A Passion for Writing & Inspirational Content Creation

Maryann writes themes of ALOHA …penning award-winning novels and writing and producing critically-acclaimed projects for film & television. She also works as a print and television food & lifestyle journalist, recipe developer/chef, and PR and Marketing Specialist.  As president of Ridini Entertainment Corporation, an award-winning Public Relations, Marketing, and Multimedia Content Creation Production Company, she is committed to creating, writing, producing, and promoting content that entertains, inspires, educates, and uplifts.

Maryann started working as an actress and apprentice in such Equity and Non-Equity Summer Theatres as Hampton Playhouse and New London Barn Players on the East Coast at the tender age of fourteen. Later, studying film and television in college, she landed a job as a casting director and assistant producer at a top NY ad agency before heading West scoring a gig as a writer/producer for Cable News Network. During this time, she also began a lifelong career as a newspaper/magazine writer. She was offered a job as a studio executive working for Paramount and then as a SVP at Stephen J. Cannell Productions before founding her own company, Ridini Entertainment Corporation, a TV/Film and PR/Marketing company handling such clients as NBC/Universal, the United States Olympic Committee (athletes & the GAMES), and producing and writing projects for network television as well as the foreign theatrical market. She is also an award-winning novelist.

Television and Movie Screenwriter & Producer

A member of the Writers Guild West and Producers Guild of America, Maryann is celebrated for co-producing/writing the award-winning movie, “The Lost Valentine,” starring Betty White and Jennifer Love Hewitt.  The film, a critically-acclaimed, ratings hit from Hallmark Hall of Fame (in Association with Ridini Entertainment Corporation and based on the novel of the same name by James Michael Pratt), premiered Sunday, January 30, 2011, on CBS-TV (9:00 pm ET/PT) to over 15 million viewers.  It held its position for five years as being CBS-TV’s highest-rated movie, and at the time of its premiere, it was Hallmark’s highest-rated movie in four years. It has since become one of Hallmark’s most beloved films and is now a part of their Gold Crown Collector’s Edition. The movie also airs regularly on The Hallmark Channel. Read more about “The Lost Valentine.”

Maryann’s has written and produced television and film projects for Cable News Network (“People Now,” “The Mike Douglas Show”), USA Networks (“Alive & Well”), SyFy Channel (MOWs), Showtime Networks (“Roger Corman Presents” movie series), Hallmark, CBS, PBS, and The Movie Channel (MOWs).

Find out more about Maryann’s TV & Film Projects

Novelist

Maryann’s first novel, “Lady in the Window,” (SelectBooks, 2017, Santa Rosa Press, 2019), WINNER of the 2018 American Fiction Award (Visionary Category) and the 2017 Best Book Award (Fiction: Romance Category), is available in hardcover, paperback or eBook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other outlets.  Her sequel novel, “The Paradise Table,” became an Amazon Best Seller (December 2019).

TV Host, Cookbook Author, Food & Lifestyle Journalist with a Sustainable Mind-Set

Growing up on the East Coast in a large, close-knit Italian-Irish family, Maryann developed a love for cooking and entertaining at an early age. This passion for preparing healthy dishes and memorable dining experiences for family and friends led her to start developing recipes, and eventually, to write and produce TV cooking segments for entertainment and lifestyle series on Cable News Network and USA Network and work as a print food and lifestyle writer.

In 2010, Maryann created the concept for a show she also produces and hosts, “Simply Delicious Living with Maryann®.” The award-winning healthy living cooking series (and cookbook) is seen on PBS Television (KVCR-TV in Southern California, DirectTV, Dish Network, and YouTube). From 2010-2018, a print and video column also ran in the online edition of the Ventura County Star (part of the Gannett /USA Today Network, Search: Simply Delicious or Maryann Ridini Spencer at VCStar.com).

Maryann also created, produced, wrote, and reported the award-winning environmental news program “Sustainable Ventura News” (broadcast 2011-2018 on local television in Ventura and Online on the news and lifestyle pages at Ventura County Star). Maryann currently reports, writes, produces for the global environmental news series, and print column “Sustainability Now News.”

Marisa Vallbona, APR, Fellow PRSA, knew she was made for PR when she was 12 and fried an egg on the sidewalk with her sister on a super hot Texas day. The perfect weather story, it made the TV news and that’s all it took for her to get hooked and her career was born. Since then, she’s gotten local, regional and national media exposure for just about everything. If it’s newsworthy, she can get it in the news.



A seasoned business strategist, Marisa has worked with top businesses and entrepreneurs on business strategy, crisis communications, reputation management, publicity, public speaker training, strategic communications, community relations, new product launches, and special events.



She has won four Silver Anvil awards (the Oscars of the PR industry) from the Public Relations Society of America and a Silver Anvil Best of Show. She was recently awarded a Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award for Exemplary Leadership, San Diego Business Journal named her “Women Who Mean Business” in PR and she’s won countless other awards. Her work is showcased in PR textbooks and she’s been featured in business books and has been quoted in the media.



She is the co-founder of PRConsultants Group, a national network of PR firms with offices in every major U.S. market and Puerto Rico. Marisa also has been inducted into the PRSA College of Fellows (a prestigious distinction awarded to a very small percentage of PR practitioners).



She served on the national board of directors of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) five years, including as national secretary, and she served as chair of the Universal Accreditation Board, which accredits public relations professionals. She also served on the board of directors of SDX (formerly the San Diego Ad Club). She is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Houston.



Marisa is fluent in Spanish and holds citizenships in the U.S., Costa Rica and Spain.