MARIA SWISHER

 

 

Maria Swisher (she/they) is a Los Angeles-based actor, writer, director, and somatic researcher whose work sits at the intersection of mythic storytelling, radical embodiment, and visceral ecology.

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Maria holds a BA (First Class Honours) in Acting from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and trained at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Their performance style is rooted in rigorous physical traditions; she was a company member of London’s Grotowski-based ensemble Craft Theatre, and trained with Complicité and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her work as a performer is defined by a blend of heart and badass vulnerability, drawing comparisons to the soulful, high-stakes energy of Laura Dern.

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Maria is the co-founder of the performance collective Dirt [contained] Theatre Company, where she creates absurd theatre with a socially conscious soul. Her original play, Crushing Baby Animals, was supported by the Queens Council on the Arts and premiered at The IRT Theatre in New York City. Directorial work on Garden of Delights was recognized by playwright Fernando Arrabal as a "definitive production" of the surrealist masterpiece, and her speculative ecofiction play, The Last Eden, was supported by Arts Council England.

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In Los Angeles, Maria works in screen and voiceover. She voiced Arana in the hit PlayStation game Horizon Zero Dawn and starred as the lead in the dark comedy Black Boy Suffering is a Mood (Winner: Best Short, Pasadena Film Festival 2025).

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Rooted in a body-first approach, Maria is a certified VITA™ Love, Sex, and Relationship Coach and the creator of The Erotic Energy Method. She utilizes the internal ecology of the body as a mirror for the global environment, teaching clients to navigate their own energy with the same pleasure and depth she brings to her artistic work. She is dedicated to exploring the profound healing power of storytelling and the practical magic required to navigate a changing world.

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Maria is currently developing the solo performance ritual ALL THE CHILDREN I NEVER HAD, which navigates the hormonal and spiritual landscapes of egg retrieval in the midst of the Earth’s 6th Great Extinction Event.

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Maria lives with a robust library, a balcony mushroom garden, and her two beloved cats, Umbra and Ishtar, in Culver City, California.