Maiara de Paula holds a degree in Film from PUC–Rio and a master’s in Race, Media, and Social Justice from Goldsmiths, University of London. She works as a producer, screenwriter, and director of audiovisual projects, with fifteen years of experience.

Born in Zona da Mata, Pernambuco, and raised in Rio de Janeiro, she served as executive producer at independent production companies and has credits in short films such as Luiz Octavio (2006) and the documentary O Minuto É Um Milagre Que Não Se Repete (2008), both screened at the Festival do Rio.

In television, she worked as an assistant director at TV Globo on projects including the telenovela Velho Chico (2015) and the epic series Os Dias Eram Assim (2016). Since 2021, Maiara has been a screenwriter at TV Globo, writing two seasons of the series As Five (2023), where she also served as the final script editor.

Maiara recently released her first English-language project, the short film HOME (UK, 2022), selected for the British Urban Film Festival; The Best Film Awards 2023 in two categories (“Best Short Film Award” and “Best Indie Film Award”); and the Brazilian Los Angeles Film Festival 2023.

In 2023, she also participated in Netflix Brazil’s Segundo Ato program and the Torino Film Festival’s TFL NEXT TV Series Lab 2023 with the British TV dramedy Finding Joy, which explores themes of race, class, and ageism in post-Brexit England.