Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Maiara Walsh. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Maiara, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Art was the only thing that made sense to me as a kid. As a very sensitive child, the world was both incredibly confusing and curiosity provoking. Singing, reading, creative writing, exploring my imagination, and making art were the moments I remember feeling the most understood. I’d get lost in the folds of an origami crane, swept up in melodies while we danced across the stage, spend hours alone in my room creating narratives with my dolls, and find time to climb every tree my little hands could grasp a hold of.

There was never a plan B, a fact that I can’t say made my parents excited at the time. Education was and remains very important in my family, and I don’t think my parents expected me to take the arts as seriously as I did. But I’ve been stubborn since I was young, for better or for worse, and once I get something in my head, it’s hard to change my mind. I remember living in Seattle at 8 or 9 and watching the Disney Channel and thinking to myself, ‘I could do that’. When we moved to Los Angeles for my mom to go to graduate school, I knew that my dreams could turn into reality.

Of course no one warned me it would take 8 years of oftentimes thankless work, rejection after rejection with just enough yeses to keep going, scams promising agents and auditions, and hours of driving around LA with my mom during high school to go to cattle calls before landing that Disney job. But with enough stubbornness, or persistence as I like to call it now, I eventually ended up where I dreamt I could be. And years later, it led me beyond my dreams, into the fulfilling world of filmmaking.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My journey into filmmaking has its roots in my career as an actress, working on shows like Disney Channel’s Cory in the House, The Vampire Diaries, Desperate Housewives, Switched at Birth, Good Trouble, etc… I started writing film scripts in my early 20s, once I felt like I was being pigeon-holed into a specific kind of character (rebellious teenage villain). That snowballed into writing song lyrics, TV show scripts, directing music videos and a thirty person immersive music show, short films, my first feature film, and the action/comedy show I’m currently working on.

I love movies. I love writing. I love directing. I love acting. I love music. And I always refused to choose one. The incredible thing about storytelling, is you can do it through any of these mediums, and with filmmaking, you can do them all.

My feature “Bight” is a psychological thriller about a couple’s dangerous exploration into open relationships. It’s definitely a departure from a lot of my previous work and touches on much more adult themes. I co-wrote it with Cameron Cowperthwaite and produced with him and Mark Hapka. We all starred in it with Maya Stojan. It’s releasing in 2025. When I make a project, I live and breathe it, from set design to wardrobe to rehearsals with cast to moving gear to finding the perfect locations; the work is endless and I work seven days a week.

I’m having a blast working on an action/comedy series I wrote and am directing/co-starring in, “FML”, with Jennifer Stone, and my producing partner Andreas Alfaro.

I think what makes a story compelling is a unique perspective and deeply specific characters. I like finding challenging and dark worlds where characters struggle with morality and aspects of themselves they keep in the shadows. I tend toward psychological and sci-fi thrillers and action/dark comedy. Sometimes life can be so absurd it’s comical.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I honestly wish I had a mentor to guide me through the business on my journey into acting all the way through my journey into filmmaking. None of my family was in the entertainment industry, and I didn’t know anyone who had been through the ups and downs to let me know what to look out for. Everything I learned was through trial and error. I got taken advantage of and scammed on more than one occasion, and I hit a lot of brick walls along the way.

There is so much value in the wisdom of someone who has been there before you, who truly supports your vision. I definitely had supportive people along the way, but I think having had one or two successful and seasoned industry veterans who had not been hardened by the business, would have been incredibly helpful. I hope that I can share my journey in a way to support people on their own path in the entertainment industry.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

It’s been my experience that some non-creatives will wonder why creatives continue pursuing a career in the arts when the path can be full of roadblocks, inconsistent success, or financial instability. I’ll speak for myself, but there is no other option. The need to write or sing or put together a film is as necessary to me as eating. In the same way that hunger sets in, a creative gnawing will chip away at me until I do something about it. True, I may not starve in the same way without a meal, but very quickly, the repression of that creativity can lead to depression or deep anxiety. The world can be fragile and cruel (and also staggeringly beautiful), and expression is a way to cope with that fragility or celebrate the beauty of life.

And I’d argue that everyone is creative in their own way. The way someone analyzes data points, washes a car, plays with their kids, cooks a meal, plays a sport; each person has developed a unique way of doing things, and that in itself is creative. We hopefully all know what it is like to feel as though we’ve solved a problem, earned something we worked hard for, or achieved a goal. That feeling is gratifying, and often keeps us going when obstacles arise again.

For me, creating is intertwined with my purpose, the thing that makes me feel motivated and live a meaningful life, and is validated when my hands hit the keyboard or I walk out on stage or call action. Everything melts away but that moment. And that moment brings me deep fulfillment.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.maiarawalsh.com
• Instagram: @maiarawalsh
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maiara.walsh
• Other: Spotify:
  https://open.spotify.com/artist/64vV8UQkrrifbM6S1rKsDL?si=gbyHF6UbQkusFLEgejFLwA

Image Credits

@tylerjnewman, @eclipticphoto, @shoakland