Craig Mazin

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**Craig Mazin** (born April 8, 1971) is an American screenwriter and film director. He is best known for creating the five-part miniseries *Chernobyl*, 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.

## Early life

Mazin was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family. He was raised on Staten Island, New York. He moved to Marlboro Township, New Jersey when he was a teen and attended Freehold High School which inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2010.

Mazin graduated *magna cum laude* with a degree in psychology from Princeton University in 1992. His freshman-year roommate at Princeton was Ted Cruz, now the junior U.S. Senator from Texas and a former Republican candidate for the 2016 presidential election year. He is highly critical of Cruz as well as his political views, and ridicules him frequently on Twitter.

## Career

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.

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,* *Scary Movie 3*, *Scary Movie 4* and *Identity Thief*.

Mazin 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.

Since 2006, Mazin has collaborated with director Todd Phillips on several occasions. Mazin co-wrote both *Hangover* 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. 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 film industry.

In July 2017, HBO and Sky Television announced *Chernobyl*, a five-part miniseries from Mazin about the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. The series was filmed in Lithuania and Ukraine. 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."

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 or Fukushima or something like that, I would imagine they at least would give me polite interest."

Mazin was named as the current scriptwriter for the Lionsgate film adaption of the *Borderlands* 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* for HBO in March 2020.

## Politics

Mazin supported Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the run-up for the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.indiewire.com/2019/08/chernobyl-craig-mazin-hbo-emmys-1202167548/
2. ↑ https://forward.com/schmooze/330197/ted-cruzs-jewish-college-roomie-remembers-when-with-acid-tongue/
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 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."
4. ↑ http://theslot.jezebel.com/fuckin-craig-mazin-an-appreciation-of-ted-cruzs-colleg-1746278435
5. ↑ Patricia Murphy. "Ted Cruz at Princeton: Creepy, Sometimes Well Liked, and Exactly the Same"
6. ↑ "These 17 Craig Mazin Tweets About Ted Cruz Are Some Of The Funniest Of The Campaign", *Bustle* (April 16, 2016). Retrieved on March 6, 2018.
7. ↑ "Interview (Part 1): Craig Mazin – Go Into The Story", *Go Into The Story* (2013-07-29).
8. ↑ Scriptnotes on iTunes
9. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia (2017-07-26). "HBO Sets ‘Chernobyl’ Miniseries to Star Jared Harris" (in en-US), *Variety*.
10. ↑ "Will HBO’s ‘Chernobyl’ Miniseries Impact Perceptions of Nuclear Power?", *Inside Sources* (June 23, 2019).
11. ↑ "People are asking the writer of Chernobyl to do a similar show and he has some thoughts", *Joe* (June 6, 2019).
12. ↑ McNary, Dave (February 20, 2020). "Eli Roth to Direct ‘Borderlands’ Movie for Lionsgate". *Variety*. https://variety.com/2020/film/news/borderlands-movie-eli-roth-lionsgate-1203509333/. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
13. ↑ Otterson, Joe (March 5, 2020). "‘The Last of Us’ Series in Development at HBO From ‘Chernobyl’ Creator". *Variety*. https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/the-last-of-us-series-hbo-craig-mazin-neil-druckmann-1203524989/. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
14. ↑ "The Creator of Chernobyl on Viewers Taking Away the Wrong Lessons", *Slate* (June 3, 2019).
15. ↑ "Chernobyl: The Show Russiagate Wrote", *Jacobin* (July 7, 2019).
16. ↑ "'The Last of Us' Series in the Works at HBO From 'Chernobyl' Creator Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. March 5, 2020. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/last-us-series-works-at-hbo-chernobyl-creator-1282707. Retrieved March 5, 2020.

## External links

* Craig Mazin on Twitter**Lua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 36: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).**Template:WikidataCheck
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