Mark Silver is a multi-platform writer with an extensive body of work in advertising, branding, film and television. As a copywriter he’s worked on both agency and client side for brands ranging from Baja Fresh and Samsung Mobile, to Nike and Microsoft 365. As a screenwriter he has credits in drama and comedy in both television and film. As an author he’s just completed To Live and Almost Die in LA, a deeply personal memoir about trauma, love, grief, and fishing.
MARK
SILVER
Mark Silver’s screenwriting credits begin with a spec episode of The Practice that David E.Kelley’s company bought and produced as part of the season in which the show won the Emmy for best television drama. He then won an ‘Open Pilot’ commitment from UPN/Paramount to develop a single camera comedy about guys in their 20s for Kelsey Grammer‘s production company and sold Coach Hollywood based on his work as a Hollywood fitness trainer to stars including Laura Dern, Glenn Close, Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, and Will Smith. Cosima, a feature film he wrote about the composer Richard Wagner‘s mistress has been optioned by two different production companies. He was a staff writer on the Showtime series, Rude Awakening, and principal photography is nearing completion on Big Life, a feature about an estranged father and son that learn to respect one another during a cross-country road trip.
Despite being born in Oregon when his father was studying marine biology, Mark Silver considers himself a native of Los Angeles having lived, gone to school and worked here for most of his life. On the morning of October 2, 2016, after his usual 5 mile run in the soft sand, Mark dove into the ocean to cool off and woke up two days later in the ICU, fighting for his life. They said his heart had stopped for between 8 and 20 minutes. They said they weren’t sure how much brain activity he still had. They said if the pneumonia didn’t kill him, the devastating effects of a spinal cord injury just might. To Live and Almost Die in LA, is his personal account of trauma and recovery, learning to believe in the value of who you are rather than what you can do and fishing.
Mark’s LA story begins when, after leaving UCLA with two degrees, he became one of the first personal fitness trainers in town working with movie stars including Meryl Streep, Laura Dern, Will Smith, and Gary Oldman. He credits those hours as critical to his understanding of people and his desire to be “in the business” culminating in a contract to write Coach Hollywood, a semi autobiographical look at the pitfalls of fame and the indulgences of celebrity.
Five years after suffering a traumatic spinal cord injury, Mark is still passionate about putting words on a blank page (screen). He’s currently collaborating on a half-hour comedy/drama about two young women in the beginning of a quarter life crisis and on a one hour drama/comedy about a dysfunctional family in the middle of an end of life crisis. In both cases, chaos ensues.
