Craig Mazin

Craig Mazin Bio

Craig Mazin (born April 8, 1971) is an American filmmaker, writer, director, and producer. He first gained recognition in Hollywood for his work on broad comedy films and later reinvented himself as one of the most respected dramatic storytellers working in television. Craig Mazin is best known for creating, writing, and producing the HBO historical disaster drama miniseries Chernobyl (2019) and for co-creating, co-writing, and executive producing the HBO post-apocalyptic drama series The Last of Us (2023–present) with Neil Druckmann.

For Chernobyl, Craig Mazin won two Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series and Outstanding Limited Series. Across more than two decades in the entertainment industry, he has moved easily between blockbuster comedies, franchise screenplays, podcasts, and prestige limited series, building a career defined by range and craft.

Early Life and Background

Craig Mazin was born on April 8, 1971, in New York City, New York, in the United States, and raised in an Ashkenazi Jewish family. He grew up in the Staten Island borough of New York City and later moved as a teenager to Marlboro Township, New Jersey. He attended Freehold High School in nearby Freehold Borough, and the school later inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2010 in recognition of his achievements after graduation.

During his freshman year at Princeton University, Craig Mazin shared a room with Ted Cruz, who would later become a U.S. Senator from Texas. Mazin graduated magna cum laude from Princeton in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology. His formal academic background in psychology and writing would later inform the careful character work seen across his screenplays and television scripts.

Path to Screenwriting

After college, Craig Mazin began his entertainment career as a marketing executive with Walt Disney Pictures in the mid-1990s. In that role, he wrote and produced marketing campaigns for studio releases, an experience that gave him a working knowledge of how Hollywood develops and sells its films. He soon turned that behind-the-scenes experience into a screenwriting career of his own.

Craig Mazin made his screenwriting debut in 1997 with the sci-fi comedy RocketMan, which he co-wrote with Greg Erb. He went on to write additional comedy scripts in the late 1990s and early 2000s, including the 1998 film Senseless. These early assignments established him as a dependable comedy writer and laid the groundwork for his later work on parody and franchise films.

Craig Mazin Career

Early Career (1997–2006)

Craig Mazin built his early reputation on parody and broad comedies, beginning with RocketMan in 1997 and continuing through films like Senseless. In 2000, he wrote, produced, and directed the low-budget superhero film The Specials, marking his first time directing a feature. He later directed and wrote the 2008 superhero spoof Superhero Movie, in which he also made a brief cameo as a janitor.

His comedy work reached a wider audience through the Scary Movie franchise. Craig Mazin wrote Scary Movie 3 (2003) and Scary Movie 4 (2006), two of the biggest commercial hits of the parody cycle. In 2004, he was elected to the board of directors of the Writers Guild of America, West, and served a two-year term that ended in September 2006. He also co-founded the screenwriting website The Artful Writer with Ted Elliott, which ran from 2004 to 2011.

Breakthrough (2011–2019)

Craig Mazin deepened his collaboration with director Todd Phillips, co-writing The Hangover Part II (2011), The Hangover Part III (2013), and Identity Thief (2013). He also executive produced School for Scoundrels. In 2011, he launched the weekly podcast Scriptnotes with screenwriter John August, a show that became one of the most respected discussions of screenwriting craft in the industry.

The real turning point of Craig Mazin’s career came in 2017, when HBO and Sky Television announced Chernobyl, a five-part drama miniseries about the 1986 nuclear disaster that he created and wrote. The series aired in 2019 and was filmed in Lithuania and Ukraine. Chernobyl earned widespread critical acclaim and won Craig Mazin two Primetime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series and Outstanding Limited Series. The success of Chernobyl marked his transition from comedy writer to one of the most respected dramatic writers in television.

Notable Works and Milestones

Craig Mazin’s signature achievements include the Chernobyl miniseries and the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us, both of which helped redefine the limited-series format for prestige television. In 2019, Disney hired him to co-write a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film with Ted Elliott. He was also attached to the Lionsgate adaptation of Borderlands in 2020, though he left the project by 2023. In January 2021, Craig Mazin signed an overall deal with HBO for an additional three years, cementing his relationship with the network behind his biggest successes.

Craig Mazin Award Nominations

Craig Mazin has earned multiple award nominations across his career, recognizing both his comedy work and his dramatic television writing. His most prominent nominations include Primetime Emmy Awards tied to his work on Chernobyl and The Last of Us, along with industry recognition from guilds and television critics’ groups. Additional nominations across the Scary Movie and Hangover franchises reflect his long-standing presence in mainstream Hollywood comedy.

Craig Mazin Awards Won

Craig Mazin has won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Chernobyl: Outstanding Writing for a Limited, Movie, or Dramatic Special and Outstanding Limited Series. These wins, both tied to the 2019 HBO miniseries, marked him as a leading dramatic writer in television and helped establish his transition from comedy to prestige drama. Industry recognition across his career reflects consistent craft across genres.

Craig Mazin Family

Craig Mazin and his wife, Melissa Mazin, have two children, a daughter named June and a daughter named Jessica. The family has been based in the United States throughout his career, and Craig Mazin has occasionally spoken publicly about how his family shaped his decisions, including his 2019 withdrawal from a Writers Guild of America West vice-presidential race due to a family issue.

Personal Life

Craig Mazin has been married to Melissa Mazin, and the couple has two children. He is known publicly for his longstanding interest in screenwriting craft, which he shares through the Scriptnotes podcast, and for his public political engagement, including his support of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He also has a tattoo of a switchblade belonging to the character Ellie from The Last of Us on his arm, reflecting his personal connection to the series.