George Mastras has worked as a criminal investigator for the public defender service, a counselor at a juvenile correctional facility, and a litigator 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 and trekking in the Himalayas, Karakorams, and Hindu Kush. Since returning to the United States, he has worked as a screenwriter and has written for several television series, including currently the Emmy Award-winning drama "Breaking Bad," for which he was nominated for Writers Guild Awards in 2008 and 2009, won the 2009 PEN USA Literary Award in the category Best Teleplay for his episode "Crazy Handful of Nothin'", and was nominated for an Edgar Allen Poe Award by the Mystery Writers Association of America for his episode entitled "Grilled."  Born in Boston, he is a graduate of Yale, UCLA Law, and Outward Bound.  He was awarded the competitive Disney-ABC Writing Fellowship for Drama in 2005. He lives in San Gabriel Foothills outside Los Angeles.