Craig Mazin (born April 8, 1971) is an American screenwriter and film director. He is best known for creating the five-part
HBO miniseries ''
Chernobyl
Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...
'', based on the
nuclear disaster of the same name in 1986. His work earned him two
Primetime Emmy Awards, including
Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special and
Outstanding Limited Series. Mazin is also known for his work on the
parody film
A parody film or spoof film is a subgenre of comedy film that parodies other film genres or films as pastiches, works created by imitation of the style of many different films reassembled together.
Although the subgenre is often overlooked by crit ...
genre, namely ''
Scary Movie 3
''Scary Movie 3'' is a 2003 American parody film which parodies the horror, sci-fi, and mystery genres. It is the sequel to '' Scary Movie 2'' and is the third film in the ''Scary Movie'' film series, and the first to be directed by David Zuck ...
'', ''
Scary Movie 4
''Scary Movie 4'' is a 2006 American science fiction parody film. It is the sequel to '' Scary Movie 3'' and the fourth installment in the ''Scary Movie'' film series, as well as the first film in the franchise to be released under The Weinstei ...
'', and ''
Superhero Movie''. He is also the co-creator and co writer of the upcoming HBO series ''
The Last Of Us
''The Last of Us'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players control Joel (The Last of Us), Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie (The Last of Us), Ell ...
'', based on the
video game of the same name, alongside the game's creator
Neil Druckmann
Neil Druckmann ( he, ניל דרוקמן; born December 5, 1978) is an Israeli-American writer, creative director, designer, and programmer who has been co-president (alongside Evan Wells) of the video game developer Naughty Dog since 2020. He ...
.
Biography
Mazin was born in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York, to an
Ashkenazi Jewish family.
He was raised on
Staten Island, New York
Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and ...
. He moved to
Marlboro Township, New Jersey when he was a teen and attended
Freehold High School
Freehold High School (sometimes called Freehold Boro, Freehold Borough High School or Boro to distinguish it from Freehold Township High School) is a four-year public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades, located within ...
which inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2010.
[Celano, Clare Marie]
"Freehold Hall of Fame inductees to be feted"
''News Transcript'', March 3, 2010. Accessed February 5, 2011. "Screenwriter and author Craig Mazin, a native of Staten Island, N.Y., was 13 when he moved to Marlboro."
Mazin graduated ''
magna cum laude'' with a degree in psychology from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in 1992. His freshman-year roommate at Princeton was
Ted Cruz
Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States Senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz served as Solicitor General of Texas from ...
, now the junior U.S. senator from Texas and a former Republican candidate for the
2016 presidential election year. He openly despises Cruz on a personal level and frequently disparages him on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, calling the U.S. senator "a huge asshole".
Mazin is married with two children. He supported Democratic candidate
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
in the run-up for the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Career
Mazin began his entertainment career as a marketing executive with
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit ...
in the mid-1990s, where he was responsible for writing and producing campaigns for studio films.
He made his screenwriting debut with 1997's sci-fi comedy ''
RocketMan'', co-written with then-writing partner Greg Erb. He has since written movies such as ''
Senseless
''Senseless'' is a 1998 American buddy comedy science fiction film directed by Penelope Spheeris and written by Greg Erb and Craig Mazin. The film stars Marlon Wayans, David Spade, and Matthew Lillard as college students.
Plot
Darryl Wither ...
,'' ''
Scary Movie 3
''Scary Movie 3'' is a 2003 American parody film which parodies the horror, sci-fi, and mystery genres. It is the sequel to '' Scary Movie 2'' and is the third film in the ''Scary Movie'' film series, and the first to be directed by David Zuck ...
'', ''
Scary Movie 4
''Scary Movie 4'' is a 2006 American science fiction parody film. It is the sequel to '' Scary Movie 3'' and the fourth installment in the ''Scary Movie'' film series, as well as the first film in the franchise to be released under The Weinstei ...
'' and ''
Identity Thief
''Identity Thief'' is a 2013 American road comedy film directed by Seth Gordon, screenplay by Craig Mazin, story by Mazin and Jerry Eeten and starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy. The film tells the fictional story of Sandy Patterson, wh ...
''.
Mazin has directed two films: 2000's low-budget superhero film ''
The Specials
The Specials, also known as The Special AKA, are an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, Lynval ...
