Maiara Walsh (; ; born February 18, 1988) is an American actress. She played Ana Solis on the sixth season of the ABC show ''

Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American mystery comedy-drama television series created by Marc Cherry, and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on ABC from October 3, 2004, until May 13, 2012, for a tota ...

'', Meena Paroom on the

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sitcom ''

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'' and Simone Sinclair on the Freeform series '' Switched at Birth''. She also portrayed Vicky Patterson in the film Identity Theft of a Cheerleader by Lifetime and Mandi Weatherly in the film '' Mean Girls 2'' on Freeform.

Early life

Walsh was born in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

to a Brazilian mother and an American father. Her family moved to

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

when she was one year old where Portuguese became her first language. Walsh has said she was bullied as a child. After a few years, they moved back to Seattle where Maiara took an interest in music and the arts, diving into every musical and play offered by her school. At 11, she moved to

Simi Valley, California Simi Valley (; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in Simi Valley (valley), the valley of the same name in southeastern Ventura County, California, United States. It is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater ...

, to pursue her acting career and graduated from Royal High School.

Career

In 2010, Walsh guest-starred on CW's ''

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'' as Sarah. In 2011 she co-starred in '' Mean Girls 2'' as Mandi Weatherly, an A-list cliché girl also known as a "Plastic". Walsh was the female lead in the television series '' Zombieland'' as Wichita, taking over the role from

Emma Stone Emily Jean "Emma" Stone (born November 6, 1988) is an American actress and film producer. Her accolades include two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2017, she was the world's highest-paid actr ...

. After the pilot episode, the series was not picked up. Walsh had a recurring part starting in 2012 as Simone Sinclair, a former friend of Bay Kennish, a one-night stand with Emmett Bledsoe, friend / ex-girlfriend of Toby Kennish, and ex-girlfriend of Wilkie, in '' Switched at Birth''. In 2019, Walsh starred in the Lifetime film ''Identity Theft of a Cheerleader'' as Vicky Patterson, a woman in her 30’s who pretends to be a high school student to have a second chance at education and becoming a Cheerleader. Walsh’s character was modeled after the real-life case of Wendy Brown. In 2020, she starred in Lifetime original movie ''Killer Dream Home'' alongside John DeLuca.

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Maiara 1988 births Living people Actresses from Seattle American people of Brazilian descent American television actresses American emigrants to Brazil American child actresses American film actresses Actresses of Brazilian descent 21st-century American actresses 21st-century American singers Actresses from São Paulo Hispanic and Latino American actresses Brazilian actresses