Ruth Fowler (writer)

Ruth Fowler (aka Ruth Iorio) is a British-born Los Angeles and London based writer, photographer and journalist, who first came to media attention after writing several articles for The Village Voice as "Mimi".

Background
Fowler holds a first-class Honors Bachelor's degree in English Literature and a Master's degree in American literature from King's College, Cambridge. After graduating Cambridge, Fowler traveled to over fifty different countries working as a chef, a sailor, a bar-tender, a supermarket checkout girl and a waitress before finding herself in New York City in 2005. While attempting to obtain a work visa she worked as a stripper in Manhattan, writing about her experiences on her blog.

Career
As well as The Village Voice, she has written for The Guardian, The Observer, Wired Magazine, The New York Post, The Huffington Post, The Fix and The Norton Anthology For Creative Non Fiction. Her first book, No Man's Land, was published by Viking Penguin in June 2008, and was republished in May 2009 as Girl Undressed. In 2008, Fowler wrote the screenplay for the short film Supraman and the School of Necessity.

Moving into the 2010s, Fowler was writing her second book, and an adaptation of the award-winning ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian’ for Ruby Films and the BBC. She completed ‘Sparkleponies’ - a feature film for Film 4, and ‘Boy2Girl’ with Kindle Entertainment. ‘Girl Undressed’ was optioned as a TV series by BBC America and Big Talk productions. In 2011, Fowler was selected as one of 12 writers taking part in a Channel 4 Screenwriting Workshop, working with a script-editor on an original pilot for a television series or serial. Fowler's original political screenplay Fly Me ensured that Fowler was selected as a Screen International Stars of Tomorrow 2012, alongside previous winners Emily Blunt, Carey Mulligan, Robert Pattison and Andrew Garfield.

Fowler worked as a screenwriter for hire, adapting several novels and pitching television projects. Rules of the Game, a BBC One thriller series that Fowler wrote, aired in 2022. It starred Maxine Peake as the executive of a sportswear business, who becomes embroiled in a police investigation about a dead employee. In a 2023 article for Fast Company, Fowler revealed she had had to take on part time work to support herself and her son, as money from studio work was inconsistent, meagre and tardy.

Personal life
Fowler was briefly married to the photographer Jared Iorio, and lived in Venice, California. In 2013, Fowler and her husband shared the experience of birthing her son at home via posts and pictures on social media. After, Fowler moved to an apartment in Inglewood, California.

Fowler is a staunch believer in universal free education.