Maralyn Thoma

Maralyn Thoma is an American performer and television writer whose career has spanned Broadway, daytime soap operas, and community theater. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, she was raised in Houston, Texas. At fifteen, she relocated to Las Vegas, where she worked as a chorus girl at the Sahara Hotel. After a year, she returned to Houston to complete her schooling, during which time she danced with a summer stock theatre company alongside seven other performers.

Thoma subsequently moved to New York City to pursue a professional dance career, spending a decade there and appearing in five Broadway productions. Her verified Broadway credits include the musical What Makes Sammy Run?, the comedy Sophie, and Gantry, with her Broadway work spanning from 1963 to 1970.

Following her years in New York, Thoma relocated to Los Angeles with her two children. In 1980, she began working as a secretary at Columbia Pictures. The following year she was hired as secretary to the head writer of General Hospital, a position that led to her transition into writing for the show. She served General Hospital in multiple capacities, including as a script writer from 1985 to 1988, associate head writer from 1989 to 1990, and head writer from 1992 to 1993. Her tenure at General Hospital, which drew 30 million viewers, included writing an episode in which the character Anna fell in love with a man from another planet.

Thoma also held writing positions at Days of Our Lives and Santa Barbara. At Days of Our Lives, she worked as a breakdown writer from 1983 to 1985, hired by Margaret DePriest, and later as a script writer from 1993 to 1999. At Santa Barbara, she served as head writer from 1990 to 1991 and associate head writer from 1991 to 1992. In 1999, she joined James E. Reilly as a screenwriter on Passions.

Her writing earned significant recognition in the industry. Thoma won the Daytime Emmy Award for Best Writing for Santa Barbara in both 1990 and 1991, and also took home the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Writing for the same series in those same years. She received an additional WGA Award for Best Writing for Days of Our Lives in 1999. Her first Daytime Emmy nomination came in 1984, shared with Margaret DePriest, Sheri Anderson, Michael Robert David, Susan Goldberg, Bob Hansen, Leah Markus, and Dana Soloff. She received further Emmy nominations for Days of Our Lives in 1997, 1998, and 1999, and for Passions in 2001, 2002, and 2003.

In 1995, Thoma moved to Bend, Oregon, where she founded 2nd Street Theater. In 2008, she produced Helen on Wheels, in which she also performed the lead role of Helen Wheeler. The following year she co-hosted Bend Follies, a comedy production that raised funds for the Tower Theatre Foundation.