Maria Tran

In 2007, Tran enrolled in a free community film making workshop called the Youth Digital Cultures film program[8] through Information & Cultural Exchange (ICE). She completed it and took over the coordinator's role and worked as an educator[9] running programs for at risk young people from culturally diverse backgrounds. She has guest lectured several instances at the Australian National University on filmmaking and digital media.[10][11] In 2013, Tran directed her first theatre production working with students from Fairfield High School and Lurnea High School called "Press Play"; a multimedia and interactive journey of young people from migrant backgrounds.[12]

Tran was elected as vice-president (External Affairs) for the Vietnamese Community of Australia - New South Wales (VCA-NSW) from 2013–2015. She volunteered in various capacities and was invited to speak at the 2014 National Youth Vietnamese Conference held in Melbourne on the issues of Vietnamese-Australians in film, television and the media.

In 2017, Tran was selected as part of TedxSydney with her talk on "We Need to Embrace Conflict".[13]

In 2008, Tran's documentary-drama Happy Dent won Shortcuts Film Festival for Best Film and Achievement in Directing. This award lead her to a meeting with a TV network executive and she went on to make TV micro series "Downtown Rumble", 6 part kung fu action micro series which aired at the end of that year.

In 2009, Tran was awarded the Metroscreen Multicultural Mentorship Scheme for her short film script "A Little Dream", which was granted seed funding and Tran directed the film with the mentorship by Khoa Do.[14][15]

In 2011, Tran pursued documentary filmmaking with her quirky self transmedia documentary "Quest for Jackie!" which is about a young girl's filmmaking plight as well as meeting her action idol; Jackie Chan. She travel to Brisbane, Darwin, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Tasmania in 21 days to connect with Jackie Chan fans and stories of the "underdog". With hundreds of hours of footage, this project remains incomplete.[16][17][18] In July, 2016, Screen NSW gave Tran a stunt attachment position on board of Jackie Chan's movie "Bleeding Steel" as it shoots in Sydney.She has been learning from the Jackie Chan Stunt Team and has seen Jackie, but has yet to officially meet him and complete her documentary.[19]

She was also the 2011 NSW State Champion and represented the state at National Film Pitching Competition held at Metroscreen.[20]

In 2012, she directed and produced many short action films with Trung Ly and Adrian Castro with subsequent works such as Enter The Dojo, Gaffa, and award-winning action comedy Hit Girls; which she wrote, produced and directed. Tran was also a recipient of the Screen NSW Emerging Producer Placement in the same year.[15]

In 2013, she was approached by Cancer Council and Information & Cultural Exchange (ICE) to produced and directed the movie Change of Our Lives.[21] The film was officially selected for the Viet Film Festival 2014.

Tran worked on Roger Corman's mixed martial arts movie Fist of the Dragon in Nanhai, China as killer assassin "Zhen" as well as fight supervisor for fight choreographer Trung Ly and director Antony Szeto in 2014.

In 2015, Tran flew over to Vietnam to be part of the making of Vietnamese action blockbuster Tracer/ Truy Sat. She played female antagonist "Phuong Lua" and executed spectacular fight sequences against Vietnam's leading actress Truong Ngoc Anh.[22]

in 2016 Tran wrote an original screenplay for a Vietnamese historical epic The Drums of Me Linh as well as action comedy Fury of the Far East; combining martial arts expertise and the supernatural, was awarded seed funding from ICE's Produce Perfect program to be developed into a proof of concept for television.[23] The Drums of Me Linh was selected by Lost in Books to be made into a bilingual children's book, written by Tran in collaboration with illustrator Britney Fong.[24] Fury of the Far East evolved into Tiger Cops which was funded through the ABC Freshblood scheme.[25]

In 2017, Tran officially set up film production company Phoenix Eye as she received an artist-in-residency with Powerhouse Youth Theatre where her company lives.[26]

The same year, she produced, wrote and directed "The Subtractor";[27] a mockumentary short film about an Asian lead breaking into Hollywood. This film was commissioned by Diverse Arts Australia and was selected to be pitched at the 2017 Video Junkee Festival.[28]

Tran occasionally teaches at AFTRS via the Open Program in Stage Combat/ Fight Choreography and the holiday filmmaking programs and run workshops in regional NSW.[29]

Tran is set to make a directorial debut on her self funded feature film action thriller "Echo 8"[30] in production in early 2020 co-starring with Japanese actor Takashi Hara.[31]

• 2018 - Tran plays "Trans Phat" in channel 10 comedy show "Street Smart" [32]
• 2017 - Tran plays "Tiger" in ABC interstitial series "Tiger Cops" co-starring with Steven Oliver.[33]
• 2016 - Tran is one of the stars in Truy Sat/ Tracer .
• 2015 - She had minor roles on ABC shows "How Not to Behave" and a role of a Vietnamese mother; "Hoang" on Channel 9's Love Child; Season 3.
• 2014- She is the antagonist in “Fist of the Dragon”, playing Zhen,
• 2013 She played Charlie Vu in award-winning short film "Hit Girls".
• 2012 - Tran was also in short film "Enter The Dojo" and "Gaffa"
• 2009 - She play "Mai Le" in Logie winner ABC TV's "My Place"