POSE.