Maria Layus

Maria Layus is a Writer, Director, Producer, and Illustrator who's been passionate about visual storytelling since a very early age. As a young kid, she was first drawn to the world of "Lucy, the menace street,"; a German Claymation that filled her imagination with innumerable adventures. In the same period, she became obsessed with a music video called "Chacun fait ce qui lui plait," performed by "Chagrin d'amour", which installed her passion for electronic music, rap, and cinema noir. As silly as this sounds, these two visual experiences have become major influences on her work. Born in Belgium to Argentinean parents, Maria grew up in Brussels, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro. She came to the US to study film and video at Columbia College of Chicago, where she received her BFA. Shortly after graduating, she started a production company called Media X, specializing in shooting and editing live events. After getting her share of wedding and fashion videos, she moved into the advertising field, becoming an editor for a boutique ad agency called Coil Counts Ford and Cheney, where she learned a lot while working with a wonderful creative team. Wanting to venture out of Chicago, she moved to New York in 2008, where she learned to wear many hats and worked as a freelance editor, animator, writer, producer, and illustrator. In late 2009, Turner Latin America hired her to become a Writer Producer for Boomerang Latin America. She directed 35 episodes of long-format music-based shows until Boomerang was rebranded as a preschool channel. She then moved into becoming a creative lead in branding and marketing for the Cartoon Network until 2023. Maria continues her love for film and mixed media producing shorts, collaborating with other artists, and is currently working on a full-length documentary.