Maria Semple

Maria Semple
File:Maria Semple at 2013 L.A. Times Festival of Books.jpg Maria Semple at 2013 L.A. Times Festival of Books
Born	Maria Keogh Semple (1964-05-21) May 21, 1964 Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupation	Television producer, television writer and novelist
Years active	1992–present
Partner(s)	George Meyer (1 child)

Maria Keogh Semple (born May 21, 1964) is an American novelist and screenwriter. She is the author of This One Is Mine (2008) and Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012). Her television credits include Beverly Hills, 90210, Mad About You, Saturday Night Live, Arrested Development, Suddenly Susan and Ellen.

Early life

Semple was born in Santa Monica, California. Her family moved to Spain soon after she was born. There her father, the screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr. wrote the pilot for the television series Batman. The family moved to Los Angeles and then to Aspen, Colorado. Semple attended boarding school at Choate Rosemary Hall, then received a BA in English from Barnard College in 1986.

Career

Her first screenwriting job was in 1992, for the television show Beverly Hills, 90210. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy, Outstanding Television Series, in 1997 for Mad About You. In 2006 and 2007, she was nominated for a Writer's Guild of America award, for Arrested Development. This One is Mine was a finalist for the 2010 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award. She appeared in the 2004 David O. Russell film I Heart Huckabees. She is active in the Seattle literary community, and is a founding member of Seattle 7 Writers. Her writing has appeared in the magazine The New Yorker. She has also taught fiction writing at the Richard Hugo House.

Novels

Semple's novels are This One is Mine (2008) and Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012), both published by Little, Brown and Company. This One is Mine is about a woman who has it all, a loving family and wealth, however her unhappiness leads her to make dangerous decisions in the pursuit of "more". Similarly, Where'd You Go, Bernadette is about a mother and wife who is suffering from a career loss in a city that deprives her. A string of events lead to her disappearance. The book is a collection of clues that can lead to Bernadette.

Personal life

Semple is in a relationship with George Meyer and has one daughter with him, Poppy. They reside in Seattle. In 2007, a newly discovered species of moss frogs from Sri Lanka was named Philautus poppiae after their daughter, a tribute to Meyer's and Semple's dedication to the Global Amphibian Assessment.

External links

• Official website
• Maria Semple at the Internet Movie Database