Maria Tran

Maria Tran is a Vietnamese-Australian actress, producer, and director. She is a martial artist and known as an innovator in the martial arts action genre movies in Australia through her short films like Hit Girls, Gaffa, Operation Kung Flu, Enter The Dojo, and many others. She is known for Trace, Echo 8, Deathmist, Fist of the Dragon, and many others. Maria Tran was born on 30 January 1985 in Brisbane, Australia. After facing school bullying, she began taking taekwondo lessons when she was 13 years old. She started her career as a filmmaker. Her documentary drama HappyDent won the Best Film award at the Shortcuts Film Festival.

After this achievement, she got the opportunity from a TV network executive to make a kung-fu action micro-series, Downtown Rumble. Her directorial debut, Echo 8, starring Japanese actor Takashi Hara, has won the Best Film award at the Tokyo Film Awards and the Best Feature Film Women's Film award at the World Carnival Singapore Film Festival.  Her first acting role was in Maximum Choppage in 2007, which was Australia's first kung-fu comedy film. Her action comedy Hit Girls, co-starring Juju Chan, earned her 2016 Breakout Female Action Performer of the Year at the Action On Film International Film Festival.

The film's success gave her a chance to star in Roger Corman's movie Fist of the Dragon directed by Antony Szeto, starring Josh Thomson. In 2015, She grabbed the role of leading female antagonist in Truy Sat, starring Truong Ngoc Anh. In 2018, She acted in Streets Smart, and in the same year, she starred in Pizza: Back In Business. She got the role in the Last King of the Cross TV series. During COVID-19, she married Japanese actor Takashi Hara in a private ceremony in Sydney, Australia.