Marielle “Apple” Thorne was born and raised in Las Vegas. After graduating from UNLV with a degree in Theater Design/Technology, she joined IATSE in 2006 after voting to unionize her job at Blue Man Group. She spent the next several years touring with Broadway shows (primarily in the props department), and working as a carpenter, electrician, rigger, and a puppet maker in the conventions and showrooms in Las Vegas. 

Apple has always been a fighter. She was quick to volunteer as steward on jobsites, and she broke several glass ceilings in Local 720 becoming the first female Business Agent in 2013, the first female Stagecraft Representative on the Executive Board in 2015, and the first female Business Representative in 2019.

Having assisted with more than a dozen successful organizing campaigns, winning over a million dollars in grievance settlements, securing unprecedented pay and benefit increases in contracts she negotiated, developing union training programs for new workers and for stewards, and securing work at new venues like Allegiant Stadium and the Sphere, Apple’s proudest accomplishments would be finally securing wage parity for wardrobe workers across all showrooms in Local 720, and organizing the Local 720 Food Bank during the covid shut down which distributed almost 70,000 meals and $160,000 in grocery gift cards.

Apple currently serves as the Business Representative of Local 720 in Las Vegas, on the Executive Board for District 2, and more recently as an International Vice President.