Maria Oshodi's first play, 'The S Bend', was produced as part of the Royal Court Young Writers Festival in 1984, directed by David Sulkin, and later by Claire Grove at the Cockpit Theatre in 1985. Plays by Oshodi have been published by Longmans, Methuen and John Murray. Whilst studying for her degree in Drama and English at Middlesex University, she wrote the screenplay 'Mug', which was produced by Warner Sisters as a short for Channel 4 in 1990, and 'Hound' which was Produced by Graeae Theatre company in 1992 and later published in their anthology of plays, Graeae Plays 1 (2002). Since then she has worked in arts development, performed, and worked for BBC Drama production as a diversity project coordinator. She founded Extant in 1997 and since 2008 she has been full-time artistic Director and CEO of the company.