Marrisse Whittaker

Marrisse Whittaker has been creating characters for all of her working life, travelling far and wide, first as a TV and Film Make-Up Artist, where she might have been called upon to construct a corpse, age an actor by a hundred years, or make a real-life drug-raddled rock star look desirable. Next as a TV Scriptwriter, creating stories for popular series such as CBBC’S Byker Grove, BBC’s Doctors and Channel 4 Hollyoaks. 

But plenty of drama takes place in real-life too and when Marrisse joined forces with her husband, former TV Journalist Bob Whittaker, to establish Orion TV, they produced a fascinating range of factual programmes for major broadcasters. 

Now, creating a scene is taking on a new meaning for Marrisse as she launches a new career as a novelist writing about the world of crime, having been shortlisted for The Lindisfarne Prize for Outstanding Debut Crime Fiction in 2020.

Marrisse lives by the sea in rural Northumberland in the UK, inventing stories of murder and mayhem whilst walking through the dramatic surf and turf landscape right on her doorstep, consuming her own weight in chocolate, whilst fantasising that she’s keeping fit.