Maria Ramos was born in 1964 in Brasília, Brazil. After graduating at the University of Brasilia (BA in Music/Piano), she moved to Europe where she studied Musicology and Electroacoustic Music in Paris at the Groupe de Recherche Musicale and, after that, in London at City University. In 1990, she moved to The Netherlands where she entered the Netherlands Film and Television Academy (NFTVA), specializing in directing documentaries.
Her first feature documentary Brasilia, a day in February was awarded the Prize of the Jury at the International Documentary Festival ‘It’s all true’ in São Paulo and was screened in several international film and documentary festivals. In 1998, she created and directed Butterflies in your stomach, a documentary about children in love for the Dutch VPRO Television. These series were nominated for the Grote Kinderkast-televisieprijs, the award for best children’s programme in The Netherlands in 1999. Maria Ramos is also Adviser of the Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Fund.