Marilyn Anderson
About Marilyn Anderson
Marilyn Anderson is a produced playwright, internationally published author, and award-winning writer-producer for film and television.
One of Marilyn’s plays was produced at the Tiffany Playhouse in Los Angeles. Her play, “As Good As Gold” - a comedy about women and gender parity in Hollywood was produced at Theatre 40 in 2021. She also has a play “Not Tonight, Vito!." It tackles the subject of gun violence in a unique way… utilizing humor, history, and lots of surprising twists and turns. It was a finalist in several playwriting contests. Both of these are female-driven plays with great roles for actresses, and equally fun roles for male actors.
Marilyn was honored by the Writers Guild of America as a writer on the WGA’s list of 101 Best Written TV Series over the past seven decades. In addition, she won a LUMINAS Award for the Positive Depiction of Women in Film and Television from the organization Women in Film. Marilyn is writer-producer of the 2015 family film, “How to Beat a Bully.” The movie, a comedy with the theme of anti-bullying, won Best Feature Film at the L-Dub Film Festival. One of Marilyn’s romantic comedy screenplays, “Making Mr. Right,” aired on Lifetime and her new romantic comedy, “Cold Feet – A Wedding Tale” is set to go into production in South Africa next year.
On television, Marilyn has written for Murphy Brown, FAME, Quantum Leap, Sherman Oaks, and others. She was on the writing staff of Carol & Company, starring Carol Burnett, Richard Kind, and Jeremy Piven. In the thriller-horror genre, Ms. Anderson wrote three episodes of “Friday the 13th – the Series.
Three of Marilyn’s screenplays won top honors in screenwriting competitions, including the American Screenwriting Contest, Writer’s Digest Screenwriting Contest and Scriptapalooza. Marilyn was a judge for over 15 years for the most important screenwriting contest in the world.
In the publishing world, Marilyn is the author of “How to Live Like a MILLIONAIRE When You’re a Million Short.” The book was featured in Forbes and USA Weekly, and won an IRWIN Award from the Book Publicists of Southern California as the Best Book on Saving Money & Living Well of 2018. Ms. Anderson’s humorous relationship book, "NEVER KISS A FROG: A Girl’s Guide to Creatures from the Dating Swamp,” is published in 10 languages. She also wrote and produced two Web Series based on her books. Her book, MUTTweiler: An AutoDOGography, was co-written with her dog, Boomer and became the #1 bestselling dog book on Amazon in its second week of puplication. Marilyn has two new books coming out in 2020: a middle-school novel based on her film, “How to Beat a Bully”, and a multicultural thriller, “Dishonor Thy Father.”
Marilyn’s background is unique. She graduated from Temple University and has a Master’s Degree from Boston University in Biology and Physiology. She worked as a Biomedical Information Specialist at the National Academy of Sciences in D.C. but left her scientific job to go into acting in New York, where she did both standup comedy and improvisational theatre. Marilyn has also written for magazines and newspapers online and in print. She’s penned several hundred articles as a travel & entertainment reporter and has also written humorous relationship essays for various outlets including the Los Angeles Times.
Marilyn currently resides in Los Angeles. She is a member of the WGA, Dramatist’s Guild and Author’s Guild.
Her websites are