Awards & RecognitionsFrom Emmys, to Presidential Awards to the Vatican!

1982 - Maria Laria becomes the first and only female on-air talent on the first Spanish-language cable television station in the U.S. 1988 - Maria Laria is the first woman to create, produce and host a Spanish-language talk-show in the U.S. (April 17, 1988). 1988 - Maria Laria's Show is the first Hispanic talk-show to endorse a campaign for missing children and was responsible for reuniting 35 mothers with their abducted children. 1988 - Maria Laria is the first U.S. Spanish- language journalist to produce a prime-time Special involving women behind bars in a live-remote from the prison with their family members at the Maria Laria studio. 1988 - Maria Laria's Show receives four EMMY nominations including best hostess. 1988 - Maria Laria creates the first "Most Wanted" Series in Spanish resulting in the capture of six fugitives. 1989 - Maria Laria's Show inspires the need and creation of an International Organization for Missing Adults. 1989 - Maria Laria is the first U.S. Spanish-language journalist to produce a live remote from a psychiatric ward to interview ten severely disturbed mental health patients and their doctors. 1989 - Maria Laria produces a prime-time special denouncing the discriminatory practices of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors resulting in the appointment of the first Hispanic woman, G1oria Molina as a City Council Official. 1989-91 - Maria Laria hosts and produces a series of the most controversial figures of the Americas, including exclusive interviews with the United States President George Bush, Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Salvadorean President Alfredo Cristiani, and Cuban freedom fighters Huber Matos and Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo. 1989-9l - Maria Laria hosts a yearly Christmas Special featuring the "Plight of the Homeless". resulting in a massive public support to grant jobs, housing, food and toys. 1990 - Pope John Paul II grants an exclusive interview to Maria Laria as part of a one-hour special taped on location at the Vatican. 1990 - Maria Laria Day officially proclaimed by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley on April 17. 1991 - Maria Laria is inducted into the League of United Latin American Citizens LULAC Hall of Fame. Maria is the first TV personality to be inducted. 1991 - Once again, Maria Laria receives two Emmy nominations, including best hostess. 1991 Maria Laria is named "Grand Marshall of the East Los Angeles Mexican Independence Day Parade". 1991 - Maria Laria launches National Literacy Campaign among U.S. Hispanics. 1991 - Maria Laria is the First talk-show host to tape a show in the aftermath of the Los Angeles Riots during a weekend curfew, followed by Geraldo Rivera and Oprah Winfrey. 1992 - Maria Laria conducts a live televised town hall meeting with city and county officials in Miami following Hurricane Andrew to draw attention to the delayed emergency funding for hurricane victims, resulting in speedy housing assistance and emergency help. 1992 - Maria Laria is awarded the keys to the cities of Los Angeles, Miami and Hialeah, Florida. 1992 - Maria Laria is granted the first and only interview with the first Hispanic woman sentenced to death for the killing of her child "Baby Lollipop". The live interview was broadcast directly from the woman's death row cell in Broward's Maximum Security Prison. 1993 - Maria Laria spends the night as a homeless person for an investigative report which results in the foundation of the Hialeah Foundation's Office for the Homeless and the passing of legislation that provides the homeless with assistance and education for their reintegration into society. 1993 - Maria Laria Show receives four Emmy Awards. 1993 - Maria Laria produces a prime-time special on "The Nazi Movement in Modern Times", taped in Universal Studios in Hollywood with a live audience of more than three thousand people. 1993 -The Maria Laria Show goes undercover with hidden camera to psychiatric hospitals in Latin America to reveal the subhuman living conditions, also taped at Universal Studios. 1993 - Maria Laria is named Grand Marshall of the most important Hispanic parade in the U.S. - New York Desfile de la Hispanidad - on October 12. 1993 - Maria Laria receives the most distinguished award given to Television personalities and distinguished journalists in Puerto Rico, the PAOLI AWARD.. 1993-94 Maria Laria produces "Padres a Hijos" - a series of four prime-time specials encouraging parental involvement in their children's education. 1994 - Maria Laria Show reveals California Governor Pete Wilson's witch-hunt of illegal aliens in a prime-time special. 1994 - Maria Laria Show features a panel of experts directly involved with events leading up to the assassination of Mexican Presidential Candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio, including the presumed assassin's relatives via-satellite from Los Angeles. 