Born and raised in Barbados, Mary Cecilia moved to New York to pursue her love of acting. After graduating with her BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 2022, she focused on expanding her work as a playwright and director.

Chosen as a fellow for The Royal Court's Caribbean Writing for Performance Program, she developed a new full-length play, Blood in De Roots.

Ready to tackle film, she next enrolled at Columbia University's School of the Arts, where she is currently pursuing her MFA in Film.

Mary Cecilia was selected as the inaugural Kurt P. Tauber Film fellow, a chosen recipient of the Foreign Hollywood Press Association Fellowship, and as of this summer, a 2025 Diverso Fellow.

Her work primarily focuses on highlighting the lives and experiences of women, with a particular focus on women of colour from underrepresented parts of the world, with her West Indian culture permeating her work.