About María
María has been acting since the age of seventeen, when she played her first film role. She has had a distinguished career on stage, television and film, in Iceland and abroad.
María is an idealist and campaigner for nature conservation and social innovation. She is one of the founders of Framtíðarlandið (The Future Land) and of the nature fund Auðlind, where she serves on the board. She was one of the “ants” who organised the National Assembly of 2009.
Spiritual matters have also been close to her heart, reflecting the influence of her great-grandfather Haraldur Níelsson. She has worked to build up children’s work within the church, written educational material and mentored children and young leaders. She has also practised yoga since her teens and released a DVD of yoga exercises connecting the practice with Icelandic nature.
Contact
You can email María or call her on +354 695 2201.
„Where do our ideals come from? I know my father had a great influence on me as a child – he was a child of nature, spiritually minded and a great humanist. Scouting also shaped me deeply, connecting me even more strongly with Icelandic nature in all weathers, and there I learned to take responsibility. And then of course there was the turning point when I met Guðmundur Páll Ólafsson and discovered that it is not enough to feel connected to nature and to love it – you also have to defend it. That raised the question: what am I going to do about it? And before I knew it, I had become an activist.“María Ellingsen