Maria-Christina Oliveras is a first generation Filipina and Puerto Rican classically trained actor, singer, educator and activist from the Bronx, NY. She has performed extensively on and off Broadway, regionally, internationally, and in film and television, and has served as a singer for such esteemed artists as Taylor Mac (24-Decade History of Music), Toshi Reagon (Parable of the Sower) and Heather Christian (HVSF's Macbeth and As You Like It). She played Church Lady on Broadway opposite Stephen McKinley Henderson in the Pulitzer Prize winner, BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by Austin Pendleton. starred as Persephone in the Broadway National Tour of the Grammy and Tony Award winning musical, HADESTOWN, music by Anaïs Mitchell, directed by Rachel Chavkin. In summer of 2021, she made her critically-acclaimed solo cabaret debut at the Tony Award winning, 54 Below, with The Glory of Love, which she also wrote. She holds her B.A. with Honors from Yale University, and her M.F.A. in Acting from the National Theatre Conservatory.
MCO in 30-ish seconds
For full acting reel, see multimedia.)
Dedicated to new works and underrepresented stories, her theatrical career is distinguished by a number of world premieres including the pre-Broadway engagement of Kiss My Aztec, a new musical by John Leguizamo and Tony Taccone, music and lyrics by David Kamp and Benjamin Velez. Other world premieres in Here Lies Love by David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim, directed by Alex Timbers, Amelie by Craig Lucas, Daniel Messe and Nathan Tysen, directed by Pam McKinnon, Soft Power by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori, directed by Leigh Silverman, El Huracan by Charise Castro Smith, directed by Laurie Woolery, and Pretty Filthy, by Bess Wohl and Michael Friedman, directed by Steve Cosson. She has also performed extensively in film and television, including opposite Al Pacino in The Humbling, Bill Murray in St. Vincent, "The Blacklist," "Madame Secretary," and "NCIS: New Orleans" among numerous others.
Film/Television Acting Reel:
MCO as Deputy Mayor Esme Reyes.
MCO as Reporter Pilar Diaz in MATTHEW.
With Conrad Ricamora and the ensemble of SOFT POWER.
MCO as Deputy Mayor Esme Reyes.
Highlights from
The Glory of Love
MCO in 30-ish seconds:
Maria-Christina is a founding member of Partial Comfort Productions, Associate Artist of The Civilians, member of National Alliance of Acting Teachers and The Actors’ Center Workshop Company, and is an alumna of The Lark Playground and New Dramatists’ Composer-Librettist Studio, both dedicated to new works’ development and collaboration. She has served as a panelist and reader for various fellowships and programs including Sundance Institute, the Lark Play Development Center, New Dramatists, and Back to the Future/History Matters. She is the recipient of New Dramatists’ Charles Bowden Acting Award and the St. Ursula Award for Distinguished Career Achievement and the Embodying Antiracism Fellowship at Wesleyan University.
A sought-after educator, she has served on faculty at Fordham University Lincoln-Center, Broadway Workshop, Primary Stages, Stella Adler Conservatory, among numerous others, and frequently serves as a guest speaker at universities throughout the country. She currently teaches Acting and Musical Theater Performance as the Assistant Professor of Theater at Wesleyan University and a Visiting Professor at Yale University.
Broadway: Between Riverside and Crazy; Amelie (cast album); Machinal; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Off-Broadway: Here Lies Love (Public; cast album); Pretty Filthy (Civilians; cast album); Taylor Mac’s 24 Decade…(St. Ann’s Warehouse); And Miles to Go (PCP); Reading Under the Influence (DR2); Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Public); Romeo and Juliet (Public); Zorba! (Encores!); Night Sky (BPAC). Regional: CTG, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, Williamstown, Long Wharf, Huntington, Baltimore Centerstage, Sundance, O’Neill, among numerous others. Selected Film/TV: Manhattan Night, St. Vincent, Matthew, "Nurse Jackie", "Law & Order: SVU", The Blacklist”; “Madame Secretary”;"NCIS: NOLA" Education: B.A. with honors—Yale University; M.F.A.—National Theatre Conservatory.