Maura Moynihan biography: 13 things about author, actress born in Albany, New York

Maura Russell Moynihan is an American author, actress, producer and painter who speaks Hindi, Urdu, Tibetan and French. She was born in Albany, New York, United States to Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Elizabeth Therese Brennan Moynihan.

From January 3, 1977 to January 3, 2001, Daniel served as a U.S. senator from New York. On January 29, 1990, Daniel conducted a lecture at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York.

During a question-and-answer session, Jamaican-American Dutchess County official Folami Gray challenged Daniel’s speech about the U.S. as a model of ethnic cooperation. He responded, ”If you don’t like it in this country, why don’t you pack your bags and go back where you came from.”

An Irish Catholic, Daniel was a strong supporter of the state of Israel. In contrast, at the commencement ceremony of the City University of New York in New York City, New York on May 12, 2023, Students for Justice in Palestine member Fatima Mousa Mohammed delivered a speech and called the founding of the state a catastrophe.

Mohammed’s speech shocked and horrified many people in New York and around the world, according to Maura. For Maura, the speech should be condemned.

A resident of Manhattan, New York City, Maura has exhibited her paintings in gallery shows not only in the U.S. but also in India, Nepal and Thailand. She attended high school in New Delhi, India and earned her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

For many years, Maura worked as a refugee consultant in India and Nepal. She was inspired in part by her childhood residence in Asia.

As a journalist and researcher, Maura worked on issues related to the Chinese Communist occupation of Tibet and as an artist, she has exhibited her paintings in gallery shows in the U.S., India, Nepal and Thailand.

It was Andy Warhol who launched Maura’s musical career. Here are 13 more things about her:

1. In 1973, she moved there with her father, who served as the U.S. ambassador to India from 1973 to 1975 and the U.S. ambassador the United Nations from 1975 to 1976.
2. In 1981, she graced the cover of his Interview magazine. She performed “Lady Luck” from the soundtrack of “Alphabet City,” a crime thriller released in 1984. In the same year, she played various roles in the television series “The New Show” and Henrietta Stackpole in the romantic drama “The Bostonians.” She has recorded three albums namely “Yoga Hotel,” “Bangkok Taxi” and “Bombay Superstar.”
3. In 1987, she played a makeup woman in “Broadcast News.” In 1989, she played Mona in “Slaves of New York.”
4. From 1994 to 1995, she was a communications consultant at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
5. From 1998 to 2002, she established and supervised Radio Free Asia’s Tibet service bureau in Kathmandu, Nepal.
6. From 2003 to 2008, she was the director of Friends of Moynihan Station. Her first collection of fiction “Yoga Hotel“, a Washington Post bestseller, was released in 2003, the same year her father died. In 2004, her brother John McCloskey Moynihan died.
7. On July 25, 2006, William Morrow published her first novel titled “Covergirl: Confessions of a Flawed Hedonist.”
8. In 2008, she earned her master’s degree in political science from Harvard University.
9. On January 9, 2015, her brother Timothy Patrick Moynihan died. 
10. In 2018, she produced “Moynihan,” a documentary that chronicles the life and legacy of her father. In 2019, she created a mural for the Marriott Hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal.
11. She served as a consulting producer in four episodes of “Seduced: Inside the NVIVM Cult,” a TV mini-series documentary released in 2020.
12. On March 14, 2021, she allegedly asked Korean-American couple Dan Lee, then 31, and Maria Ha, then 25, to go back to China. Lee and Ha were her neighbors in Manhattan.
13. She was 55 years old when she skipped on September 7, 2023 the opening of The Moynihan Center at The City College of New York in New York City, which was named after her father.