Maria Soccor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maria Soccor | |
|---|---|
| Occupations | Actor, Director, Producer |
| Years active | 1988–present |
Maria Soccor is an American actor, director, and producer. Her acting credits include Another World (1998), Pizza My Heart (2005), K-Ville (2007), and NCIS: New Orleans (2015) as well as a number of short films and television films.
Career beginnings
Soccor got her start at the age of 13 modeling in print ads for various beauty and Fortune 500 companies. In her senior year of high school, in 1992, she won first place in the annual national America's Junior Miss scholarship pageant as a representative from Essex County, New Jersey.[1]
Acting
She studied acting in Orange, New Jersey at The Children's Matinee Workshop under Gwen Guthrie. She continued her acting studies under the late three-time Tony Award winner Uta Hagen before appearing on Broadway and in several Off-Broadway productions.[2]
One of her first big roles was in Club XII, MC Lyte's Off-Broadway hip-hop rendering of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.[3] She returned to the New York stage in February 2019 to star in The Sandstorm, presented during the New York Theater Festival Winterfest.
In 2021, she starred as Aurora in the New Jersey production of Mannequin Diaries written by Brian Wiggins and directed by Tony Award winner Trazana Beverley.[4] In 2024, Soccor returned to Mannequin Diaries in the role she originated as the show was adapted off-broadway and performed at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination at the University of the West Indies in Saint Michael, Barbados.[5]
Directing, producing, and more
In addition to acting, Soccor began directing and producing documentaries in 2009. In 2016, she directed Lords of BSV, which won 13 awards across the world, including Best Director of a Feature Documentary at the Madrid International Film Festival.[6] In September of 2016, the film was chosen by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to have a brief theatrical release before it made its digital television debut on Red Bull TV.[7] In 2018, she wrote, directed, and acted in Kicks, which was a Cannes Film Festival entry and won her Best Short Film Director at the Hell's Kitchen NYC Festival.[8]
She is currently in production on Tillie,[9] Freestyle Music: The Legacy,[10][11] Sybil in Her Own Words[12], and Gloss And Grit: The Man Who Made Art Pop[13] under her production company Maria Soccor Productions.
In 2015, Soccor created a comic series called SPEAR, illustrated by artist Rolo Ledesma. It launched in October that year at New York Comic Con.[3][14]
At the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, she launched and hosted 'Reel Women', a new annual event to spotlight and celebrate female filmmakers at the festival.[15][16] The event is aiming to return to the Campari lounge at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival in September.
She is a member of the Film Fatales, Alliance of Women Directors, and New York Women in Film & Television organizations.[17]