Merrill Markoe
| Merrill Markoe | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 13, 1948 |
| Occupation | Author, screenwriter |
| Alma mater |
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| Notable works | Late Night with David Letterman |
| Notable awards | Four Emmy Awards |
| Website | |
| www |
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Merrill Markoe (born August 13, 1948) is an American author, television writer, and sometime standup comedian.
Markoe was born in New York City. Her family moved several times including stays in Miami, Florida and San Francisco, California. She attended the University of California, 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.
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 partner David Letterman. In 1980, Markoe was the original head writer for The David Letterman Show, a short-lived live NBC morning show whose writing team was recognized with a Daytime Emmy Award.
She may be best known for her work on Late Night with David Letterman (a show for which she shared in three Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series). She engineered most of the original concepts and architecture for the ground-breaking late-night talk show and created the segment "Stupid Pet Tricks", 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 Writer's Guild award for her writing/performing work on HBO's Not Necessarily the News.
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