Maria-Christina Oliveras is a Drama-Desk nominated[1] television, stage and film actress, singer and voice-over artist. She has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, regionally, and in films and television series.[2][3] She is of Filipino and Puerto Rican descent and known for creating new roles in a number of world premieres including Here Lies Love, Amelie, Kiss My Aztec, Soft Power, among numerous others. [4]
Born in New York City, Oliveras is the daughter of Beatrice, a nurse, and Luis Tomas, a hospital food service administrator, she grew up in the Bronx. She studied at Yale University and received her BA with honors in Theater Studies. While there, she was an active participant in Yale Undergraduate Theater,[5] where she first met Alex Timbers, with whom she has subsequently collaborated on a number of projects, most notably Here Lies Love.
In summer 2004, Oliveras was accepted into the Shakespeare Lab at The Public Theatre, where she studied with Ron Van Lieu, Kate Wilson and Michael Cumpsty, whom she later worked with on Broadway in Machinal.[6] One of eight students selected, Oliveras went on to receive her MFA in acting from the National Theatre Conservatory in 2007.[7]
Career
Oliveras made her Broadway debut in 2010's Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, directed by Alex Timbers.[citation needed] She returned to Broadway in the Roundabout Theater’s 2014 revival of Machinal, playing multiple roles opposite Rebecca Hall.[8] Oliveras' other Off-Broadway credits include the premieres of The Civilians' production of Pretty Filthy by Bess Wohl and Michael Friedman, directed by Steve Cosson; Here Lies Love at the Public Theater;[9]Reading Under the Influence, starring Barbara Walsh, directed by Wendy Goldberg;[10]Night Sky, starring Jordan Baker, directed by Daniella Topol;[11]The Really Big Once, directed by David Herskovits;[12]And Miles to Go, directed by Hal Brooks;[13]After, directed by Stephen Brackett;[14] and Slavey, directed by Robert O’Hara.
In 2015, she originated the role of Suzanne in the premiere of Amélie at Berkeley Rep, directed by Pam MacKinnon.[citation needed]
In 2016, she returned to The Public to play the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, directed by Lear DeBessonet for the Mobile Shakespeare Unit.[citation needed] In the summer, she played Macbeth in a three-woman production of Macbeth, directed by Lee Sunday Evans, which the New York Times hailed as "irreducible and transcendent," and Jacques in As You Like It, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, both at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.[15][16]
In spring/summer 2019 and subsequently spring/summer 2022, Oliveras starred as Tolima in Kiss My Aztec, a musical by John Leguizamo and Tony Taccone at Hartford Stage, Berkeley Rep, and La Jolla Playhouse. She has been a part of the development of the show since Atlantic Theatre's Latino MixFest in 2015.[citation needed]
In October 2022, Oliveras began performances as Persephone in the North American tour of the Grammy- and Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown, directed by Rachel Chavkin.[18]
In Fall of 2024, New York Magazine lauded her "sharp and dangerous" turn as Tina in the world premiere of A Woman Among Women by Julia May Jonas at the Bushwick Starr.[20] In Winter 2025, she starred as Belarius and the Queen in National Asian American Theater Company's modern translation of Cymbeline, directed by Stephen Brown-Fried[21]. Maria-Christina received her first Drama Desk Nomination for Best Featured Performance in a Play for her dual roles in Cymbeline.[22]
Her regional credits include Here Lies Love at the Williamstown Theatre Festival; Laura Jacqmin's January Joiner at the Long Wharf, directed by Eric Ting; Jose Rivera’s Boleros for the Disenchanted at the Huntington Theater, directed by Chay Yew;[23]Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation at Baltimore CenterStage, directed by Jackson Gay;[24] the world premiere of Unbeatable, starring Kristy Cates, for which Oliveras received the Arizoni Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical;[25] the regional premiere of Rent at the Hangar Theater, directed by Dev Janki;[26] and numerous shows at the Denver Center, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and Westport Country Playhouse, among others.
Oliveras was the 2014 recipient of the Charles Bowden Actor Award from New Dramatists.[citation needed] She is also a member of the Actors' Center Workshop Company.[citation needed]
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