Maurizio is an award-winning screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, and educator. Holding both American and Italian citizenship, Maurizio has lived and worked in Italy for the past twenty-three years where as an associate professor at a small liberal arts college in Rome he specialized in Italian theater and film while also teaching courses in scriptwriting and adapting literature to the screen. He started out writing plays immediately upon receiving his M.A. in Italian Studies from Middlebury College. His two full-length Italianate farces, The Abductors and Big Deals, were produced in Santa Cruz, California, and his one-act play, Joyride, found success in San Francisco and New York City. As a screenwriter, five of his feature length scripts have been optioned, three of which were either winners or finalists in prominent screenwriting contests. His crime drama, Ferryman's Grotto, set in the hills of central Italy, and his musical drama, One Night in Asbury Park, were also honored as quarterfinalists and semifinalists, respectively, in the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting competition. In addition, Maurizio has co-produced two award winning, short documentaries: Uno degli Ultimi, an intimate look into the life of an aging contadino (small farmer) in a dying Italian village, and Beneath the Underdog, a heartfelt look at immigration and soccer in today's Italy.
Maurizio now lives in a quaint hilltop village in northern Lazio, just a stone's throw from the Tuscan and Umbrian borders, with his wife of many years. He has finally abandoned academia to live the good life writing screenplays and novels fulltime.