Who is Maiara Walsh?
Maiara Kylior Walsh was born in Seattle, Washington State USA on 18 September 1988 – her zodiac sign is Aquarius, and she holds American nationality. She’s an actress and a musician, perhaps known best for playing the role of Ana Solis, in the comedy TV series “Desperate Housewives”.
Early life and education
Maiara was born to a Brazilian mother and an American father, and has a younger sister named Lydia. She moved to Sao Paolo, Brazil, with her family when she was one year old, and when she was eight they moved back to Seattle, and then to Simi Valley, California a few years later, to support her mother’s aspiration to attend grad school.
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Maiara started showing interest in performing arts at a young age, and took roles in every play offered at her school. Her parents soon realized that her talent could take her far, and hired an agent for her. In 2006, she matriculated from Royal High School, but didn’t attend college as her acting career took off soon afterwards.
Roles in TV series
Maiara actually made her TV series debut in 2005, when she appeared in an episode of the Nickelodeon sitcom “Unfabulous”. In the following year, she was cast to play the recurring character Meena Paroom, in the Disney Channel comedy “Cory in the House”, appearing in 34 episodes in 2007 and 2008, and which many consider this role to be her breakthrough.
In 2009 and 2010, Maiara played the role of Ana Soli, in the popular comedy mystery drama “Desperate Housewives”. The series was created by Marc Cherry, and starred Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman and Eva Longoria. It followed the lives of a group of women, as seen through the eyes of their neighbor who committed suicide. It aired on ABC for eight seasons, between October 2003 and May 2012, and was one of the ten most watched series in the US during its first five seasons. It was warmly received by the critics and TV audience alike, and won numerous awards, including seven Primetime Emmys and two Golden Globes.
In the following years, Maiara made guest appearances in TV series such as “Vampire Diaries”, “Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D.” and “Notorious”. Her next recurring role was in the ABC’s family drama “Switched at Birth”, created by Lizzy Weiss, and which aired from 2012 to 2017. The series is centered on the lives of two teenage girls who were placed in wrong families after birth, and grew up in very different environments. It starred Sean Berdy, Lucas Grabeel and Katie Leclerc.
In 2018, Maiara played the role of Mia Valdez, in the last season of the sci-fi action drama “The Last Ship”, following a crew of a naval ship who have to adjust to living in a world where the majority of the population have been killed in a deadly pandemic.
Her most recent TV series role was in 2019, when she appeared in an episode of the critically acclaimed mystery crime drama “Criminal Minds”.
Roles in movies
Maiara made her film debut in the 2008 romantic drama “Before I Wake”, written and directed by Nate Pantumsinchai, and which also starred Jibby Saetang and Dean Shelton. Two years later, she starred in the teenage comedy “Mean Girls 2”, the sequel to the box office hit from 2004. The movie featured a new set of characters, but followed a similar storyline from the original film. Maiara played the role of Mandi Weatherly, one of the members of the main villain group, known as ‘The Plastics’.
After having roles in several high school comedies, such as “The Prankster” and “General Education”, in 2012 Maiara starred in the crime mystery thriller “Last Hours in Suburbia”, directed by John Stimpson. In the following year, she played Kantmiss, the main character in the “Hunger Games” parody movie, “The Starving Games”, in which she competes for an old piece of ham, a foot-long-sub coupon, and a pickle, at the 75th annual Starving Games.
We saw Maiara star alongside Tony Todd and Danny Trejo in the 2015 action crime horror “VANish”, written and directed by Bryan Bockbrader. In the same year, she played one of the leads in the horror “Summer Camp”, centered on a group of four counsellors at a summer camp, who must deal with the outbreak of a strange rage-inducing plague that starts in the animals.
In 2019, Maiara played the role of a thirty-year-old woman, who takes on the identity of a teenage girl and goes back to high school, in the thriller “Identity Theft of a Cheerleader”. Her most recent movie role was in 2021’s romantic comedy “The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student”, written and directed by Bruno Garotti.
Other credits
In 2013, Maiara appeared in a music video for the song “Go With It” by DJ Tokimonsta, in collaboration with MNDR. Three years later, she made an appearance in the music video for the song “Coming Over”, made by Dillon Francis, featuring the Norwegian DJ Kygo and singer James Henderson.
Aside from acting, Maiara has been expressing interest in directing. In 2015, she directed a proof of concept for the movie “Phoenix”, which ended up not being developed into a feature film, but two years later, she directed and starred in the short sci-fi drama “Young Blood”, about a facility that offers blood transfusions from young and healthy donors to the wealthy elite. The film was well received, which encouraged Maiara to start working on a script for a feature length movie based on the same concept.
Love life and boyfriend
Although Maiara tends to keep a low profile nowadays, in the past, she’s been connected with quite a few of her fellow actors.
She has apparently been in relationships with her co-star from “Corey in the House”, Jason Dolley, in the early 2004, and the “Corey in the House” main star, Kyle Massey, in an on-and-off relationship for almost two years, between 2007 and 2009.
In 2009, she briefly dated the actor Sean Marquette, known for his role in the sitcom “The Goldbergs”, and then Maiara was rumored to be dating two other Disney Channel stars, Cole Sprouse and Sean Marquette. However, later that year, she publicly announced her relationship with the “High School Musical” star, Corbin Bleu. The two made numerous red carpet appearances together, but soon ended their relationship in 2010.
Maiara currently appears to be single, hasn’t been married or engaged, and doesn’t have children.
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Hobbies and interesting facts
Maiara is multilingual, and can speak English, Portuguese and Spanish fluently.
She loves to travel whenever she’s not busy with work. In the past 10 years, she’s visited many countries across the world, including Greece, Italy, Russia and Thailand.
Maiara is a very charitable person, and has supported many philanthropic causes. She’s volunteered at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, as well as for the Young Women’s Empowerment Network. In 2018, she participated in the Reality Storyteller’s program in Israel, where she had a chance to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict first hand, and in the following year, she participated in the same program in Greece, to learn about the ongoing refugee crisis.
Appearance, age and net worth
Maiara is 32 years old. She has long blue dyed hair and blue eyes, is 5ft 5ins (1.65m) tall, and weighs around 120lbs (55kgs).
As of September 2021, her net worth is estimated at more than $1 million.
