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Maria was born in Barcelona, Spain and moved to the United States when she was six with her mother, a single parent and two-time immigrant originally from the former Soviet republic Georgia. Maria was accepted into the School of American Ballet in New York City at the age of 8 and performed in over 150 productions with the New York City Ballet during her five years of training in classical ballet, including dancing the role of Marie/The Little Princess in George Balanchine's THE NUTCRACKER for three holiday seasons. After attending an open call for the RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR, Maria landed her first professional role as Clara in the show's Northeastern touring production with the Rockettes. She then attended an open call for BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL on Broadway and was soon after cast as an immediate replacement, performing as a ballet girl and understudying the role of Debbie Wilkinson through the end of the run in 2012. The following year, Maria performed in the 29-hour readings of Susan Stroman's LITTLE DANCER as Young Charlotte, a role written for her, and ANASTASIA as Young Anastasia, with Angela Lansbury, Lynn Ahrens, and Stephen Flaherty. Maria transitioned into film and television acting during the following years, and has shot numerous national commercials, web, and print campaigns for Verizon, Canon, Tampax, Cheerios, Stouffer's, and more. She has been in several episodes of ABC's hidden camera show, WHAT WOULD YOU DO? hosted by John Quiñones, and she originated the voice of Hop the Squirrel in Season 1 of Nick Jr.'s ZACK AND QUACK. In 2015, Maria was nominated for Best Lead Actress in a Short Film at the International Filmmaker Festivals of World Cinema in London and Madrid for her performance as Young Abigail in IF THE TREES COULD TALK, a Holocaust short film directed by Michael Weinstein. In 2016, she played Young Maria to Shannen Doherty's role of Maria in the feature film BACK IN THE DAY, directed by Paul Borghese and starring Alec Baldwin, Mike Tyson, and Danny Glover. She most recently wrapped a co-star role on Sara Bareilles and J.J. Abrams' musical dramedy for Apple TV, directed by WAITRESS book writer, Jessie Nelson. Maria speaks English, Spanish, and Georgian and is a member of Actors' Equity, SAG-AFTRA and AGVA. She plays piano, acoustic/electric guitar, ukulele, djembe, basic drums, and violin, and has been writing music for over five years.