'', which he also produced, and the 2008 superhero spoof ''
Superhero Movie'', which he also wrote (he also made a
cameo appearance
A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...
in this movie as a janitor).
Since 2006, Mazin has collaborated with director
Todd Phillips
Todd Phillips (né Bunzl, born December 20, 1970) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He began his career in 1993 and directed films in the 2000s such as ''Road Trip (film), Road Trip'', ''Old School (film), Old School'', ...
on several occasions. Mazin co-wrote both ''
Hangover
A hangover is the experience of various unpleasant physiological and psychological effects usually following the consumption of alcohol, such as wine, beer, and liquor. Hangovers can last for several hours or for more than 24 hours. Typical sympto ...
'' sequels, parts
II and
III, and executive produced ''
School for Scoundrels''.
In 2004, Mazin was elected to the board of directors of the
Writers Guild of America, West
The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. It was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, including the Screen Writers Guild. It has around 20,000 m ...
. He did not seek re-election, and his term expired in September 2006.
Along with fellow former WGA board member
Ted Elliott, Mazin ran a website called The Artful Writer, which focused on issues relevant to working screenwriters. It closed in 2011, after seven years.
In 2011, Mazin and fellow
screenwriter John August
John August (born August 4, 1970) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is known for writing the films '' Go'' (1999), ''Charlie's Angels'' (2000), '' Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle'' (2003), '' Big Fish'' (2003), ' ...
began
Scriptnotes, a weekly
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
on
the craft of screenwriting and
the film industry.
In July 2017,
HBO and
Sky Television announced ''
Chernobyl
Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...
'', a five-part miniseries from Mazin about the nuclear disaster at
Chernobyl
Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...
. The series was filmed in
Lithuania and
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
. Mazin said that the "lesson of ''Chernobyl'' isn’t that modern
nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced ...
is dangerous. The lesson is that lying, arrogance, and suppression of criticism are dangerous."
In an interview with ''Decider'', Mazin said: "If I came to HBO and said ‘I want to do another season of ''Chernobyl'', except it’s gonna be about another terrible tragedy,’ whether it's
Bhopal
Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...
or
Fukushima
may refer to:
Japan
* Fukushima Prefecture, Japanese prefecture
** Fukushima, Fukushima, capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
***Fukushima University, national university in Japan
*** Fukushima Station (Fukushima) in Fukushima, Fukushim ...
or something like that, I would imagine they at least would give me polite interest."
In October of 2019 Disney hired Craig Mazin for writing the screenplay of Pirates of the Caribbean 6 with
Ted Elliott that now is currently in development.
Mazin was named as the current scriptwriter for the
Lionsgate
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...
film adaption of the ''
Borderlands A borderland or borderlands are the geographical space or zone around a territorial border.
Borderland or borderlands may refer to:
Places
* Borderland, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in Mingo County, West Virginia
* Borderland (ele ...
'' video game series in February 2020,
as well as co-writer and co-executive producer for a television series adaption of the video game ''
The Last of Us
''The Last of Us'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players control Joel (The Last of Us), Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie (The Last of Us), Ell ...
'' for
HBO in March 2020. The ''Last of Us'' adaptation was greenlit by
HBO in November 2020. More recently, Mazin signed an overall deal with HBO.
Filmography
Film
Executive producer
* ''
School for Scoundrels'' (2006)
Special thanks
* ''
The Words'' (2012)
* ''
Free Birds
''Free Birds'' is a 2013 American computer-animated science fiction comedy film. The film follows two turkeys travelling back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get turkey off the menu. It was produced by Reel FX Creative Studios as its fir ...
'' (2013)
* ''
Don't Think Twice
''Don't Think Twice'' is a 2016 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Birbiglia and stars Birbiglia, Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, Kate Micucci, Tami Sagher and Chris Gethard. The film had its world premiere at South by ...
'' (2016)
Television
Acting credits
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mazin, Craig
1971 births
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
American male screenwriters
American podcasters
Freehold High School alumni
Princeton University alumni
Jewish American screenwriters
Living people
People from Marlboro Township, New Jersey
People from Staten Island
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Screenwriters from New York (state)
Screenwriters from New Jersey
Writers from Brooklyn
20th-century American writers
Showrunners
21st-century American Jews
American Ashkenazi Jews