Maria Olsen

EARLY LIFE

Maria Olsen was born on July 22, 1966, in East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

CAREER

Olsen has appeared in over 100 roles since 2005. Many of these are supporting roles, which she credits as allowing her to work on more projects than actors who focus primarily on leading roles. She says her favorite roles have been in African Gothic, Percy Jackson, Die-ner (Get It?), The Haunting of Whaley House, and Live-In Fear, which was the first film she produced. In 2011, she founded the production company MOnsterworks66. In 2018, Olsen starred in, "The Exorcist: Forbidden Screening," a 4D theater attraction at Warner Bros. "Horror Made Here: A Festival of Frights." The attraction took place inside the Midwest St. Church on the Warner Brothers backlot, and Olsen played the role of the host of the horror attraction, based on the 1973 film, The Exorcist. She is best known for her appearances as Mrs. Dodds/The Fury in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Paranormal Activity 3, American Horror Story and Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem. She has worked on more than 65 feature films and over 150 shorts, television shows, music videos and commercials since 2005. She has also won four awards (including awards for both acting and directing), had two short films appear at the 2009 Cannes Short Film Program, one at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, plus others at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors and HorrorFest. Olsen also owns MOnsterworks66, producer of features such as Brandon Scullion's Live in Fear, Randal Kamradt Jr's Faraway, Eric Michael Kochmer's Way Down In Chinatown, Bert Havird's Reunion and Michael LaPointe's LoveTouchHate.

PERSONAL LIFE

Olsen came to America in January 2005. Her hobbies include reading and knitting. She is out as a lesbian. She loves knitting while learning her lines and watching the horror movies she has to review for the 1313 Blood Lane podcast. She still owns the collection of DC and Marvel comics that she bought in East London, South Africa, when she was growing up there during the 1970s and 1980s. She is the 8th great-granddaughter (8 generations lie between them) of the Dutch painter, Rembrandt van Rijn. She is fluent in Afrikaans, one of South Africa's many official languages. In fact, she spoke only Afrikaans for her role as "Ma" in the feature film, African Gothic.