Mahdi Asghari Azghadi was born in 1995 in Mashhad. He earned a bachelor's degree in film directing and a master's degree in cinema from the city's University of the Arts. He is also a member of the National Elite Foundation of Iran. He is writing his thesis on the theme of combining different genres in a single film. He is a well-known film professor in Iran and runs a prestigious film school in Tehran, the Clapp Film School. He writes and directs television films and programs. He is also the author of a novel Degh-Marg, which means Tragic Death. Maria is his first feature-length fiction film.