An Italian-American, Mazzara was born in
Manhattan, New York City, and grew up in
Queens. He graduated from
St. Francis Preparatory School in 1985. 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. 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 left this role following season 3. After The Walking Dead, he signed an overall deal with Fox Television Studios in 2013. Glen Mazzara is the Creator, Executive Producer, and Showrunner of A&E's series,
Damien, based on the classic horror film,
The Omen. On April 15, 2019, Mazzara joined several other writers in firing their agents as part of the
WGA's stand against the
ATA and the practice of
packaging. == Filmography ==