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Melanie Marnich
Melanie Marnich
Occupation	Television writer, Television producer, Playwright
Education	University of Minnesota (BA); University of California, San Diego (MFA)
Notable works	A Sleeping Country, Quake, Big Love, The Affair, The OA
Spouse	Lee Blessing

Melanie Marnich is an American television writer-producer and playwright. She co-created and serves as executive producer and co-showrunner for the upcoming Amazon series, The Expatriates.^[1] She has written for Big Love on HBO; Her episode, “Come, Ye Saints” for Big Love, earned her a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for best drama episode. It was also named Best Television Episode of 2009 by Entertainment Weekly, rated third in TIME Magazine's list of 10 Best TV episodes of 2009,^[2] and ranked in TV Guide's 100 Best Episodes of All Time.

Early life

Marnich was born in Duluth, Minnesota, the only child of Mike and Mary (Fracassi). Her father worked for U.S. Steel, first in the company's Cement Plant, then later in the mines in northern Minnesota. Her mother worked as a secretary, eventually becoming the office manager for the local Teamsters office. Her father's parents immigrated from Yugoslavia. Her mother's parents came from Italy.

Marnich attended the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, where she earned her bachelor's degree in journalism. After graduation, she worked as an award-winning copywriter in Minneapolis and then Cincinnati. She left her advertising career to attend the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where she earned her M.F.A. in Playwriting.

Career

After graduating from UCSD, two of Marnich's plays written while she was a graduate student were launched nationally. Her play Quake premiered at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays in 2001. In that same year, her play Blur premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club.

Her plays have been produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Kennedy Center, Dallas Theater Center, Baltimore Center Stage, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and The Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays. She is a member of The Playwrights’ Center and an alumnus of New Dramatists. She also serves on the board of trustees for the Humanitas Foundation.

Her other plays include: Tallgrass Gothic (premiere: Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays); Cradle of Man (premiere: Victory Gardens Theater); These Shining Lives (premiere: Baltimore Center Stage); and A Sleeping Country (premiere: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park).

Marnich began writing for television when she joined the HBO drama Big Love as staff writer for the show's third season. She remained on that show through its fifth and final season. Since, she worked on Showtime's The Big C and The Affair (as co-executive producer); and for AMC's Low Winter Sun. She also served as co-executive producer on The OA for Netflix. She has developed work with HBO, AMC, Silver Pictures, Amblin, Scott Free and TNT, and Amazon.

Personal life

Marnich is married to playwright Lee Blessing. They reside in Los Angeles.

Filmography

Television

Production staff


Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	Big Love	Staff Writer	Season 3
2010		Story Editor	Season 4
2011		Co-producer	Season 5
2011	The Big C	Co-producer	Season 2
2012		Producer	Season 3
2013		Consulting Producer	Season 4
2013	Low Winter Sun	Supervising Producer	Season 1
2014	The Affair	Co-executive Producer	Season 1
2016	The OA	Co-executive Producer	Season 1
2019	The Son	Consulting Producer	Season 2

Writer


Year	Show	Season	Episode	Episode Number	Original Airdate	Notes
2009	Big Love	3	"Come, Ye Saints"	6	February 22, 2009
2010		4	"The Mighty And Strong"	4	January 31, 2010
2011		5	"The Oath"	4	February 6, 2011
2011	The Big C	2	"Cats and Dogs"	5	July 25, 2011
2011		2	"Fight or Flight"	11	September 12, 2011
2012		3	"Face Off"	5	May 6, 2012
2013		4	"You Can't Take It With You"	2	May 6, 2013	Written by Cara DiPaolo & Melanie Marnich
2013	Low Winter Sun	1	"There Was a Girl"	7	September 22, 2013
2014	The Affair	1	"4"	4	November 2, 2014
			"8"	8	December 7, 2014	Written by Dan LeFranc & Melanie Marnich
			"9"	9	December 14, 2014	Teleplay by Melanie Marnich & Kate Robin (Story by Dan LeFranc)
2016	The OA	1	"New Colossus"	2	December 16, 2016
2016	The OA	1	"Forking Paths"	6	December 16, 2016
2019	The Son	2	"Hot Oil"	5	May 25, 2019

Awards and nominations


Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2010	Writers Guild of America Award	Best Episodic Drama	Big Love	Nominated
2015	Writers Guild of America Award	Best New Series	The Affair	Nominated
2015	Golden Globe Awards	Best TV Drama^[3]	The Affair	Winner

Playwriting awards

The Francesca Primus Prize (Denver Center Theatre); the Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); the Carbonell Award for Best New Work of the Year; two McKnight Advancement Grants and two Jerome Fellowships (The Playwrights’ Center); the Melvoin Award (Northlight Theatre); and the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award.