Mia Martinez wears many artistic hats, but for simplicity she calls herself a performer-choreographer. A true Minnesotan lake gal, she grew up in Detroit Lakes, MN and has had a lifelong love for telling stories through live performance. She attended the University of Minnesota — Duluth, fell head over heels in love with Lake Superior, and graduated with departmental honors in the spring of 2021, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre with a minor in Applied Dance and a Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Psychology. She has since found her home in the beautiful city of Minneapolis where she currently lives & thrives.

Mia works both on-screen and onstage (with most of her work being done within the magic of live theatre and dance). She is especially drawn to pieces that advocate for a greater cause, new works, and all things musical theatre. She is also the co-founder of Budding Heads, a Minneapolis-based artistic production company started by Mia and her partner in life and work, Wesley Tilford.

While Mia’s heart feels most at home in the spotlight, throughout her career, she’s found a great thrill in expanding her all-around skillset as a theatre artist, and has also dabbled in choreography, dance education, movement direction, staging facilitation, dramaturgy, theatre marketing, scenic design, costuming, makeup design, props design, and set construction — the usual gamut run when one operates a growing production company.

In her very spare free time, Mia can be found practicing yoga, playing the piano, nose deep in a good book, or showering her cats — Hermes, Frank, & Floyd — with her love and affection.