Maria Sten is a Danish actress, writer, director and beauty pageant titleholder born and raised in Denmark with Danish, Swedish and Congolese roots.^[1][2] 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.^[3] As a child, Sten often posed for her mother who was a professional artist^[4][5][6] and, as a child, she also started doing theater in school; participating in a youth acting program at Scandinavian Theater School.^[7] Her other childhood activities included horseback riding, gymnastics, kickboxing, track and field and playing the piano.^[8] 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.^[9]

Career

Sten competed in Miss Supertalent of the World 2011 and was placed in the top 7 women among 50 candidates.^[10]

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.^[9] Later in 2017, Sten was selected for the 2017 Black List x WIF Episodic Lab.^[11] 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.^[1][12] 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.^[1]

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.^[13]

Since 2022 she has starred as the character Frances Neagley in the Amazon Prime Video series Reacher.^[14]

Filmography

Film

Television

Web

Producer