Craig Mazin

Craig Mazin (born 1971) is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. He is best known for creating, writing, and producing the HBO miniseries Chernobyl (2019) and co-creating, co-writing, and executive producing the HBO 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. Before his work on drama shows gained widespread attention, he was primarily known for his writing work on comedy films such as Scary Movie 3 (2003), Scary Movie 4 (2006), The Hangover Part II (2011), The Hangover Part III (2013), and Identity Thief (2013). Early life Mazin was born to Ashkenazi Jewish parents in New York City's Brooklyn borough in 1971, 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. 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". 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 his then-writing partner Greg Erb. 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.