Maria Goos (1956) was a director for various theatre companies and the artistic manager of theatre company De Kompaan for several years after finishing the Academy of Dramatic Art in Maastricht in 1982. She decided to write. The result was more than eight plays performed in the Netherlands in the eighties.

She started writing television drama in the early nineties. This led to the unsurpassed success of two major drama series:
Called to the Bar (with Hugo Heinen and Pieter van de Waterbeemd) - a multiple award winning 3x13 part drama series about a small, independent law firm with young, passionate lawyers.
Old Money - a 19 part drama series on the family behind the time-honoured Bussink Bank and their struggle to survive in changing times. The result was rave reviews by press and viewing public. The drama series has won all major television awards two years in a row, among others the prestigious Silver Nipkows.

To give herself a break she returned to theatre and wrote the play Family for the theatre company Het Toneel Speelt. This proved to be the box-office theatre hit in the Netherlands of the 2000-2001 season. In Family the husband of a dying mother invites the family to a Swiss chalet for a last family gathering.

In the same year, Maria Goos adapts Family for a television film. Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen directs the film that is eventually honoured with a Gouden Kalf - The First Prize for best television drama and the Dutch Film Critics Award at the Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht in September 2001. Although it was initially made for television, they decided to release it in the cinema as well. It did very well.

A few months later A Table for Four, the first part of a play written and directed by Maria Goos, premieres in Theatre Bellevue/Nieuwe de la Mar in Amsterdam. Over their monthly dinners while discussing past and present life, four friends stick to their gentleman's agreement not to whine. Press and public adore the play.

In late 2002 Maria Goos presents the play Cloaca, which proves to be another theatre hit in the Netherlands, during the season 2002-2003. Four youth friends have turned into rather successful men, although their private lives are pretty disfunctional. They pretend to stand by one another, but their friendship cannot compete with their personal ambitions. As with Family, Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen made a television film of Cloaca, adapted by Maria Goos, which premiered during the Dutch Film Festival in September 2003. It was awarded with the Public's Favourite and a Special Prize for the main Actors, invented on the spot by the Judging Committee. Cloaca was released in the cinema as well and has had a long run.

In December 2003 the second part of A Table for Four appears. It is based on the friendship between four women, one of them being the widow of one of the friends in the first part of A Table for Four. During the same time Maria Goos writes and directs an eight minute television series Lieve Mensen for Dutch broadcasting company VPRO.
She also writes several columns Leef! for Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant on the life of Anna, a midwife in Amsterdam, who corresponds with her best friend in Rotterdam. In the meantime she writes the script Leef! on Anna's life. The film has been shot in the autumn of 2004.

In September 2004 the play Cloaca premieres in the famous, renovated Old Vic Theatre in London with an English cast and crew. Actor/director Kevin Spacey is directing the play.

In 2005 she has performed in SMOEDER, a play on her and her companion Marcel Musters' mothers.

The television film Cloaca was awarded with A Dutch Academy Award for Best Television Drama 2004 on September 30, 2004.

The German version of Cloaca i.e. Alte Freunde, directed by Dietmar Pflegerl has premiered in The Renaissance Theater in Berlin on February 26, 2006. In Theater am Domhof in Osnabrück, director Jos van Kan presented his version to the press on March 18, 2006.

The feature film Leef! receives a Golden Film Award on March 1, 2006. 100.000 People went to see the film in the cinemas.

She was awarded the Lira Script Award in 2001 and De Gouden Ganzenveer in 2005.

Baraka, the Spanish Cloaca travels various Spanish cities from October 2006 until mid January 2007 inclusive. Roland Brouwer translated it.
Until December 2009 it is staged in Buenos Aires (Argentina). It was honoured with several prestigious prizes for theatre, called ACE (Asociacion de Cronistas del Espectaculo); Best comedy - Maria Goos, Best actor in a comedy - Jorge Marrale, Best director - Javier Daulte, Best production - Pablo Kompel (he has received the prize for several of his productions) and a Golden ACE for Jorge Marrale.

In March 2008, De Geschiedenis van de Familie Avenier (The history of the Avenier' Family) , part 3 and 4 premiered. Part 1 and 2 already had their Opening Night in January 2007. The play is a saga on a very Dutch - working class slowly becoming middle class - family and their struggle with time and generations.

In November 2008 Maria is awarded The Edmund Hustinxprijs 2008. Every two years, a remarkbale author in the Benelux is honored with this prize. According to the jury: 'The body of work by Maria Goos is a homage to human contact.'