List of Famous people named Maria

Maria Angelita Ressa is a Filipino-American journalist and author, and co-founder and CEO of Rappler. She previously spent nearly two decades working as a lead investigative reporter in Southeast Asia for CNN. She was convicted of cyberlibel in the Philippines.

Maria Owings Shriver is an American journalist, author, member of the Kennedy family, former First Lady of California, and the founder of the nonprofit organization The Women's Alzheimer's Movement. She was married to former Governor of California and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, from whom she filed for divorce in 2011. Shriver has received a Peabody Award and was co-anchor for NBC's Emmy-winning coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics. As executive producer of The Alzheimer's Project, Shriver earned two Emmy Awards and an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences award for developing a "television show with a conscience". She is a member of the Kennedy family; her mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, was a sister of John F., Robert and Ted Kennedy. Shriver is currently a “special” anchor and correspondent for NBC News.

María de los Ángeles Alvariño González, known as Ángeles Alvariño, was a Spanish fishery research biologist and oceanographer globally recognized as an authority in plankton biology. She was the first woman ever appointed as scientist aboard any British or Spanish exploration ships. She discovered 22 new species of marine animals and published over a hundred scientific books, chapters and articles. In her late career she studied the history of early marine scientific exploration.

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova is a Russian former professional tennis player. Although she played under the banner of Russia with the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), she has lived in and been a United States permanent resident since 1994. Sharapova competed on the WTA tour from 2001 to 2020 and had been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the WTA on five separate occasions, for a total of 21 weeks. She is one of ten women, and the only Russian, to hold the career Grand Slam. She is also an Olympic medalist, having won a silver medal in women's singles at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Sharapova achieved a rare level of longevity in tennis, with several tennis pundits and former players calling Sharapova one of tennis' best competitors.

Suzette Maria Taylor is an American sportscaster for NBC Sports. She has worked for ESPN and the SEC Network. She has covered college football, college volleyball, National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), and men's and women's college basketball.

Maria Bakalova is a Bulgarian actress. She gained international attention as Bulgarias top-earning model/spokeswoman, as well as for her role as Tutar Sagdiyev in the 2020 mockumentary Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, for which she received nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role and the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first Bulgarian actress to be nominated by each of these awarding bodies.

Maria Sakkari is a Greek professional tennis player. She reached her career-high singles ranking of No. 20 on 24 February 2020. Her best WTA doubles ranking is No. 169, achieved on 9 September 2019.

Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions, ruling from 1740 until her death in 1780. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands, and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress.

María Pedraza is a Spanish actress and ballerina best known for portraying Alison Parker in the series Money Heist. She also starred in the Netflix series Élite, playing the role of Marina Nunier Osuna and in the Netflix series Toy Boy, playing the role of Triana.

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia has been a claimant to the headship of the Imperial Family of Russia since 1992. Although she has used Grand Duchess of Russia as her title of pretence with the style Imperial Highness throughout her life, her right to do so is disputed. She is a great-great-granddaughter in the male line of Emperor Alexander II of Russia.

Maria Andreyevna Mironova is a Soviet and Russian actress. People's Artist of Russia (2020).

Maria Menounos is an American/Greek entertainment reporter, television personality, professional wrestler, actress, and businesswoman. She has hosted Extra and E! News, and served as a TV correspondent for Today, Access Hollywood, and co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens, Greece. She also co-created and is currently CEO of online podcast series network AfterBuzz TV. She is currently signed to WWE where she has served as an ambassador since 2013. She hosts the podcast Conversations with Maria Menounos.

Maria-Hélène Schneider, known as Maria Schneider, was a French actress. In 1972 at the age of nineteen she starred opposite Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris, but was traumatized by a rape scene and hounded by unsavoury publicity she subsequently declined to appear nude in roles for even the most prestigious directors. Although Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger showcased her abilities, a reputation for walking out of films mid-production resulted in her becoming unwelcomed in the industry. An incautious attitude to drugs and their toll on her mental health made what should have been banner years for Schneider increasingly chaotic. However, she re-established stability in her personal and professional life in the early 1980s, and became an advocate for equality and improving the conditions actresses worked under. She continued acting in film and TV until a few years before she died in 2011 after a long illness.

Dona Maria Leopoldina of Austria was Empress of Brazil as the wife of Emperor Dom Pedro I. She was Queen of Portugal during her husband's brief reign as King Dom Pedro IV.

Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano.

Baroness Maria Augusta von Trapp DHS was the stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers. She wrote The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, which was published in 1949 and was the inspiration for the 1956 West German film The Trapp Family, which in turn inspired the 1959 Broadway musical The Sound of Music and its 1965 film version.

María Santos Gorrostieta Salazar was a Mexican physician and politician of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). From 2008 to 2011, she served as mayor of Tiquicheo, a small town in the Mexican state of Michoacán. In spite of three failed assassination attempts during her tenure as mayor, Gorrostieta Salazar continued to be outspoken in the fight against organized crime. In a fourth attack, Gorrostieta Salazar was kidnapped and assassinated by suspected drug traffickers on 15 November 2012. Michoacán is home to several violent drug trafficking organizations such as La Familia Michoacana and the Knights Templar Cartel.

María de los Ángeles Félix Güereña, known as María Félix, was a Mexican film actress and singer. Along with Pedro Armendáriz and Dolores del Río, she was one of the most successful figures of Latin American cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. Considered one of the most beautiful actresses of Mexican cinema, her taste for the finesse and strong personality garnered her the title of diva early in her career. She was known as La Doña, a name derived from her character in the film Doña Bárbara (1943), and María Bonita, thanks to the anthem composed exclusively for her, as a wedding gift by her second husband, the Mexican composer Agustín Lara. She completed a film career that included 47 films made in Mexico, Spain, France, Italy and Argentina.

Maria Höfl-Riesch is a former German World Cup alpine ski racer. She is a three-time Olympic champion, two-time world champion, and an overall World Cup champion.

Maria Alexeyevna Lvova-Belova is a Russian public figure and politician, who is currently the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights in Russia.