Ilona
Hi, I’m Ilona and I love writing about food. Actually, I love writing about
nearly anything…
I’m one of those few Finnish-Americans not born in a frigid, remote Scandinavian outpost of North Dakota or Wisconsin, but rather the Scandinavian hospital in Brooklyn, New York (though I was raised in Bayside, Queens, Long Island – sadly, a “Finn-less” island) and grew up loving steaks at Peter Luger’s, hot dogs at Nathan’s, burgers at P.J. Clarke’s, Prime Burger or White Castle and stuffed mushrooms at Elaine’s. When work dried up in New York, my husband and I decided to seek our fame and fortune in LA (we’re both tv/film writers – though he produces, as well).
One job was as a story/production consultant for A CENTURY OF WOMEN, the 6-hour documentary mini-series that aired on TBS, about the history of American women over the 20th century. Since one of my qualifications was that I’m a woman born in that century, think of all the people I beat out of the job.
Besides food and show biz, I love politics and worked as a press liaison for two Democratic National Conventions and ended up being a Deputy Press Secretary in New York for President Carter. Then he lost. However, in the ‘90’ s, after moving to LA, I became a speech writer for celebrities on the campaign stump for Clinton-Gore. The rest is history. Well, their history, not mine.
Between freelance TV/film work and speech writing, I appear periodically as a guest columnist in newspapers/magazines cross the country (from Teen Beat back ‘in the day’ to the sports section of the NY Daily News). I also finally made use of years of art lessons funded by my mom when I was a kid in Bayside, and became an on-air guest Design Consultant/Decorative Artist on HGTV.
Recently, a friend and I started our own home staging business, The HomeDressers. This coincided very nicely with the collapse of the housing market which means I haven’t given up my day job… writing.
