Mia Maestro

Maestro was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her mother was a former economist and her father, a businessman. As a young child, Maestro was convinced that she was a boy, perhaps kick-starting the acting bug and starting her initial theatrical training at a young age. When she was 18, Maestro moved to Berlin to develop a vocal repertoire - in German - of the works of Kurt Weill and Hans Eisler and to study Brechtian acting techniques. All of this added to her already rigorous schedule of vocal, dance and music classes. Maestro's experience in Berlin - both inside and outside of school - gave her a renewed spirit and confidence that translated into several noteworthy dramatic performances when she eventually returned to Buenos Aires.Maestro's first proper acting gig was in the Carlo Goldoni commedia dell'arte, and by 1998 she secured the coveted role of Lulu in Wedekind's "Pandora's Box" at the San Martin Theater. For this, Maestro garnered an Ace Award for Best New Artist of the Year.In 1998, Maestro made her feature-film debut in "Tango," in which she played an aspiring dancer who gets entangled in a romance with a film director. Just one year later, Maestro traveled to Austria, where she worked with Lauren Bacall and Dennis Hopper in "The Venice Project" (1999). Ultimately, she moved to Los Angeles and quickly landed a supporting role in Mike Figgis' digital video experimental film "Timecode" (2000), alongside Salma Hayek, with whom Maestro would work again with in 2002's "Frida" - Hayek's labor of love biopic about the famed Mexican artist. Maestro also appeared in the HBO biopic of Cuban jazz musician Arturo Sandoval in "For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story" (2000), starring opposite Andy Garcia.In 2001, the stunning Latin beauty was ranked #61 in Stuff magazine's "100 Sexiest Women" newsstand special, as well as #67 on Maxim magazine's "100 Sexiest Women" newsstand special. This, no doubt, led to Maestro's eye-popping appearance in a 2002 edition of Playboy magazine.After a small role in Ben Stiller's "Duplex" (2003), Maestro played much larger role in Walter Salles Jr.'s "The Motorcycle Diaries" (2004), a road movie roman a clef that chronicled the early years of Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara, starring opposite Gael Garcia Bernal. The film premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and the 57th Cannes Film Festival that same year. Next Maestro accepted another supporting role in Lucrecia Martel's coming-of-age drama "La Niña Santa" (2004)."Hollywood style" stardom came when J.J. Abrams wanted Maestro to appear in his upcoming show "Lost" (ABC, 2004-), but she ended up nabbing the role of Nadia Santos, the recurring character and eventual series regular in "Alias."In 2004, Maestro worked alongside Lucas Black on the independent feature "Deepwater" for director David Marfield, and appeared in Venezuelan director Jonathan Jakubowicz's "Secuestro Express," both released in 2005. In the summer of 2005, Maestro starred in the Hans Christian Anderson musical "My Life as a Fairy Tale" at Lincoln Center in New York. Maestro also starred in the music video for Prince's single "Te Amo Corazon."After "Alias" wrapped production, Maestro appeared in "Poseidon" (2006), Wolfgang Peterson's ill-conceived remake of the classic disaster film "The Poseidon Adventure" (1974) and in the questionable new TV version of "The Ten Commandments" (ABC, 2006).