María Costa(II)

Award-winning actress/writer/comedienne Maria Costa's groundbreaking and dynamic humor has critics calling her the "Latina Lucille Ball". Her chameleon-like virtuosity has her being compared to the likes of Tracey Ullman and Gilda Radner. Costa is best known for her Imagen Award-nominated, Viva America, and her award-winning, Macho Men and the Women Who Love Them comedy concert filmed live at the Kodak Theater which is distributed worldwide by Image Entertainment and is streaming on Amazon Prime. Costa is also the recipient of the prestigious Kresge Foundation Performing Artist Fellowship, an awardee of the Maverick Award from the Los Angeles Women in Theater and is set to receive a star on the Motown Walk to Fame alongside other honorees, including singer Aretha Franklin and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Costa has toured her comedic work in over one hundred cities and has a number of TV credits including: Ugly Betty (ABC), Universal Remote (Showtime), Strong Medicine (Lifetime) and Joan of Arcadia (CBS). Costa was also a series regular on The It Factor (Bravo) and Dangerous Minds (ABC).

Maria began her career as a classically trained actress who starred in productions Checkmates and Cracksteppin' written by renowned playwright, Ron Milner. She has also starred in a number of theatrical productions, including Anthony and Cleopatra and For Colored Girls Who Have Committed Suicide at the Hillberry Theater and Latinologes at the South Coast Repertory Theatre. Maria's early original wors include her one-person show, AfroSpic and sketch comedy spectacle No-Spic Inglish in several performances at the Ice House and the Improv in Los Angeles.

Maria received her formal training at Wayne State University through the College of Fine Performing and Communications Arts and studied with theater legend Uta Hagan as well as with acclaimed mime master Marcel Marceau.