Named one of Screen International’s 2023 Rising Stars, Mia is an IFTA-nominated director whose short films have been awarded by Oscar-qualifying festivals such as Aesthetica and Galway Film Fleadh. She is a recipient of the Discovery Award from the Dublin International Film Festival and won Gold at the 2023 and 2024 YDA’s, Cannes Lions.

Before turning to filmmaking, Mia studied psychology, specialising in neuroscience and behaviourism. She worked as a behavioural psychologist in Ireland and Sri Lanka and as a community worker in Peru and India, which inspired her departure from psychology into filmmaking. Mia began her filmmaking journey in documentary, writing and directing the multi-award-winning community films MOTHER & BABY about the Tuam Mother & Baby Home atrocity, and THROWLINE, about taxi drivers trained to rescue young men from suicide. Mia wrote and directed award-winning short documentaries influenced by her training and practice as a psychologist; FEATS OF MODEST VALOUR, about the development of a new brain implant for people with Parkinson’s Disease, and MOOD ATLAS, about brain mapping of people with Bipolar Disorder to better determine bio-markers. Mia directed several TV documentary programs, including the TG4 music series CUMASC, which was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award in 2022.

In 2020 Mia obtained a first class masters degree in screenwriting at IADT, and moved into directing drama. In 2022, her debut short drama THE PASSION, based on a short story by renowned Irish author Donal Ryan and adapted by Frank Blake, was nominated for an IFTA. Mia’s Screen Ireland short drama SAFE AS HOUSES, about a woman with Down syndrome protecting a vulnerable neighbour, won gold for Best Short at YDA, Cannes Lions 2023, amongst numerous awards. She directed the RTÉ Storyland pilot drama WRAPPED, which won Gold at YDA, Cannes Lions 2024, and served as Irish Unit Director on the drama series THE GONE Season 2. Most recently, she directed Season 2 of the TG4 music series CUMASC and is in preparation to direct the TV drama HIDDEN ASSETS Season 3. Mia is writing her debut feature film LUCID, with support from Toronto International Film Festival and the Sloan Science on Screen Programme.