Craig Mazin
Craig Mazin 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.Filmography
| Year | Title | Credit | Notes |
| 1997 | RocketMan | Screenplay, story by | Screenplay by Craig Mazin and Greg Erb, story by Oren Aviv, Craig Mazin & Greg Erb |
| 1998 | Senseless | Written by | With Greg Erb |
| 2000 | The Specials | Director, co-producer | |
| 2003 | Scary Movie 3 | Written by | Written by Craig Mazin and Pat Proft |
| 2006 | Scary Movie 4 | Screenplay, story by, producer | Screenplay by Craig Mazin, Jim Abrahams & Pat Proft, story by Craig Mazin |
| 2006 | School for Scoundrels | Executive producer | |
| 2008 | Superhero Movie | Written by, director, producer | Also has a cameo appearance |
| 2011 | The Hangover Part II | Written by | With Scot Armstrong & Todd Phillips |
| 2012 | The Words | Special thanks | |
| 2013 | Identity Thief | Screenplay, story | Screenplay by Craig Mazin, story by Craig Mazin and Jerry Eeten |
| 2013 | The Hangover Part III | Written by | With Todd Phillips |
| 2013 | Free Birds | Special thanks | |
| 2016 | Writer | With Evan Spiliotopoulos | |
| 2016 | Don't Think Twice | Special thanks | |
| 2019 | Chernobyl | Creator, executive producer, writer | TV miniseries Winner—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series Winner—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or a Dramatic Special |
| TBD | Borderlands | Screenplay | |
| TBD | The Last of Us | Executive Producer, Writer | |
| TBD | Untitled Pirates of the Caribbean sixth film | Screenplay |