George Mastras has been a writer and producer for the Emmy-award winning drama "Breaking Bad" on AMC. He wrote standout episodes "Crazy Handful of Nothin,'" which won the 2009 PEN USA Award for Best Teleplay, and “Grilled,” which was nominated for the 2010 Edgar Allen Poe Award.
He has also written for such diverse series as the Sci Fi Channel's supernatural detective series “The Dresden Files," and John Wells/Warner Bros. produced crime drama “The Evidence." George was awarded the ABC/Disney Writing Fellowship in 2005, was nominated for WGA Awards in both 2008 and 2009 for Best Drama in connection with his work on "Breaking Bad," and was selected for the WGA Showrunner Training Program in 2010.
George is also a novelist. His debut novel "Fidali's Way" was published by Scribner on January 6, 2009 and has since been released in translation internationally. Inspired by George's travels in the remote Tribal Areas of Pakistan and war-torn Kashmir before and after 9/11, Fidali's Way has been critically acclaimed as a "brilliantly told” and "stirring first novel" with an "odyssey-like story [that] grips" (Publisher's Weekly, and Toronto Sun).
Before writing, George worked as a criminal investigator for the public defender’s office, a counselor at a juvenile correctional facility, and a trial lawyer in New York and Los Angeles. After ten years of practicing law, he quit his job, sold his belongings, and spent several years backpacking around the globe, before he returned to the United States to pursue writing professionally. Born in Boston, George is a graduate of Yale, UCLA Law School, and Outward Bound.
TOPICS OF DISCUSSION
• Experimental shows
• Realizing his voice in the room
• Running shows