Born on April 13, 1944, Bucharest. Diplomat director in arts, theater direction. He graduated from the Faculty of Romanian Language and Literature, Bucharest University (1967) and the "I. L. Caragiale" (1973), Radu Penciulescu class. He was general director of the "Sică Alexandrescu" Theater (1996-1999), director and general director of the "Marin Sorescu" National Theater (2000-2016). Associate professor at the directing department of UNATC.

In his 50-year career, Mircea Cornișteanu performed over 170 shows on the stages of more than 25 professional theaters in the country (Nottara, Bulandra, Comedie, "Ion Creangă" (Bucharest), but also at the national theaters in Bucharest , Craiova, Cluj, Tg. Mureș, Iași or the municipal ones in Brașov, Galați, Piatra Neamț, Oradea, Ploiești, etc. Abroad he staged in Poland, Armenia, Cyprus. He made a multitude of theater shows, puppet theater, musicals, operetta and television theatre.

He is the first Romanian director who made a show based on the correspondence of I. L. Caragiale, "Al matale, Caragiale", performed in several theaters in the country and broadcast on TVR. Producer of the first "Integrale Caragiale" at the Craiova National Theatre.

In 2010 he received the UNITER Award for his entire activity, and in 2011 the show "Where's the revolver?", performed at TVR, received the UNITER Award for the best TVR theater show. For the performances he has received over 20 awards for directing or the best show at various festivals: The award for the best show at the Craiova Historical Theater Festival, 1979, for "A treia teăpă" - by Marin Sorescu, National Theater Craiova; A.T.M. Award for directing in 1982 for "A lost letter", National Theater Craiova; UNITER Award for the best show of 1989 for "Uncle Vanea", National Theater Craiova. He was awarded the Award for the best comedy show for "D' ale Carnavalului" at the National Comedy Festival - Galati 2002, with the Diploma of the Ministry of Culture of the former U.S.S.R. for "General Interest" by Aurel Baranga ("Stanislavski" Theater in Yerevan) in 1982. He was awarded the Grand Prize and the Award for Directing at the Festival of Hungarian Theaters Abroad in Kisvarda-Hungary for the performance "Who's Afraid by Virginia Woolf?", by Eduard Albee, (National Theater in Târgu Mureș), Hungarian section, in 1996; The prize for the best show and the prize for direction at the Galați and Brașov Festivals, for "Audiția", by Al. Galin, Bucharest Comedy Theatre, 2005; FEST-CO National Comedy Festival Award for Direction and Best Show, "Breaking News" after The Holiday Game by Mihail Sebasrtian (2018). The most recent award conferred: the Brâncoveanu Foundation Award for Theater, 2019.

The most recent show staged in Craiova: "The snows of another time" (2023). Between 1996-2002 he was a member of the UNITER Senate (Theatrical Union of Romania). Secretary General of the European Theater Convention (1995-2008). Decorated with the National Order "Faithful Service" in the rank of knight.

"Another great luck smiled on me when Amza (Pellea), after listening to me a few times over a beer in the restaurant car of the train I used to commute to Bucharest, telling him about Caragiale and especially about how I see the "Lost Letters" world said to me, "Go for it, kid!" This is how I began my journey as a director, my first show at TNC being the masterpiece of our dramaturgy, in 1974."

Recorded by Nicolae Coande, SpectActor no. 3/2010

"What seems to me to be able to suggest the interpretation that Mircea Cornișteanu gave to this play, so Chekhovian, is the closed universe in which each of its characters lives. They are all losers; and the only thing that distinguishes them is that some (Vanea, Sonia) know it, others (Astrov, the teacher) are afraid to recognize it, while the distinguished lady crosses the stage, reading her books with affected indifference, not even he realizes that social success could close the threat of collapse."

Dan Grigorescu, Eulogy of pathetic lucidity, "Teatrul" magazine, 1990

"The show created by Mircea Cornișteanu is original and spiritual, suggestive and clear, multiplying its meanings as it unfolds, evoking the major meanings of the drama at each confrontation, dictated by the action.

Paul Tutungiu, The third peg, "Teatrul" no. 10, October 1979

"Uncle Vanea" by Chekhov highlighted another facet of director Mircea Cornișteanu, that of a good connoisseur of the great Russian writer's tragicomedy, a creator of some of the finest nuances in the creation of characters .”

                           Ileana Berlogea, "Informatia Bucharestului", April 24, 1989