Merrill Markoe

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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1948|8|13}}

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| occupation = Author, screenwriter

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| University of California, Berkeley

| (BA, MA){{cite web| title= Still revolting, after all these years | url=http://berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2005/09/14_markoe.shtml | publisher=University of California, Berkeley| date= 14 September 2005|access-date=2009-10-13}}}}

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| notableworks = Late Night with David Letterman

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| partner = David Letterman (1978–1988)
Andy Prieboy (2004-present)

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| awards = Four Emmy Awards; 2020 Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement{{cite web|last=Press Release|url=https://awards.wga.org/awards/awards-recipients/laurel-awards/tv-laurel-award/merrill-markoe|work=wga.org|access-date=13 May 2020|title=Television Comedy Writer Merrill Markoe to Receive WGAW'S 2020 Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement}}

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| website = {{URL|http://www.merrillmarkoe.com/}}

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Merrill Markoe (born August 13, 1948){{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} is an American author, television writer, and occasional standup comedian.

Early life

Markoe was born in New York City.{{cite web|last=Markoe|first=Merrill|url=http://merrillmarkoe.com/bio|work=merrillmarkoe.com|access-date=12 March 2013|title=Markoe on Markoe}} Her family moved several times including stays in Miami and San Francisco.{{cite news|last=Walder|first=Joyce|title=Merrill Markoe on Puppets and Monkey Portraits|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/garden/qa-the-comedy-writer-merrill-markoe.html|access-date=12 March 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=26 October 2011}} She attended UC Berkeley, receiving a B.A. in art in 1970 and an M.A. in 1972. Her first job after leaving the university was teaching art at the University of Southern California.

Career

After auditing scriptwriting classes and doing research for the head writer of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Markoe was hired as writer for the 1977 revival of Laugh-In, joining a team that included Robin Williams. In 1978, she was part of the cast of Mary Tyler Moore's first attempt at a variety show, the eponymous Mary, along with future boyfriend David Letterman. In 1980, Markoe was the head writer for The David Letterman Show, a short-lived live NBC morning show whose writing team was recognized with a Daytime Emmy Award.{{citation needed|date=March 2014}}

Markoe shared in three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for her work on Late Night with David Letterman, for which she was the original head writer.{{IMDb name |id=0548582 |section=awards |name=Merrill Markoe}}{{cite web|title=Awards Search|url=http://www.emmys.com/awards/nominations/award-search?search_api_views_fulltext=merrill+markoe&field_is_winner[1]=1&submit=Search&search_api_views_fulltext_1=&search_api_views_fulltext_3=&search_api_views_fulltext_2=&search_api_views_fulltext_4=&field_nominations_year=1949-01-01+00%3A00%3A00&field_nominations_year_1=2015-01-01+00%3A00%3A00&field_nomination_category=All|access-date =13 June 2015}} She engineered most of the original concepts and architecture for the ground-breaking late-night talk show and created the segment "Stupid Pet Tricks",{{cite news |title=Pet Tricks |author=Amelia Weiss |newspaper=Time Magazine |date=1992-06-01 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,975648,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080408125028/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,975648,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 8, 2008}} A review of What the Dogs Have Taught Me as well as "Stupid Human Tricks" and "Viewer Mail". Many of the ideas behind the remote segments outside the studio came from Markoe, who also won a Writers Guild award for her writing/performing work on HBO's Not Necessarily the News.

She has also written for television shows such as Newhart, Sex and the City, and Moonlighting.{{cite web |last1=Bello |first1=Grace |title=Merrill Markoe, Patron Saint of Women in TV Comedy Writing |url=http://thehairpin.com/2011/11/merrill-markoe-patron-saint-of-women-in-tv-comedy-writing/ |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322195129/https://www.thehairpin.com/2011/11/merrill-markoe-patron-saint-of-women-in-tv-comedy-writing/ |archive-date=March 22, 2023 |website=The Hairpin}} She appeared on-camera as a lifestyle reporter at KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, then for Michael Moore's NBC show TV Nation, and worked on other magazine shows such as Lifetime Magazine. In the early 1990s she wrote and directed a number of HBO and Cinemax comedy specials. She appeared in two episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast from 1997 to 1998 as the unwilling subject of the eponymous late night talk show host's affections.

In 2005, Markoe was a regular panelist on Animal Planet's Who Gets the Dog? She has had a number of columns and written for many periodicals, including Rolling Stone, Time, New York Woman, New Woman, U.S. News & World Report, Us, People, Esquire, The Huffington Post, Glamour, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Real Simple, etc. She appears in episode 2 of Friends as irritable museum curator Marsha and can be seen in the movie EDtv as a panelist, as well as in the cast of The Aristocrats.

In 2020, she was awarded the Laurel Award for TV Writing Achievement by the Writers Guild of America.

Personal life

She and David Letterman were involved romantically from 1978 to 1988, after which Markoe moved to California to continue her writing career. She wrote about the relationship several years later in essays in the book Cool, Calm, and Contentious, giving him the pseudonym "Bobby".

Markoe lives in Malibu with musician Andy Prieboy and four dogs.