Meet Mariam Girgis | Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mariam Girgis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mariam, what’s the end goal, career-wise?
It’s hard to think about the end because I still feel pretty close to the starting line. But when I think about where I want to be at the end of my career, I hope I’ve created a body of work that feels like it’s made the world a bit more vibrant, a little more cheerful. I hope that the overwhelming sense I get from all of the art I’ve made is that it’s colorful and paints a really joyful and honest portrait of what it means to be human and to feel everything all the time.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I always tell people that my writing is the narrative equivalent of chocolate covered pretzels. I like to take the traumatic, salty, dry pretzel-like parts of life and dip them in chocolate and make them fun! Life has taught me two things: the first is that grief is inevitable and the second is that you really should try to have fun anyway.

My dad passed away when I was six-years-old and I quickly learned the importance of punching up your everyday life to make it more palpable. Some people are okay with sadness and discomfort. The people who aren’t, learn to make jokes about it.

Nevertheless, I was raised in a Coptic Orthodox Egyptian household that places a lot of value on careers that help people — growing up, everyone at my church was either a doctor or a pharmacist. So, for most of my life, I imagined myself as a neurologist. Which was a bold choice since I am not good at math or science. After my first year of college, I ate some sushi that, quite literally, changed my life. A bad case of food poisoning turned into a series of hospital visits that spanned several years and cost me my two native kidneys. In the time that I was sick, I worked with a lot of incredible doctors who worked tirelessly to save my life. I learned, firsthand, just how noble the medical profession is.

But I also learned the importance of good art that buoys you in times of great distress. There were days I was so sad I felt like I couldn’t stop crying long enough to catch my breath, and in those moments I would turn to God first and then “Arrested Development” second. The story of Job (from the Old Testament) is humbling and comforting. The story of Gob (from the Bluth family) made me laugh so hard that I would forget I was constantly trapped in a hospital room hooked up to a bunch of noisy machines.

In many ways, all of the suffering I endured when I was sick was an incredible primer for working in entertainment. Once your body has rejected your own organs, and you’ve experienced literal organ failure, all of the career failure and rejection feels like a walk in the park. My entire life has prepared me to tell big, important stories and lace them with silly little punchlines that make us feel all of the best (and worst) parts of life a little more deeply.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I know people say New York has the best food but I feel like people are really sleeping on LA. It’s not all Erewhon smoothies and avocado toast. So, our itinerary starts with breakfast tacos at HomeState. Our next stop is, obviously, the water. There are two ways to do this. We can go down to Malibu and lay out on the sand at Broad Beach and marvel at the ocean and also the celebrity beachfront properties. Or we can go down to Ventura and rent kayaks or a little duffy boat and spend a few hours mingling with the sea lions laying out around the harbor. Either way, we have to stop at Italia Deli in Agoura to get sandwiches for the journey because it is the best sandwich in Southern California and I will fight anyone on this. For dinner, if we are with a group of people, we should go to Bacari. The Silverlake patio feels like classy Disneyland. If it’s just the two of us? Get a little crazy and hit up Mother Wolf where you must get pizza and then dip it in the green sauce they serve the prawns in. It will change the fabric of who you are as a person. Last tourist stop is the Griffith Observatory for the full La La Land experience. For a night cap? Ice cream. I don’t really care where we go because all ice cream is good ice cream.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There is no shortage of people who have made me a better writer and, more importantly, a better human. Every single writer I’ve ever sat in a room with has taught me so much about the craft and the business that I don’t even know what I was doing before I met them. Every assistant I’ve worked alongside has, at one time or another, offered me a pep talk that sustained me in a difficult season. Every person at my management company makes me feel like my dreams are not lofty ideas, just tangible goals. Outside of my professional life, God has really blessed me with an incredible support system. My childhood friends still pile up in my living room to table my scripts. My family has never scoffed at the idea of pursuing art as my career. Even one of my kidneys is borrowed from someone who loves me far more than I could ever imagine being loved. It feels impossible to thank just one person because I am an amalgam of all the people who have ever shed their kindness on me. I am surrounded by people who make me think, “I wish I was more like you!”

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/mariamaquarium

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Image Credits
Alex Friedman