Maria Mealla was raised in La Paz, Bolivia,on a healthy balance of cultural folklore and Catholic superstition. She later moved to Austin, Texas, where she studied Theater Arts before landing in the Bay Area, where she taught herself filmmaking through work-trade. Maria is a 2022 Sidewalk Narrative Lab Fellow. Her short film, LA MACANA, won HBO's 2023 Pa'lante Filmmaker Competition. BODY SHOP, her latest project in development, was selected to participate in the 2023 Tribeca Untold Stories competition and the 2024 NALIP Latino Media Market Accelerator. She is a Latino Public Broadcasting grantee for her short JUANA PELOS, which is currently screening at festivals. Most recently, Maria was selected as one of three fellows for COLECTIVO, an inaugural Latinx filmmaker initiative created by Tribeca in partnership with the Miranda Family Fund to bring to life Las Hijas de Rosalía, which will premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. Maria’s stories come to life in the magical realism and coming-of-age genres. She strives to bring more films from a Latinx perspective to the big screen.
