Maria began acting in 1994 and her first work professionally as an actor was with Shakespeare & Company, a Boston based theatre producing both Shakespeare and modern works and she then moved on to work with the Irish company The Sugan Theatre Company also in Boston. In the late 1990's she moved to Ireland and her first acting role was with Roger Corman's Irish-based company New Horizons. She acted in 4 of Roger Corman's films (all speaking roles with, surprise, no nudity!) as well as Irish short films, feature films, and television commercials. Her stage debut came in the play "Eclipsed" in 1998 and she continued to perform on stage to Irish audiences with her multi-media company "extempo". Maria was director and co-producer of extempo as well as composing, arranging, and performing in the productions. In 1998 Maria produced 3 shows in Galway for "extempo" at The Town Hall Theatre and site-specific venues. Maria also began collaborating with members of Poland's Gardzienice Theatre Company in 1998 and continues to work with them both in Poland and in the U.K..

    Maria founded the Bare Bards Theatre Co. in 1998, an improv and street theatre performance company and gained a reputation in the West of Ireland as "and innovative, wild, and highly entertaining" performance group. They performed at arts festivals and private functionsand their slew of characters and scenarios range from filthy medieval street urchins to slightly remedial but sincere culchie cheerleaders, and everything in between. Nothing was sacred and irreverence was the order of the day.

    Maria found an acting agent in Dublin not long after she began performing in Ireland and commuted back and forth between her base in Galway and Dublin for a remarkably long stint of 3 years, during which Maria was cast in speaking roles in films working with actors such as Angela Landsbury, Patrick Bergin, Mia Farrow, Keith Carradine, and Patsy Kensit. Eventually Maria found most of her performance and work opportunities were coming from Dublin companies and in 2002 she moved her base from Galway to Dublin, where she currently resides.

    In January 2001 Maria landed her first television role in Ireland's most popular soap opera Fair City as the nasty American 'boss from Hell' character 'Camille Barnett'. Although the character so far only appears in 10 episodes of the show it was more than enough time for her to create a stir and make her presence feared and loathed amongst the population of Carrigstown. Maria's TV debut was quickly followed by a leading role with the Cork-based Corca Dorca Theatre Co. (who produced the phenomenal hit "Disco Pigs" in 1998) in their highly acclaimed sell-out production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the summer of 2001. Maria played the two main men's roles, 'Oberon' and 'Theseus' and was touted as "mesmerizing" by the Irish Independent. In August Maria performed and produced a jazz cabaret show playing the chaaracter 'Virginia Divine' in Bewley's Cafe Theatre and in September was asked to play a role written for her in Jim Sheridan's new film "East of Harlem ".

    In the Spring of 2002 Maria produced and performed a new jazz/cabaret one-woman show called "JAZZ HOT" and thus began a series of performances that eventually led to her recent success in the ESB Dublin Fringe Theatre Festival 2002 with her show "All About Love". Written, produced, arranged, and performed by Maria, this show was sold out for almost all of its week-long run and due to its popularity will be back for a special Valentine's Day run from February 5th-15th, 2003, at The Cobalt Cafe, North Great George's St., Dublin 1. "Performer, musician, and actress Maria Tecce takes on the guises of the brash, the bold, and the brittle...elegantly executed, Maria imperiously translates the songs into her own theatrical language. The reference points might be Ute lemper, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, and Barbara Streisand, but the end result is totally Tecce." Tony Clayton-Lea, The Irish Times