Profile

Mary Ruth Clarke writes for the stage, screen, and little screen.

She co-wrote and starred in the original low-budget Meet the Parents and adapted it into the blockbuster Meet the Parents, starring Robert De Niro, for which she shares Story credit with Greg Glienna. The original Meet the Parents was chosen by critic Dave Kerr as his favorite home-grown Chicago movie and was featured at the Gene Siskel Film Center's grand opening. She also shares Characters Creation credit with Greg for Meet The Fockers and Little Fockers.

She has written many plays, and some have found their way to productions.

Recent productions include Bonhoeffer's Cost at Provision Theater in Chicago, and Suffer The Long Night, a play she co-wrote with her MTP partner, Greg Glienna, which enjoyed a long successful run at Meta Theater in LA.

Mary Ruth is also a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists, where she teaches screenwriting. She's a dramaturge with the Prop Thtr New Plays festival.

She has doctored many screenplays, three of which have gone on to be produced: Relative Strangers, A Guy Thing, and The Godfather of Greenbay.

Mary Ruth has had poems published in the anthology The Thing About Second Chances, An Ode to Ralph Mills, and InPrint.

She has an MFA from Emerson College, a BFA in Theater and a BFA in Art History from Ohio University. She is a member of Writers Guild East, the Dramatist Guild.