Maria Giannouli graduated from the Stavrakos Film School and continued her studies in Philosophy. She has been working as a director in television and theater since 1996. She started her career as an assistant director to Pantelis Voulgaris, Kostas Koutsomytis, and John Madden in the film Captain Corelli's Mandolin.
In 2003, she participated in the 53rd Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale - Talent Campus) with her short film Athinas 12:00.
She collaborated with Chronis Pechlivanidis and Onos Productions, directing the entire series Notebooks, Thanasis Lalas for ERT, as well as other productions by the company.
She wrote the screenplay structure and directed the documentary Becoming Constantinos Daskalakis, produced by the Delphi Cultural Center. The documentary was presented at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron).
Maria Giannouli's documentaries and short films, such as Survivors, a character-driven documentary about world paragliding champion Apostolos Mavrothalassitis who survived a tragic accident and Samios, a portrait of renowned painter Pavlos Samios, have won awards at film festivals in Greece and abroad.
She participated in the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival with ERT-produced films such as Maria's Nikola, Charlotte Rampling (also awarded at the London Greek Film Festival), Chasing the Impossible, and Philip Roth.
She is a member of the Hellenic Directors Guild, WIFT (Women in Film and Television), and Hellas Doc.