Mariyam Shifa

Shifa attributed her singing and dancing skills to her parents; her father being a prominent boduberu player and her mother being a singer, played a huge role in accomplishing her "dream of becoming an actor".^[1] Naming Aishath Rishmy, Nuzuhath Shuaib and Ali Seezan as her inspirations, Shifa grew up in a cinema-friendly environment.^[1]

In 2018, at the age of seventeen, Shifa made her career debut with the suspense thriller film Dhevansoora (2018) written and directed by Yoosuf Shafeeu.^[2] Revolving around a murder investigation, she played an imaginary doctor counselling the character played by Shafeeu; a man suffering from dissociative identity disorder.^[3] The film received positive reviews from critics and was considered a "norm-breaker" for the Maldivian cinema.^[4] Reviewing from Raajje.mv, Ismail Naail Nasheed considered her performance to be "good" despite being a newcomer though he noted that she "needs to polish her dialogue delivery in specific scenes which requires extreme emotion".^[4] The following year, she played a small role in the Moomin Fuad-directed psychological horror thriller Nivairoalhi (2019) as a victim who get murdered by a religious extremist.^[5] Starring opposite Niuma Mohamed, Yoosuf Shafeeu and Ahmed Asim, the film received majorly positive reviews from critics; Aishath Maaha of Dho? favored the performance of the actors and mentioned the "neat arrangement" of its screenplay though pointed out its "weak ending" to be unsatisfactory.^[6] She next starred in Yoosuf Shafeeu's horror comedy film 40+ (2019), a sequel to 2017 released comedy film Naughty 40, which was well received both critically and commercially.^[7] Besides, she also played the role of Mizna, a straightforward simple girl who is concerned about her married life, in Mohamed Manik-directed psychological web series Haasaa.^[8]

In 2020, she collaborated with Moomin Fuad for his period drama web television series Gamini.^[9]

She also made a name for herself as a Dancer & performed in multiple shows in Maldives. She is also a social media influencer with almost 2 million likes on tiktok, she's one of the most known & talked about influencers in Maldives.