Life and Career
Mazzara was born in Manhattan and grew up in Queens, New York. He attended NYU and earned a masters in English. He worked as a hospital administrator in New York before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a writer in 1998.
He was a story editor and writer for the fourth and fifth seasons of Nash Bridges. In 2002, he joined the drama series The Shield as an executive story editor and writer for its first season; was promoted to producer for the second season while continuing to write, to supervising producer for the third season, to co-executive producer for the fourth season and to executive producer for the fifth season; and left midway through the sixth season in 2006. Later in 2006 he was an executive producer on the short-lived series Standoff, and then a co-executive producer on the first season of NBC drama Life.
Mazzara left Life to create and executive produce a new series Crash, based on the Oscar-winning film of the same name, on which he served as head writer and showrunner. He left after one season, but was credited as a consulting producer for the second season premiere.
In 2009, he joined the medical drama series Hawthorne for two seasons as executive producer and writer. In 2010, he wrote his first of several episodes of the AMC series The Walking Dead, episode 1.5: "Wildfire.
On July 27, 2011, it was reported that Mazzara had taken over as showrunner of The Walking Dead after Frank Darabont dropped out of the position. Mazzara will be departing the show after season 3 concludes.
In late December 2012, headlines such as the following from the San Jose Mercury News (21 December 2012) announced: "'The Walking Dead': Showrunner Glen Mazzara departs after 'difference of opinion'". Statements by AMC - which described the parting as "amicable" - indicate, "Both parties acknowledge that there is a difference of opinion about where the show should go moving forward, and conclude that it is best to part ways." Mazzara continued as the series showrunner and executive producer for the remainder of Season 3.
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