Bio | mariapusateri

Maria Pusateri is an actor and an award-winning producer/director of documentary and nonfiction.

Some of her independent film performances include a powerful executive frustrated by her diminishing role in Title VII, and a free-spirited young grandmother at odds with her daughter about raising her grandson in Over Dinner. She also played a TV reporter in the comedy Mommy Mafia written by Laura Sweeney and directed by Jeremiah Kipp.

One of Maria’s special talents is her ability to quickly learn accents – put to good use in theater productions of Noises Off, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and Confiscation – a post WW II one-act play set in Hungary.

Her documentary filmmaking debut was the acclaimed feature Vito After (aka Vito After: A 9/11 Responder Copes in the Aftermath). She was associate producer for the Oscar-nominated documentary short Mondays at Racine, and received several industry awards as a field producer for Cablevision’s MetroChannels (see Producer Bio).

In the late 70s-early 80s, Maria worked in television promotion for Paramount Television Distribution as well as theatrical field publicity for Paramount Pictures in New York. Maria was part of the team creating promotional materials for some of Paramount’s legendary TV shows such as Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley, Taxi, and Bosom Buddies. At Paramount Pictures, she worked on field publicity campaigns for some of their early 1980s releases including, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Gallipoli, Ragtime, Reds, Grease 2, and An Officer and a Gentleman.

While working at Paramount, she studied acting at the legendary HB Studio in New York City with actor/director Bill Hickey. In1982, she put her career and acting pursuits on hold to raise her family. She continued to work on her craft intermittently over the years, performing in theater, independent film, and studying with coaches such as Anthony Robert Grasso and Alan Wynroth.

In 2025, Maria and her husband Donald moved from Long Island to the LA area to be near their daughter, grandson and son-in-law. They are the proud parents of Nicole Pusateri, an award-winning documentary producer, and the awesomely talented rock drummer Don Pusateri.