Mark Valenti

Mark Valenti is an Emmy-nominated American writer known for movies, TV series and novels. Valenti began his entertainment career as an actor with the St. Louis theatrical troupe, The City Players. Moving to Los Angeles, he studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute under Sally Kirkland and Marc Marno. During this period, Valenti appeared in several LA stage productions, and took roles on sitcoms and soap operas, including NBC's The Facts of Life.

In 1986, Valenti became a production assistant for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. Spielberg had initiated a program whereby assistants would be given an opportunity to learn as much a possible in two years, identify a career path, and then move into their chosen field. Valenti segued into a role as Vice President of Development for John Hughes. During his three-year tenure, Hughes produced ten films, including Home Alone, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and Uncle Buck.

Having been intimately involved in Hughes' screenwriting process, Valenti left the executive ranks and began writing film scripts himself. His first produced movie, Menno's Mind, starring Billy Campbell and Robert Vaughn, was seen on the Showtime channel. The script was based on a short story he had written as a high school senior. This was followed by a flurry of screenplay spec sales to DreamWorks (Planet Fred), Nickelodeon Movies (Bob the House), ABC Family (Like Father, Like Santa), Hallmark (The Christmas Pageant), and many more.

Valenti was Creative Manager for a team tasked with re-imagining Disney's California Adventure theme park in Anaheim. He also served as Creative Manager for Disney Interactive.

In 1999, Valenti was recruited as Story Editor at Nickelodeon Studios, working with the writing staff of shows like Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, CatDog, Angry Beavers, and Rocket Power.

In 2000, Valenti was awarded a Platinum record for writing the spoken-word portion of Mannheim Steamroller's "The Christmas Angel," signifying over one million units sold.

By 2003, he was back in the role of screenwriter, becoming Head Writer for the Nickelodeon TV show LazyTown. Shot in Iceland on a sound stage in the middle of a lava field, LazyTown debuted as the #1 show for Nickelodeon, and went on to produce more than 75 episodes, seen around the globe. Valenti also wrote and co-wrote lyrics for many of LazyTown's popular songs.

In 2022, Mark Valenti was nominated for an Emmy award for STEM Explorers, a PBS show aimed at bringing science concepts to young viewers.