Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, Maria (Ri) Smith is a fresh-faced writer whose essence is rooted in both comedy and intersectionality. Maria began her first pursuits as a storyteller when she attended undergrad at the University of Tennessee. While there, she served as a weekly columnist for the university paper and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in Africana Studies. Having graduated with her MFA in Writing for the Stage and Screen in 2022 from Northwestern University, Maria has had her work featured in the Theater Masters TAKE TEN MFA Festival, the Black Lives, Black Voices Festival, Copy Literary Magazine, and The Eitch by Hyphen Reads Books. During her time at Northwestern, she also picked up the hobby of juicing and from there, the concept of The.Juiceri was born.

In August 2022, she completed a writer’s residency at the Story 27 Production’s Writer’s Colony hosted by television mogul Mara Brock Akil. In May 2023, Maria became Congo Square Theatre’s Samuel G. Roberson “Next Up” Fellowship Winner for the 2023/2024 season. Later that fall, her play (m)Other or The Play About Rest was chosen as a semi-finalist for the A is For One Act Festival, and she became a member of the Playground LA Writers Pool where her short play Politics received the People's Choice Award for the October showcase.

Now in an effort to innovate the world of media and content creation, Maria is dedicated to the development of The.Juiceri from a small blog, to a media and lifestyle. The goal: to innovate the pursuit of fresh, quality content across a plethora of platforms.