Maureen "Mo" McFadden is owner of McFadden & McFadden Entertainment Public Rrelations. The firm specializes in working closely with arts organizations to create an overall image and/or design a publicity campaign for an event. Loving the work she does is a big part of her success. In addition, she has worked both sides of the P.R. fence -- as a writer and press agent -- giving her a highly qualified approach to presenting stories to the media.

Currently, her client base includes: the Lobero Theatre Foundation, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, California State University Northridge Center for Visual and Performing Arts, MITIC* Pavilion, part of the Cannes International Film Festival (she works in tandem with PR firm DDA/Mediatek, a strategic consulting and corporate media relations company, based in Los Angeles), Italian Film Commissions, Los Angeles' Magic Castle for their annual show It's Magic!, Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation, Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, Panto Productions, and Santa Barbara Dance Theatre.

McFadden's contacts in the media extend across the world. Working at the Cannes Film Festival as Mediatek's Director of Operations, she oversaw the intern staff and was responsible for placing stories on the high tech entertainment firms exhibiting at the MITIC Pavilion. Partnered with Mediatek president Rex Weiner, as the foreign press team, they were very successful in placing breaking stories in all forms of media -- from print to Internet to TV.

As a staff writer (1983-86) for The Hollywood Reporter in Los Angeles, she inaugurated the column "People on the Move." She also worked for the largest entertainment P.R. firm, Rogers & Cowan as well as the smaller 'boutique' publicity firm Hanson & Schwam. Some of her clients at the latter included Julie Andrews, Blake Edwards, Harold Robbins, Jimmy Komack and Jerry Goldsmith, to name a few. At R&C, she represented the TV shows Gimme a Break, Mr. Belvedere, and Hour Magazine along with countless pilots that were never picked up. Mo also contributed photography to On Location magazine. More recently, she hosted her own one-hour interview show on National Public Radio station KCLU-FM called Backstage Pass from January 1998 through July 1999.

Maureen is a member of the Board of the Irish American Historical Society. She recently completed terms on the Boards of Theatre LA, Greater Santa Barbara Lodging Association. and the Santa Barbara Conference & Visitors Bureau and Film Commission. She received an Independent Theatre Award in 1995 for her groundbreaking work in establishing the local Performing Arts League and publicizing it.

A Santa Barbara resident since 1990, Mo honors her son Eli by naming him partner in the firm McFadden & McFadden.

Photo of Maureen McFadden taken by Erin Fiedler.

*MITIC = Marche International des Techniques et de l‚ Innovation du Cinema

© Reelwriter.net 2002
All rights reserved.