Mary Ruth Clarke co-wrote and starred in the original Meet the Parents and co-adapted it into the blockbuster version. Her dramedy Broadway, Ohio is a finalist in the Chicago Screenplay Awards, Page Turner Awards, and a semi finalist at Sundance Labs. Her comedy screenplay Alice and Celia and Whatever It Takes is a finalist for the Lit Laughs Comedy Film Festival and the Chicago Comedy Film Festival, and a is a semi finalist in the Chicago Screenplay Awards.  She’s a playwright, also, and Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists.

Mary Ruth’s students have been staffed on Queens, Woke, and Family Reunion. She consults in LA and Chicago, and she has critiqued about a gazillion plays and screenplays.  She’s a regular guest lecturer at the Chicago Screenwriter’s Network and the Off Campus Writer’s Group.

She is on the faculty of the Second City Film School, Chicago Dramatists, Story Studio and is a member of the Writer’s Guide of America East and the Dramatists Guild.