Mary Ann Cruz Horne - hair, makeup, and wardrobe stylist / model / actress / comedian / etc. etc. | by Phillip Istomin

Mary Ann greets me with a loud jacket and a giant grin. This is how I’m accustomed to seeing her. Nothing about Mary is average or understated, it simply wouldn’t be fitting.

Mary Ann Cruz Horne a.k.a. Muchacha Mary is a multi-talented firecracker. Born in Salt Lake City and raised in Cottonwood Heights, but you’d never guess it. How does someone so wild and exotic originate in a state that at times has a reputation for being quite opposite? The answer lies in Mary Ann’s ancestry. Her mom is Venezuelan, dad is from the Philippines. I don’t know where Mary Ann gets her personality, but the human race is generally that much richer due to the fact that she is a part of it. 

We are the products of our environments, off course, so we have to start in the beginning to make sense of it all. Little Mary Ann was obsessed with going to her grandmother’s beauty salon in Sugar House. This was her first exposure to the glamorous world of Beauty. “I loved watching my nana in her element, AquaNetting the crap out of her "mature" clientele's beehive-looking hair-do’s,” explains Mary Ann. “I distinctly remember carrying around a Rave hairspray bottle in my backpack, not for myself, but for my friends at school. I would fix my classmate’s bangs during free time. What 2nd grader does that?” Having a Venezuelan mother also provides you with mandatory exposure to beauty pageants at a very young age. Venezuela holds a record for the most Miss Universe winners, mind you. 

In junior high and high school Mary Ann would get subscriptions to all the teen magazines like Seventeen and YM. She would eagerly study the pages for the latest fashion, hair and makeup trends, and then try to recreate them herself. “I kept a log of my daily outfits, carefully trying not to repeat the same outfit twice (I still have some of my outfit logs, no joke. I may be a hoarder,)” says Mary Ann. “I would also walk to the library (these were the days before youtube and instagram) and checkout makeup books like Kevin Aucoin's “Making Faces.” I’d practice makeup techniques on my younger sister Natalie and best friend Shariana. I was always the friend who would do everyone's hair and makeup for any school dances, cheer competitions, etc.”

Mary Ann was a busy little bee while attending Cottonwood High. She played volleyball and basketball, did some dance, dabbled in thespianism (a word I made up), and appeared on a weekly on-air news program as an anchor and reporter. Most of Mary Ann’s friends started to get married right out of high school (as so many Utahns tend to do), so she found herself busy doing their hair and makeup. Mary Ann’s boyfriend at the time (now husband), worked as a wedding dress sales rep, selling to bridal shops all over the east coast, from West Virginia to New Jersey. Mary Ann got herself a gig traveling with the company during the fashion seasons (March/April and September/October) to the bridal markets, helping style and steam gowns, do hair & makeup, and model. She worked on all of their seasonal catalog shoots as well. Off course it wasn’t easy, nothing is. “It took a lot of practice, a lot of tfps (trade for print), and a lot of discounted wedding makeup & hair,” explains Mary Ann. “I had to act confident, even if I didn't know what I was doing. If a certain hairstyle was complex, I would just tackle it as if I’ve done it a million times before. Daily manifesting, networking, and learning from other artists was huge.”

Fast forward a couple more years to Mary Ann signing with a local exclusive talent company, Talent Management Group. This was a big turning point in Mary Ann's career. Since 2008, TMG has represented her for modeling, acting, makeup artistry, and hair & wardrobe styling.  How is that for a repertoire?! “I am years upon years of self taught skill mixed with some good Christian Dior product knowledge (I have been freelancing for them for 4 years),” Mary Ann explains. “Around the same time that I was signed to TMG I fell in love with Zumba. Zumba is an hour of cardio dancing, mostly to Latin music. I became obsessed! I then decided to get certified to teach Zumba and did so in 2010.” 

How does one person do so much, and do it so well?  “After working with all sorts of producers/directors I gained working relationships with many and was booked continuously,” says Mary Ann. “I knew I had made it to a good place when I started getting double booked and when I started doing makeup segments on the local news and was asked to come back time and time again. Now I mainly focus on hair and makeup for informercials, corporate videos, commercials, some weddings and news segments a couple times a month. When you have a strong passion for a dream, it becomes a goal that is worth nothing if you don't put your whole heart into it.”

I couldn’t agree more.

website: muchachamary.com | instagram: @muchachamary