ALISON MAREK  has paired images with words professionally since she was a teen.  She created the comic strip Fido Kaplan for "The Prospect Press" and "Travel Today!" (Fairchild Publications/Fairchild Media), then later wrote and illustrated two graphic novels for Piranha Press (DC Comics) — Desert Streams and Sparrow.

​She's an award-winning filmmaker with an MFA from New York University in directing. Her short films have been sponsored by Showtime Networks, Inc., and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Among other honors, she won the Director's Award at the Hearts & Minds Film Festival, has  been nominated for a Los Angeles Emmy Award, and received a Gold Aurora Award and Bronze Telly Award for public service announcements she's written or directed.

Alison teaches  filmmaking to MFA students at Akira Kurosawa School of Film and taught all ages and programs  (including BA and MFA candidates)  at New York Film Academy in Los Angeles,  She writes/directs/produces shorts, feature films, videos, reality TV and documentaries. She produced about 4,000 videos for the online toy magazine, TDmonthly.com.

Her dad, Richard O'Brien, wrote the nationally syndicated comic strip, "Koky" -- the first comic strip to feature a working mom -- and was one of the ghostwriters for the strip "Inside Woody Allen." He was also a gag writer and press agent for Woody,  Joan Rivers, Rodney Dangerfield, and Victor Borge.

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