Biography
Maryann Ridini Spencer is an award-winning screenwriter, producer, novelist, journalist, Food and lifestyle TV host, and president of Ridini Entertainment Corporation, a content creation, public relations, and marketing, and TV and film production company. Maryann, a multi-scholarship winner, received her degree in communications from New York's Hofstra University and soon afterward became a producer/writer for Cable News Network in Los Angeles, later serving as senior vice president at several Hollywood studios and firms. Maryann is a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Writers Guild West. She's produced movies and series for such networks as CBS-TV, Showtime, SyFy, TMC, USA Networks, Time Warner Cable, and the foreign theatrical market. She is celebrated for co-producing/ writing the teleplay for the Hallmark Hall of Fame CBS-TV World Premiere of "The Lost Valentine" starring Betty White and Jennifer Love Hewitt (based on the novel by James Michael Pratt). Upon its CBS-TV debut in 2011, the award-winning film was the evening's highest-rated film, with over fifteen million people tuning in, and it became Hallmark Hall of Fame's highest-rated film in four years. Now considered a Hallmark Classic, the film airs each year on the Hallmark Channel and is part of Hallmark's Gold Crown DVD Collector's Edition. Maryann is also the creator, writer, producer, and host of the award-winning clean eating and healthy living TV cooking series (and cookbook), Simply Delicious Living with Maryann®. The series is broadcast on the PBS-TV station KVCR in Southern California, DirecTV, DishTV, and to a global audience on Roku, YouTube and Maryann's blog. Throughout her career, Maryann has worked as a freelance writer and contributing editor for such publications as "Los Angeles Magazine," "Palm Springs Life," and "Desert Magazine." Her "Simply Delicious Living" print and video column as well as the environmental news program she created, produces, writes, and reports, Sustainable Ventura News, is broadcast on local television in Ventura County, CA, and on the news and lifestyle pages. Maryann's novel, "Lady in the Window" (SelectBooks) is a 2017 Best Book Award Winner. The sequel novel, "The Paradise Table" will be in store early 2019. She has just completed the screenplay adaptation for "Lady in the Window" and is at work on other books in the series.
