Marie Paquim was born into a family tradition in the arts. Her father was a professional dancer, and her mother, Lisette , a Portuguese Fado singer who toured throughout Europe. Marie, who was born in Paris, split her time growing up between France Portugal and Germany quickly picked up other languages as well, becoming fluent in French, Portuguese, Spanish, a German Classical Latin and Classical Greek and finally English.

Marie dived into the arts with a debut as a baby actor in a Johnson’s Shampoo commercial, and from there becoming a versatile dancer (including flamenco) and then a film actress, Thanks to a traditional family that valued education, her budding film career took a break till she received her Masters degree at the University of Sorbonne, Paris, where she mastered classical Latin and Greek, and then finally her Doctorate in Classical Theatre (with special studies on Moliere and Comedia Del Arte) at one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious universities, Coimbra University in Portugal. Moving her talents across the pond to America, Marie wanted to learn even more, and worked on the production side of the Tom Cruise vehicle “Vanilla Sky”. Watching her going about her duties one day on the set, director Cameron Crowe told her, “You belong in front of the camera, not behind it,” and quickly improvised a scene for her so she could obtain her SAG / AFTRA card in America.