Education:
Master of Fine Arts, Screenwriting, Chapman University
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Theatre Performance, University of North Dakota


Biography:
Professor Maruska grew up in North Dakota and fell in love with movies at an early age. He wrote a weekly movie review for his hometown paper, the Mandan News, while still in high school, and attended the University of North Dakota, where he studied theater. Upon graduation, he moved to New York City and acted in several off off Broadway productions and independent films before deciding to attend film school in California. He graduated from Chapman University with a masters in screenwriting, and worked for CAA in Hollywood before moving to the northeast with his family.

Professor Maruska has written over a dozen screenplays, many of them quarter-finalists and semi-finalists in the Nicholls competition sponsored by the Academy of Motion Pictures. He has been hired to write independent projects and has been represented by two management companies in Hollywood. He is currently working on two screenplays while teaching his courses at Anna Maria College.


Courses Taught at Anna Maria:
Film Studies
Freshmen Composition
Writing Through Literature
First Year Seminar
Screenwriting Television
Writing The Horror Film
The Vietnam War through Film


Publications:
Maruska, T. (2012). "How Dirty Harry was Rodney King'd: The Vigilante Cop in American Cinema." Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture.


Maruska, T. (2010). "No Pain, No Gain: The Bush Administration and the Torture Porn Genre." Northeast Popular Culture Association Annual Conference.