Born in Britain, screenwriter Mary Murillo wrote five melodramas for Theda Bara, during the 1910s popularity of vamp films. Murillo served as the chief screenwriter for 20th Century Fox from 1916–1917, writing 50 scripts in this time period. She also worked for Metro Films and the England-based Stoll Studios. She worked with such famous film stars as Norma Talmadge, most notably in The Forbidden City. Though Murillo has been cited as the most prolific Latina screenwriter of all time, Murillo is actually a pen name; she was Irish.