Maya is an award-winning writer-director known for surreal and whimsical storytelling that jumpstarts social dialogue.

She has directed and shot films and commercials on four continents in English, French and Spanish, and her original screenplays have been semifinalists in Austin, BlueCat, Screencraft and LA Screenplay Awards.

In February 2023, her psychological horror fantasy short, THE RINGMASTER, premiered at Paris International Film Festival where Maya won the BEST DIRECTOR Award, launching the pitch of the feature version.

In 2021, she won the EMERGING DIRECTOR AWARD at LA Diversity Film Festival and was nominated for BEST DIRECTOR.  Her commercial “Give the Gift of Joy” won an Emmy for Best Commercial and “Giveaway” the Gold Award at the American Advertising Awards.

In 2020, she wrote and directed a dark fantasy comedy short, FREEZE, starring Chris Parnell, Adrian Grenier, Nora Zehetner, Kel Mitchell and Mindy Sterling, which took home BEST SHORT and BEST ACTRESS at its premiere at SeriesFest and went on to play over 40 festivals, including the Diversity in Cannes Short Film Showcase at the 73rd Festival de Cannes. In 2021, it was one of few shorts distributed by Oscilloscope and Premium Films for sales to HBO, ARGO and other European outlets.

In 2018, the Directors Guild of America awarded Maya the Commercial Directors Diversity Program Fellowship, and her commercial, “History”, was named Best New Work of 2018 by Shoot Mag, and she received their Badge of Honor for Rising Female Filmmaker.