Maria Sten

Maria Sten is a Danish actress, writer, director and beauty pageant titleholder born and raised in Denmark with Danish, Swedish and Congolese roots. She was crowned Miss Denmark Universe 2008 and represented her country at Miss Universe 2008.

Childhood
Sten was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to a Danish mother Nina Sten-Knudsen with Swedish heritage and a Congolese father. She has 8 siblings: one brother, four sisters, plus two step-sisters, plus one unrelated sister. She grew up with only one of the sisters, an older sister who was her mother’s only other child. As a child, Sten often posed for her mother who was a professional artist and, as a child, she also started doing theater in school; participating in a youth acting program at Scandinavian Theater School. Her other childhood activities included horseback riding, gymnastics, kickboxing, track and field and playing the piano. As she grew older, she grew taller and was convinced to try modeling. Sten moved to New York City in the United States when she was 18 years old to pursue a career in Performing Arts.

Career
Sten competed in Miss Supertalent of the World 2011 and was placed in the top 7 women among 50 candidates.

Writer
In February 2017, Sten's submission "The Courier" was announced as a finalist for the second annual television writing program from the ATX Television Festival and The Black List. Later in 2017, Sten was selected for the 2017 Black List x WIF Episodic Lab. Sten has also written two episodes of David E. Kelley's series Big Sky, and wrote, directed, and produced the short films Wild Things Run Free and When It Burns. In 2018 Sten was named to the Tracking Board's Young & Hungry List, which showcases the top 100 new writers as voted on by Hollywood's most influential.

Actor
As an actor, Sten played the lead role of Jillian Hope Hodgson in the fourth season of the television show Channel Zero: The Dream Door. She portrayed Liz Tremayne in the DC Universe television series Swamp Thing, which also starred Crystal Reed.

Since 2022 she has starred as the character Frances Neagley in the Amazon Prime Video series Reacher.