​has an MFA in Writing with a concentration in Poetry from the University of San Francisco. Her first play, BRAIDED SORROW, won the 2006 Chicano/Latino Literary Prize in Drama and the 2009 PEN Center USA Literary Award in Drama. Her work has been presented at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Halcyon Theatre, Su Teatro and Teatro Luna. Marisela's other plays include: AMERICAN TRIAGE (Repertorio Español 2012 MetLife Nuestras Voces National Playwriting Competition Runner Up); HEART SHAPED NEBULA (2012 O'Neill Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist); and WOMAN ON FIRE. Marisela is an alumna of the Playwrights Foundation's Resident Playwrights Initiative, a former member of Playground and a founding member of the Bay Area Latino Theatre Artists Network (BALTAN). Co-winner of the 2013 National Latino Playwriting Award, THE RIVER BRIDE was developed in AlterTheater's AlterLab residency. THE RIVER BRIDE is the first in a cycle of Latino fairy tale plays. Marisela is currently working on WOLF AT THE DOOR, the next play in the cycle.

Honors
2008 Resident Playwright, Playwrights Foundation, San Francisco; Southwestern University Young Alumna Achievement Award; 2006 Chicano/Latino Literary Prize in Drama; 2005 Zora Neale Hurston Award, Summer Writing Program, Naropa University.