Marc Cherry

Marc Cherry
Season(s)	S1 - S2 - S3 - S4
Date of Birth	March 23, 1962
Origin	Oklahoma, USA
	IMDb profile

Marc Cherry is the creator and a co-showrunner, writer and executive producer of Devious Maids.

Biography[]

Early career[]

Cherry attended California State University, Fullerton's theater program and initially considered a career in performance. He decided to move to Hollywood and pursue writing work. His move came at a bad time; the 1988 writer's strike hit as soon as Cherry arrived. Cherry broke into the industry by working as Designing Women star Dixie Carter's personal assistant.

In 1990, he became a writer and producer for the long-running hit sitcom The Golden Girls. Cherry wrote for the show, and its short lived spinoff The Golden Palace.

When those shows concluded, Cherry co-created The Five Mrs. Buchanans. The concept of the show centered around the matriarch of the family (played by Eileen Heckart) and the wives of her four sons. The show had a brief run on CBS during the 1994-1995 season.

Cherry also co-created The Crew (1995). On his own, he later created Some of My Best Friends a 2001 sitcom that was based in part on the film Kiss Me, Guido.

Desperate Housewives[]

In 2004, a conversation with his mother inspired him to develop a show about the fractured lives of four women. After HBO, FOX, CBS and NBC all passed on the show, Cherry got his big break when ABC decided to pick it up. The series, Desperate Housewives, was an immediate ratings smash and generated enormous national (and subsequently, international) debate. Cherry received several lucrative offers from various parties, but chose to sign a long-term deal with Touchstone, since their network had shown faith in Desperate Housewives when no one else would.

The show was a phenomenon for much of its first season, but was criticized by TV critics who said the second season of Desperate Housewives was not as creative or as good as the first. Viewers seemed to agree, since the ratings dropped as the season progressed. Cherry, the Head Writer, who had been working part-time on the show in season two, took a larger role in developing and producing season three.

Cherry has featured several actors on "Housewives" that he has worked with before; Mark Moses, who played villain Paul Young, and Harriet Sansom Harris, who played Felicia, were both cast members of The Five Mrs. Buchanans. In season three, Cherry cast former boss Dixie Carter in the role of Gloria Hodge, Orson's unhinged mother. Actor Alec Mapa, who appeared in Some of My Best Friends, appears on "Housewives" in a recurring role as Gabrielle's stylist. Mapa plays Jerry on Devious Maids.

Devious Maids[]

In 2011, Cherry announced his new project Devious Maids. He began to engage the cast, with Ana Ortiz or Dania Ramírez for example, or the crew of the show, with Eva Longoria, his old Housewife, as executive producer.

Before the renewal of the third season, Cherry decided to stop to continue as a full-time showrunner, saying “The time is coming to a close on my day-to-day showrunning. I’m just getting old. I just had my 52nd birthday”. After that, Brian Tanen and Ric Swartzlander became co-showrunners, along with Cherry.^[1]

Other credits[]

Cherry appeared as himself in an episode of Arrested Development, which was created by fellow Golden Girls writer Mitchell Hurwitz.

Cherry also has appeared numerous times on the hit Starz show Headcase. A reoccurring theme occurs with Cherry and James Denton discussing the character plotline of Mike Delfino.

Political affiliation[]

Cherry was described in an article about him in Newsweek as a "somewhat conservative, gay Republican."

When Jerry Falwell was asked how he felt about that, he said "the fact that he’s a gay Republican means he should join the Democratic Party."

On June 29, 2006, Cherry accepted Log Cabin Republicans' American Visibility Award at a dinner in Hollywood where the main award recipient was California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who received the club's "Courage To Lead" award.