Mariam Mnatsakanyan was born in Armenia and has built her career primarily in Russia. She graduated with honors in 2016 from the Yerevan State College of Culture and Arts, specializing in Theatre Directing. That year, her production of Gabriel García Márquez's I Just Came to Make a Call won the Best Student Production Award at the Art Fest International Youth Open Festival. In 2019, the production represented Armenia at the Abish Alemi International Theatre Festival in Aktau, Kazakhstan, where it won second prize.

In September 2016, Mariam moved to Moscow and began working at the Armenian Apostolic Church’s Hayordyats Dzyun community center. She directed Tumanyan’s Fairy Tales at the Gavit Theatre, which remains part of the theatre’s repertoire. She also taught at several community schools and theatre studios, offering courses in performing arts, Armenian language, and cultural studies.

Since 2020, Mariam has been the founder and director of the Gtnvats Yeraz (“The Found Dream”) Educational and Cultural Center in Krasnogorsk. Her work received the Grand Prix at the Artashunch Theatre Festival held in Anapa. In 2024–2025, she collaborated with the All-Armenian Association of Diaspora Teachers to initiate and co-organize the First Pan-Armenian Festival-Competition Fairy Tales in Dialects. She also created and led the Let’s Go to the Theatre educational program and authored the Art-Light (ArvestaLUS) theatre project for diaspora Armenian teachers.

iGorts placement: Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of the Republic of Armenia.