1994 - Maria Laria leads the first coalition of talk- show hosts in a "Campaign Against AIDS and AIDS Discrimination" presided by Maria Laria and Jerry Springer. Other talk show hosts include Montel Williams, Leeza Gibbons, Bertice Berry and others. 1993-94 - Maria Laria is recognized by the Congress of the United States for her community labor and her excellence in journalism, including countless public service shows for AIDS, abused children, the homeless, education, abused women, labor discrimination, minority issues, and the empowerment of Hispanic women. 1994 Maria Laria Show is the first U.S.-produced Spanish-language talk-show to air prime-time daily on a Mexican network. 1994 - -Maria Laria joins GEMS Television in successfully launching the first U.S. / Television Espanola co-production in Spain. 1994 - Maria Laria becomes co-executive producer and host of the first Global Talk- Show, Sin Fronteras con Maria Laria, broadcast from Madrid, Spain to the rest of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Scandinavia, Latin America and the U.S. 1995-Maria Laria receives the "AMALFE Award" given by the Government of Spain's Official Medical Association of Relatives and Friends of Schizophrenics. 1995 - Maria Laria is the celebrity guest speaker in the Hispanic Awareness for Career Enhancement Conference in Chicago, IL. 1996 - Maria Laria is the celebrity guest speaker of the Domestic Violence Annual Fund in Miami, FL. 1996 - Maria Laria receives the "Cuspide Piramidal Award" presented by the Women's Association of Ponce, Puerto Rico. 1996 - Maria Laria receives the highest distinction "Cassandra Award" in the Dominican Republic. 1997 - The mayor of Boston Thomas Menino awards Maria Laria with a special recognition for her extraordinary service and dedication to the Hispanic community and to her profession. 1997 - The Cuban Flag Day commitee in Boston recognizes MARIA LARIA as the Best of Hispanic television internationally; with a special City Hall ceremony in her honor. 1997 - Maria Laria receives another ACCA award in the city of MIAMI for her MOTHERS WITHOUT BOUNDARIES Special taped live at VIZCAYA, and her WOMEN WITHOUT BOUNDARIES Special taped live in MEXICO CITY. 1999-2000 Maria Laria founds ML Enterprises, featuring her upcoming ML'2002 Swim & Sportswear Collection from Europe. Through her extremely popular website "marialaria.com", MARIA reaches all her followers around the globe, via her weekly Internet column addressing International issues. 1999 - Maria Laria releases her first Classical CD, titled "Pianissimo", a live piano recital taped in prestigious Jordan Hall in Boston. 1999-2000 Maria Laria initiates the extensive Pianissimo Worldwide Promotional Tour that will take her to numerous cities in the U.S., Latin America, Europe and Asia. 1999 - 2000 Maria Laria is named President of the Miami Hispanic Film Festival by its founder/director Mr. Jaime Angulo. 1999 - 2000 Maria Laria tapes a series of 28 Prime-time International TV Specials titled "Seasons of Change" with Maria Laria, a Rubicon Entertainment Co-production, covering all planetary & geographical events that will change our planet forever as we enter the third millennium. 2000- Maria Laria continues her Pianissimo World Promotional Tour with a trip to Tokyo, Japan, where her classical "Piannissimo" Solo Piano CD gets national distribution and acclaim. This marks Maria Laria's first artistic introduction in the Asian continent. 2000- Maria Laria's "Pianissimo" film music video gets nominated for a Eunesco Philantropy Award in New York, for the dedication of this work as part of a US national campaign against violence in American high-schools. 2000- Maria Laria finally accepts her first acting role as a female physician in the TV series "Young Chicago Doctors", which just recently wrapped production. 2001-Maria Laria accepts her first leading role in a US-French film co-production portraying a half French half-Native American Indian who dedicates her life as an animal-rights activist and eventually becomes an environmentalist heroine. May 2001-Maria is invited as Special Guest as an American actress to the Cannes Film Festival held anually on the French Riviera. Fall 2001- Maria Laria accepts a guest recurring role portraying a compassionate nurse in NBC's daytime drama "Days Of Our Lives" for 10 episodes. 2001- Maria Laria at the present time carefully studies various film offers from Hollywood studios, in preparation for what will be once again a new turn in her already prolific and versatile TV, music and stage career. 2002-The All New MariaLaria Show, geared toward troubled Hispanic teens, taped in Los Angeles; debuts in LA, Miami, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, PR, Venezuela, and other International markets worldwide. 2004-Maria Laria returns to the big screen portraying a psychiatrist in the Mexican film The Secret, co-starring Sonia Infante.