--- name: "George Mastras" canonical: "https://film.one/person/george-mastras" fi1m_id: "george-mastras" imdb_id: "nm2297407" tmdb_id: 1223193 wikidata_id: "Q5542223" roles: ["Writer","Director"] born: "10 April 1966" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_as: "writer" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-17T18:37:53.080009+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # George Mastras ## Identity George Mastras - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/george-mastras - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** george-mastras - **IMDb ID:** nm2297407 - **TMDB ID:** 1223193 - **Wikidata ID:** Q5542223 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mastras, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5542223, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2297407/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1223193 Writer and director. Born 10 April 1966 in Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Writer, Director - **Born:** 10 April 1966, Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA - **Active:** 2008–2019 - **Also known as:** George Mastras Jr. - **Titles on Fi1m:** 2: 1 directing, 1 writing - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 91 (1), 2010s 72 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mastras, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5542223, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2297407/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1223193 ## Streaming the US now - **Netflix:** [*Breaking Bad*](https://film.one/tv/breaking-bad.md) (91) - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The Boys*](https://film.one/tv/the-boys.md) (72) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on George Mastras > George Mastras makes criminal procedure tense without forgetting the people involved. We recommend his contribution to *Breaking Bad*, while treating a single directing credit as limited evidence of a style. The train heist in *Dead Freight* (2012) makes the practical business of a crime worth following. Mastras, making his directing debut, grounds the suspense in the details of the job. It is a strong example of his contribution to *Breaking Bad* (2008), which we recommend despite its occasional over-cleverness. We value his care with how things work, and his interest in what doing them costs the characters. There is enough here to admire without pretending that one episode establishes a whole directing style. His substantial work on the series was as a writer and producer, from joining as story editor in 2008 through involvement in all five seasons. Alongside showrunner Vince Gilligan, he contributed to the long development of its characters, with writing credits including *Crazy Handful of Nothin’* and *Dead Freight*. We found *Breaking Bad* frightening because Bryan Cranston makes Walter White’s excuses sound like things he needs to believe. Mastras’s concern with the consequences of crime fits that close scrutiny of Walter. It would be foolish to give one writer credit for the whole achievement, but his priorities are plainly useful to it. Detailed research is central to his method, and *Dead Freight* shows why: understanding a difficult task gives us something precise to worry about. The risk is that ingenuity becomes an attraction in itself, a fault we sometimes find in *Breaking Bad*. Mastras’s emphasis on scenes driven by character helps keep the procedure from taking over, though it does not make the series immune to showing off. The practical question of how a crime might succeed needs the less comfortable question of what it does to the people involved. Writing and producing work on *Vinyl* (2016) and *The Boys* (2019) extends the record beyond that series, but does not provide further evidence of his directing. Those credits matter less to our view than his sustained contribution to a programme we rate highly. His screen career gives us firmer grounds to recommend the writer than to describe the director’s habits. Start with *Breaking Bad*; the train heist will be more rewarding once the people planning it matter. ## Biography George Mastras is a writer, director and producer. He worked on all five seasons of the AMC series *Breaking Bad* (2008), contributing as a story editor, executive story editor, writer of multiple episodes including the first-season episode "Crazy Handful of Nothin'", and director of the fifth-season episode "Dead Freight". Mastras was born on 10 April 1966 in Wellesley, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale University and UCLA School of Law, and previously worked as a trial lawyer and criminal investigator. He is the author of the novel *Fidali's Way* (2009). He has also written for series including *The Dresden Files* (2007), *Vinyl* (2016) and *The Boys* (2019). His work on *Breaking Bad* earned him a PEN Center USA Literary Award in 2009, two Primetime Emmy Awards as a producer in 2013 and 2014, and three Writers Guild of America Awards. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) ### Directed (1) - *Breaking Bad* (2008), Fi1m 91, Executive Story Editor, Co-Executive Producer, Writer, Director, Supervising Producer, Story Editor, Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/breaking-bad.md) ### Wrote (1) — the average rests on these - *The Boys* (2019), Fi1m 72, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-boys.md) ## Complete filmography (5) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Star City* (2026), series, Consulting Producer, Writer - *The Boys* (2019), series, Writer, Consulting Producer — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-boys.md) - *Vinyl* (2016), series, Executive Producer, Writer - *Breaking Bad* (2008), series, Writer, Director, Producer, Supervising Producer, Co-Executive Producer, Story Editor, Executive Story Editor — Fi1m 91, [page](https://film.one/tv/breaking-bad.md) - *The Dresden Files* (2007), series, Writer --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/george-mastras