Peter Mehlman

Peter Mehlman started his career as a sportswriter for the
Washington Post. He slid from print journalism to television when,
from 1982 to 1984, he wrote for and produced the television series,
"SportsBeat" with Howard Cosell. For the next five years he returned
to writing full sentences and worked as a freelance magazine writer in
New York. His byline appeared in numerous national publications
including the New York Times magazine, GQ, Esquire and every women's magazine imaginable.

In 1989 he needed "a change of scenery," and moved to Los Angeles
where he bumped into Larry David, whom he'd met a few times in New
York. David, was developing "a little show with Jerry Seinfeld", and
invited Mehlman to send over a sample script. Having never written a
script, Mehlman sent a humor piece he had written for the New York
Times Magazine. Jerry Seinfeld loved it and gave Mehlman a writing
assignment, out of which came the series' first freelance episode,
"The Apartment." Mehlman was hired for the first full season of
"Seinfeld as a program consultant (1991-92) and, over the next six
years, worked his way up to co-executive producer.

Mehlman is most famous for his "Yada Yada" episode, and his
episodes also such now classic Seinfeld-isms as "spongeworthy" and
"shrinkage" and "double-dipping."

In 1997, Mehlman joined DreamWorks and created "It's like, you
know...," a scathing look at Los Angeles. In recent years, he has
continued creating TV shows while writing on the upcoming DreamWorks
animated feature "Madagascar." He has also returned to full sentences,
writing humor pieces for Esquire, The New York Times and LA Times. A collection of those pieces has been compiled into a book called, MANDELA WAS LATE.