Aiofa Maki at Dave Decker Photography in Ybor City, Florida on Jan. 12, 2026. Credit: Dave Decker / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay
Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s spring arts issue features more than a dozen artists to watch this year and beyond. Meet Aiofa Maki.
About her name: It’s Irish (pronounced “EE-fah”). Maki is Finnish (from her dad’s side).
Her first lead role (in first grade): “They made me be Mary. I didn’t like it.” But when she threw the baby Jesus doll away from her in a fit of pique, “they thought it was funny.”
St. Pete’s magnet schools: From her studies at Perkins, John Hopkins and PCCA, she has grown into the realization that the arts can be a career. “I can’t think of anything else I’d want to do. Everything’s creativity to me.”
She acts, she sings, she dances, she writes. What’s her favorite? “Acting. When I think of getting a role, I think of getting to discover something about myself.”
What’s coming up the rest of this year? On the day we spoke, she was planning to travel north for an audition at Boston Conservatory—on the same day that a play she wrote and directed, “A Pattern of Time,” was to premiere at PCCA.
She’s remarkably mature. “Not only is she talented but she is focused, and brings a maturity to her work,” says Helen French, who choreographed Aiofa in the PCCA theater department’s “Alice by Heart.”
Favorite role: Sandra, the mom in the musical “Big Fish.” According to one audience member who saw the show, “She is pure magic.”
Her dreams for after college and beyond: “To be in the middle of everything.”
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This article appears in Jan. 29 – Feb. 04.
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