Maria Reinup was born on April 6, 1988 in Estonia. She graduated from Pelgulinna Art High School in Tallinn in 2007. She then studied at the University of Tartu in 2008-2009 at the Bachelor's program in Romance Languages and Philosophy, from 2009-2013 at the Tallinn University's Baltic Film and Media School, where she graduated in Bachelor's Degree of Humanities. She continued with Master's Degree Studies in Film Directing, which she quit halfway. Her short films have been to numerous film festivals around the world and won multiple awards, including Gold Medal by Union Internationale Du Cinema. Over the recent years she has worked as on various feature films, most notably as Second Unit Director for Fox Searchlight film "Tolkien".

In 2012-2018 she was the Artistic Director of Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Festival, which is the biggest genre festival in Baltics. She served as a Senior Programmer for the only A-list film Festival in North-Europe, Black Nights Film Festival, for many years. From 2018, she is the Artistic Director of the "What the Fest!?" in New York.