Mary Madeiras is an Emmy Award winning television director who represents the best-in-class for the CBS, ABC and NBC Networks in news, sports, talk shows and Daytime dramas. Throughout her career, Mary was responsible for broadcast and advertising budgets totaling nearly half a billion dollars.
Mary was the director for seven top-rated Daytime dramas for ABC, CBS, and NBC. She won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Direction for ABC’s General Hospital and NBC’s Another World, and a Directors Guild of America Award for Another World. Described as ‘an actors’ director’, Mary has an exceptional ability to compellingly transform story to the screen through dynamic visuals, an instinctive application of pace and timing and the sensitive guidance of actors to reach their highest potential, all within time and budget constraints.
Mary directed two morning talk shows for the CBS Network; CBS This Morning with hosts Gayle King and Charlie Rose and CBS’ innovative show, The Morning Program, from its inception through its entire run. She also directed her first film, Water Balloon, a short comedy which was entered in film festivals nationwide.
As a complement to her television directing, Mary studied the craft of acting at the Practical Aesthetics Acting Workshop and the Actors Playhouse in New York City. Shortly after, she directed her first play, Savage in Limbo at the Acting Studio in New York City.
Mary received her first Emmy Award on the directing team of the1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea for the NBC Network. Prior to this, Mary directed at MTV International and was an associate director for music and dance productions for PBS.
Mary worked for nine years at WCBS-TV, CBS Network News, CBS Sports and the NFL where she was responsible for more than $125M in television advertisements. She became a team leader in global news gathering and quickly learned the value of powerful storytelling, with lightning-speed decision-making as she spontaneously and creatively turned around live breaking news daily.
Mary began her career as sales assistant at John Blair & Co., a top rep firm in New York where she executed and managed contracts between major advertising companies and network television affiliates totaling more than $100M.
Mary was editor for the documentary, Teenage Girls; Three Portraits, which placed second in the American Film Festival. Proficient in Adobe Premier Pro, Mary applies her editing skills today in a variety of her projects.
A native New Yorker, Mary graduated from Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, where she received a Bachelors Degree in Music Education. Her music background has been a central, driving force throughout her career. Music demands a peripheral vision with split-second timing, which has fueled Mary’s ability to take on enormous challenges in live television and drama direction. Mary’s innovative use of music has created award-winning results in programming.
As CEO of Madeira Impact, LLC, a social impact company, Mary’s mission is to transform traditional media into social impact entertainment.