Marilyn R. Atlas

An award-winning producer and personal manager, Marilyn R. Atlas is equally at home in the worlds of film, television, and live theater. Among her credits as film producer are “Real Women Have Curves” for HBO, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, “A Certain Desire,” starring Sam Waterston, and “Echoes,” which won the Gold Award at the Texas International Film Festival. In addition to producing a variety of programming for the cable/ pay TV market, Marilyn has served as a production consultant on the film “Call Me.” She was also involved as a producer in the development of the MOW “Nightwalker” and “Playing for Keeps.”

In live theater, Marilyn co-produced the West Coast premiere of the musical “God Bless You Mr. Rosewater” by Ashman and Menken (the writers of both “Enchanted” and “Tangled”). She also co-produced the award-winning play “To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday,” which was made into a film starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Peter Gallagher. Her additional credits as a producer in live theater include “Today’s Special” and “As I Sing.”

Earlier in her career, Marilyn served as Casting Director for feature films, including John Frankenheimer’s “The Equals” and “The Whiz.” She is a founding member of Women in Film’s Luminas Committee which supports the portrayal of women in non-stereotypical roles in film and television. Along with director and actress Dorothy Lyman, Marilyn founded ADT, a director’s theatre, and served on its advisory board.

Marilyn is a member of NALIP, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. She has spoken at their Writers’ and Producers’ retreats, the DGA-sponsored LA Asian Film Festival, as well as various other symposia for the Sherman Oaks Experimental College. Speaking at events such as Santa Fe Screenwriters Conference and Richard Krevolin’s USC Screenwriting Retreat, Atlas has covered such topics as: “Creating for the Actor: Carving Memorable, Inhabitable Characters” and ““Ever-Evolving Marketplace: What’s Hot, Why and for How Long…” Marilyn has also taught several actor workshops on creating “Multiple Viewpoints – One Core” for actors as well as “Acting and Auditioning for Producers.” Additionally, she was a guest lecturer in the Bill Cosby Writing Program at USC. She has spoken at the Texas Bar Association and was a guest lecturer at Whittier Law School.

Marilyn has been a guest at various colleges, including Skyline, Stephens, and at the University of Texas – San Antonio’s Adalante Latino Film Festival. She has served as the professional-in-residence (in theater and film) at Ball State University, and was the speaker at the International Writer’s Conference at Hollins University (2010). She structured intensive course at Skyline College in San Francisco covering the inception, development and promotion of a script in “The Business of Screenwriting: The Idea – and its Execution.” She has also been a guest at UCLA and USC, where she teaches a yearly course on creating non-stereotypical three-dimensional characters for writers and actors.

Marilyn has been in development on pilots with Showtime and ABC Family.

In addition to Marilyn’s film/TV credits, she has sold (first time) novels “Chasing the Jaguar” to HarperCollins, “Hungry Woman in Paris” to Grand Central Publishing, and the “Ave Maria Bed & Breakfast” to Hachette Publishing.

She is currently developing the feature “Lucy Luna” and the cable movie “Brides’ March” for Lifetime Television, and a limited television series. Atlas previously produced the musical version of “Real Women Have Curves” in Los Angeles in 2009. Atlas is now partnering with Broadway producer Chris Bensinger for the musical version of “Real Women.” She is also featured in the book “Write Now!” from Penguin/Tarcher Publishing, released January 2011.