Marissa Chibás is an award-winning Cuban American writer, director, and actor who creates multi-platform work that traverse film and live audience experiences, reclaims the mythic, and celebrates immigrant stories. As the daughter of a Cuban revolutionary and runner up Miss Cuba, these two formidable personalities inspired in her the idea that real life is stranger than anything we can imagine. Marissa’s journey has led her to eclectic experiences that range from performing on Broadway, to coaching professional wrestlers in the WWE, to becoming a #1 new release author on Amazon for her book Mythic Imagination and the Actor, to winning awards as a filmmaker.
In 2022 she became a Sundance Screenwriting Fellow for her screenplay 1972 which was selected for the Wscripted Cannes Screenplay list, was an Athena Awards finalist, was selected for Gotham Week’s Project Market, and received an inaugural Sundance/Gold House Artist Accelerator grant. In 2024 her proof of concept short, 72, premiered at the Santa Barbara
International Film Festival, won an Excellence in Drama award at the Hispanic International Film Festival and screened at the Diversity at Cannes Festival.
Marissa worked in the following productions and with such luminaries as: Edward Albee in his production of Seascape at the Coconut Grove Theater and directed by the author, the American premiere of The Keening by Umberto Dorado at the ART in Boston; the world premiere of Two Sisters and a Piano by Nilo Cruz with Bobby Cannavale at the McCarter; the world premiere of the CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP) produced Scene with Cranes by Octavio Solis at REDCAT, the premiere of Eric Overmeyer’s Dark Rapture with Frances McDormand and David Strathern at New York Stage and Film; The Mark Taper Forum productions of The House of Bernarda Alba with Chita Rivera and Sandra Oh, and Eduardo Machado’s The Floating Island Plays. On Broadway, she performed in Abe Lincoln in Illinois opposite Sam Waterson, and Brighton Beach Memoirs.
Her solo show, Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary, toured the U.S., Europe, and Mexico to critical acclaim. She took her experiences as an actor and moved into filmmaking with several award-winning shorts including: A Cuban Documemory, winner of the Best Documentary award at the Cuban American Film Festival which streamed on Hoopla; and Finding Shelter, Best Documentary short winner at the 2019 San Diego Latino Film Festival and streamed on DocsNow. Other shorts include: Zohra which was nominated for Best Actress and Best Comedy awards at the Official Latino Film Festival and streamed on BronxNet; and Nostalgia, presented at Fabrica de Arte in Havana. Her films have screened at Miami Film Festival, Anthology Film Archive, The Segal Center in NYC, NFMLA, REDCAT, Pasadena Film Festival, among others.
In Spring 2025 Marissa will direct her Sundance supported feature debut, 1972.
In 2023 she directed a production of Jose Rivera’s Cloud Tectonics at Inner City Arts with Bobby Soto, Andrea Londo, and Clayton Cardenas. Marissa was the first Latina to run a major University Acting Program (BFA and MFA) from 2003-2010, at CalArts. As Director of Duende CalArts, an initiative of CNP, Marissa conceived and wrote Shelter, which premiered in April
2016 at Lincoln Park, and was presented as a stand-alone event at the Kennedy Center. Some Duende CalArts projects include: El Camino Donde Nosotros Lloramos, with artists Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol (performed at CalArts in Spring 2020 and Mexico City as part of UNAM International Theater Festival); Piedra de Sol/Sun Stone, based on the epic poem by Octavio Paz (presentations at CalArts and the Getty Villa); the feature documentary Passage of the Spiral/Pasaje en Espiral which premiered in April 2024 at REDCAT; and LA Founding Families created in collaboration with El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the High School of History and Dramatic Art, and various community organizations.
In 2016 Marissa received a TCG Fox Fellowship in Distinguished Achievement. She is a member of SAG/AFTRA, AWD, WIF, Film Fatales, Chicana Directors Initiative, and Latinas Acting Up. Marissa’s mission is to create spaces of meaning and belonging that celebrates the beautiful confusion of human experience.
