Writer. Director. Producer.

Practicing both fiction and documentary film, she seeks to tell stories that showcase human empathy, resilience, and the courage it takes to live a life.

She is currently an Associated Fellow at the Film Study Center at Harvard University.

Mariel received her MFA in Film from the City College of New York and graduated a BAFTA Scholar and winner of the Chantal Akerman Student Prize sponsored by The Ostrovsky Family Fund, for her screenplay, Burial.

Previously, Mariel studied Theater and English at Penn State University. After a theater apprenticeship focused on creating original work and her first one-woman show, The Fig Tree, she moved to Lukunor, Micronesia where she served in the Peace Corps on a remote outer island of the equatorial Pacific.

In 2015 she returned stateside to work in communications and public policy in Washington, DC and New York, where she produced conferences and events with top political leaders, including President Joe Biden and Secretaries Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell.