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Craig Mazin

American screenwriter and film director

Craig Mazin
Mazin in January 2023
Born	1971 (age 52–53) New York City, New York, United States
Occupations	Filmmaker producer
Years active	1997–present
Spouse	Melissa
Children	2

Craig Mazin (born 1971) is an American filmmaker and producer. He is best known for creating, writing, and producing the HBO historical disaster drama miniseries Chernobyl (2019) and co-creating, co-writing, and executive producing the HBO post-apocalyptic drama series The Last of Us (2023–present), the latter alongside Neil Druckmann. He has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special and Outstanding Limited Series.

Prior to gaining attention and acclaim for his dramatic work, Mazin was primarily known for his work on comedy films such as Scary Movie 3 (2003), Scary Movie 4 (2006), Superhero Movie (2008), The Hangover Part II (2011), The Hangover Part III, and Identity Thief (both 2013).

Early life[edit]

Mazin was born to Ashkenazi Jewish parents^[1][2] in New York City's Brooklyn borough in 1971,^[3] and grew up in the city's Staten Island borough. He moved as a teenager to Marlboro Township, New Jersey, where he attended Freehold High School in nearby Freehold Borough. The school later inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2010.^[4] He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in psychology from Princeton University in 1992. His roommate during his freshman year was future Republican politician Ted Cruz, whom he now often describes as a "huge asshole".^[5][6][7]

Career[edit]

Mazin began his entertainment career as a marketing executive with Walt Disney Pictures in the mid-1990s, where he was responsible for writing and producing campaigns for studio films.^[4] He made his screenwriting debut with 1997's sci-fi comedy RocketMan, co-written with his then-writing partner Greg Erb.^[8] He has since written movies such as Senseless, Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 4, and Identity Thief. He has directed two films: 2000's low-budget superhero film The Specials, which he also produced, and the 2008 superhero spoof Superhero Movie, which he also wrote (he also made a cameo appearance as a janitor).

Since 2006, Mazin has collaborated with director Todd Phillips on several occasions. He co-wrote both Hangover sequels, The Hangover Part II and The Hangover Part III, and executive produced School for Scoundrels. In 2004, he was elected to the board of directors of the Writers Guild of America, West. 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 began Scriptnotes, a weekly podcast on the craft of screenwriting and the U.S. film industry.^[9]

In 2017, HBO and Sky Television announced Chernobyl, a five-part drama miniseries created by Mazin about the infamous Chernobyl disaster. The series aired in 2019 and was filmed in Lithuania and Ukraine.^[10] Mazin said that the "lesson of Chernobyl isn't that modern nuclear power is dangerous [...] the lesson is that lying, arrogance, and suppression of criticism are dangerous".^[11] In an interview with Decider, he 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 BhopalorFukushima or something like that, I would imagine they at least would give me polite interest."^[12]

In 2019, it was announced that Disney had hired Mazin to co-write the screenplay of a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean movie with original Pirates screenwriter Ted Elliott.^[13] He was named as the scriptwriter for the Lionsgate film adaptation of the Borderlands video game series in February 2020,^[14] though his name was removed from the project by 2023.^[15] He was announced as co-writer and co-executive producer for a television series adaptation of the video game The Last of Us for HBO in March 2020, alongside the game's co-director and writer Neil Druckmann.^[16] The Last of Us adaptation was greenlit by HBO in November 2020, and was released in January 2023.^[17] More recently, Mazin signed an overall deal with HBO.^[18]

Personal life[edit]

Mazin and his wife Melissa have two children.^[19] He endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.^[20]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Executive producer

• School for Scoundrels (2006)

Uncredited writer

• Borderlands (2024)
• Dune: Part Two (2024) (additional literary material writer)

Special thanks

• The Words (2012)
• Free Birds (2013)
• Don't Think Twice (2016)

Television[edit]