Maria von Heland (born 25 May 1965 in Stockholm, Sweden) gained a Bachelor of Arts in journalism at
Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey after finishing high school in Sweden. From 1990 to 1995 she gained a Master of Fine Arts in directing at the
California Institute of the Arts, where she studied under
Alexander Mackendrick, and at the School of Film and Video in Los Angeles. During this time she was an exchange student at the Konrad Wolf Akademie for Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany. ==Career==