Mara Purl
As the co-author of Act Right, the well known and indispensable book for actors, Mara brings over twenty years of experience as both performer and writer to a book that has rapidly become an indispensable tool for actors.
Also the author of the exciting new books, What The Heart Knows, Closer Than You Think, and Child Secrets, Mara is one of the only novelists currently writing a "serial novel," these three books being the first in her Milford-Haven series which will include twelve.
Her popular novels are based on her successful radio drama Milford-Haven, U.S.A.,the first environmental radio soap opera, and the only American radio soap ever licensed and broadcast by the BBC, where the show reached an audience of 4.5 million listeners throughout the U.K.
Milford-Haven won the Finalist Award at the 1994 New York Festivals International Radio Competition, which included 1,298 entries from 32 countries. New York's Museum of Television & Radio and Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications have placed all broadcast episodes of "Milford-Haven" into their permanent archive collections. Mara is in the process of bringing "Milford-Haven" to television, and "Milford-Haven" has its own web site at
"Milford-Haven".
Mara has been a professional producer for ten years, completing sixty episodes for the BBC, scores of radio commercials, and numerous videos, including one for the Native American Sports Council. With Emmy-winning director Dan Hamilton, she co-produced the audio book "The Hidden Legacy," and with partner Erin Gray, their PurlGray Enterprises and Women In Film
co-produced the Public Service Announcement "Step Forward," which aired in nine states, and for which she and Ms. Gray have been named the winners of the 1999 Women's Peace Power Award.
As an actress, Mara's regular appearances on the TV soap opera Days Of Our Lives opened the door for her to create her own soap. Her numerous appearances and regular voice work includes feature films, episodic television, and cartoons.
She is also the creator of "Student Radio Drama"©, a complete teaching curriculum for which she has received grants from AT&T, The Kennedy Center, and Communities In Schools. She has taught her curriculum at eight high schools in California and Colorado, is a guest professor at the Colorado College, and at University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and has been invited to teach her program through the Foundation of the Los Angeles District Attorney.
Mara's writing credits include two cover stories for Rolling Stone, staff writing with the Financial Times (of London), and an Associated Press assignment to cover the Apollo Soyuz mission.
Ms. Purl and Ms. Gray give their "Act Right" seminar in conjunction with the Screen Actor's Guild and various Film Commissions. They have co-written over fifty speeches, and have
created domestic violence teaching materials including their PSA, and the domestic violence web site at familyinternet.com.
Mara serves on the advisory board of Haven House, the oldest shelter for battered women in the U.S., and is a board member of the Los Angeles District Attorney's Crime Prevention Foundation.
