Maria Tran is a US based, Vietnamese-Australian award-winning film director, actor, martial artist, activist & cultural practitioner working across film, performance, and action choreography. She has a background in psychology, filmmaking, and working with culturally diverse communities. She is known for her international action blockbusters such as "Fist of the Dragon" & "Death Mist" in China and "Tracer" in Vietnam.  She is the founder/managing director for Phoenix Eye Films, a culturally diverse and female-led art and film company based in Western Sydney.

In 2016, she was nominated and won the Breakout Female Action Star (Feature Film Category) at the Action on Film International Festival for her role as "Zhen" in Roger Corman's "Fist of the Dragon". Maria represented NSW in the 2016 Ones to Watch Program which led to her participation in Screen Forever (Melbourne), state finalist for the Metroscreen Film Pitching Competition, Winner of Produce Perfect Pitch Program and received a grant to develop "Fury of the Far East."

In 2018, Maria became the recipient of the Create NSW Western Sydney Arts Fellowship $50,000 award and established the female-led & culturally diverse Phoenix Eye film company.

In 2021, Australian Documentary Foundation & Shark Island Institute awarded her a grant to make a short documentary, "My Mother, The Action Star." It premiered with Vox Docs and Sydney Morning Herald and was awarded Winner: Best Documentary at the WIFT V-FEST Australia Film Festival.

She was casted in "Fat Pizza: Back In Business" S1 & S2, was a Fight Director/ Performer for Bell Shakespeare's "Macbeth" (showcased at Sydney Opera House & Melbourne Playhouse), worked as an Action Fight Director for Bangladeshi film "Ayotti" and Indigenous horror film "Terror Zone".

She was the lead in theater production "Action Star" which premiered at the OzAsia Festival in Adelaide in 2022.

Her feature action thriller 'Echo 8'; Australia's first female-led action movie has currently won several awards including Tokyo Film Awards for Best Film, Winner for Best Feature Film - Women's Film at the World Carnival-Singapore Film Festival and will be scheduled for a screening at the Art Gallery of NSW this year.

Maria Tran is often described as ground-breaking and trailblazing as a cultural practitioner, she travels between industries, while also maintaining her creative arts practice, to forge a new path for the next generation of creatives.