Meryle Selinger Martin

With more than four decades of professional experience in the film and television industry to her name, Meryle Selinger Martin has led an accomplished career from within a behind-the-scenes, yet crucial, field in show business. She has served as a production accountant for ABC TV since 2015 and NBCUniversal Media, LLC since 2014, and as a key production accountant for 20^th Century Fox TV since 2013. In these roles, she prepares the budgets and cost reports for TV pilots, series, and feature films; state tax incentive reports; oversees the accounting department; approves payments, purchase orders, and payroll; and corresponds with the various studios, among several other responsibilities. She has taken on the position of key production assistant for film and TV on a freelance basis since 1985, working out of New York City, London, and Israel.

In addition, Ms. Martin found success as a controller for United Jewellery Trading, Ltd., through which she focused her skills in financial reporting, credit control, and bank matters on wholesale diamond manufacturing and sales from 2002 to 2006. She began her career in Hollywood working as a production accountant, production coordinator, transportation coordinator and other roles on such classic films as “The Last Movie,” directed by Dennis Hopper, “What’s Up, Doc?”, and “King Kong,” among others, and then as a representative for United Artists and Orion Pictures behind huge hits like “Raging Bull,” directed by Martin Scorsese, “Hair,” and “Robocop.” She also worked for many years for the USC Shoah Foundation in Israel. Her crowning achievement, however, was serving as the first woman production controller at Columbia Pictures from 1980 to 1984, where she not only opened the door for women as the first in that position but worked hard to modernize the system at the legendary studio.

Attributing her remarkable success to being a people-person with street smarts, Ms. Martin was initially encouraged to become a dancer by her mother growing up. She spent lots of time in ballet classes and was event rained at Carnegie Hall when she was 15. She ultimately graduated from high school early and attended Baylor University as an art major, then went to California and joined the Pasadena Playhouse for a year before coming to the conclusion that dancing wasn’t going to earn her any money. It was at 19 that she, through a friend, got started as a production coordinator and bookkeeper on a feature film. Looking toward the future, Ms. Martin has no plans to retire any time soon and strives to keep excelling within her many roles.