Terry Matalas

Terry Matalas is an American television writer, director, and executive producer, best known for co-creating and showrunning the 12 Monkeys series, which ran for four seasons on SyFy.[1][2] He is currently a showrunner on MacGyver for CBS.[3]

Terry Matalas
OccupationTelevision writer, producer, showrunner, director
Years active2003–present

Early life and education

As a teenager, Matalas' favorite movie was Back to the Future, and Star Trek: The Next Generation was one of his favorite shows. He ended up working on projects related to both titles later in his professional career.[4]

Matalas attended Emerson College in Boston, where he met frequent co-collaborator Travis Fickett.[5]

Career

Career beginnings: 2003-2012

Matalas began his career writing for the TV series Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise.[6] He also wrote for Terra Nova on Fox and Nikita on The CW.[7]

In 2011, Matalas and Fickett wrote the graphic novel Witch for Kickstart Comics.[8][9] In 2012, Matalas wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation comic miniseries Hive for IDW Publishing.[10]

12 Monkeys

Matalas says he always wanted to create a serialized time travel show. In 2013, he and Fickett co-wrote a spec pilot script called Splinter. Their script received positive responses and ended up at the offices of Atlas Entertainment, the production company that produced the 1995 film 12 Monkeys. The company told Matalas and Fickett that they had been planning to reboot the film as a show, and they wanted the pair to rewrite Splinter as a pilot for12 Monkeys. Rather than completely rewriting their script, Matalas suggested simply changing the characters' names to those from12 Monkeys. Atlas agreed, and SyFy ordered the series. The show ran for four seasons.[11][12][13]

During its run,12 Monkeys earned both critical acclaim and a dedicated viewer base.[14] The show has been praised for its consistent logic regarding time travel, to which Matalas said that his rule in the writers' room was, "If you have to draw a timeline on a dry erase board then we can't use it."[4] Both the cast and the crew, including Matalas, embraced the show's fandom by interacting via social media to answer questions and give shoutouts to individuals.[15]

Matalas often wrote easter eggs into the series. In the second season, the Emerson Hotel is named after his alma mater, and has a clock that is always set to 10:04 in reference to Back to the Future.[16][17] Matalas also cast Christopher Lloyd in the third season of 12 Monkeys, which he called a "dream come true."[1][12]

Recent work

In 2018, Matalas sold an original drama series to CBS entitled Apex.[6] The same year, he was hired as a consultant producer on SyFy's Nightflyers, an adaptation of George R.R. Martin's novella of the same name.[18]

In 2019, Matalas was brought on to the reboot of MacGyver for CBS, as a showrunner on the fourth season.[19]

Most recently, Matalas' drama series The Last American Vampire was announced for the upcoming streaming service Quibi.[20] Matalas had originally sold the project to NBC as an adaptation of the novel Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.[7]

Personal life

While making 12 Monkeys, Matalas became a father. In that time he also lost his own dad, with whom he would watch Back to the Future as a child.[12]

Matalas is an official restorer for the original DeLorean cars from the film, and he and fellow enthusiast Joe Walser spent nearly two years working to restore original Universal’s hero car. Since its completion, the car has lived in the Petersen Automotive Museum. Matalas also owns a second replica DeLorean, built from parts of the film’s second hero car. It has been displayed at the Academy Awards, in Super Bowl commercials, and on Jay Leno's Garage.[21]

Credits
Year Series Credits
2019–Present MacGyver Showrunner, Executive Producer (Season 4)[19]
2018 Nightflyers Writer, Consulting Producer (Season 1)[18]
2017 Blood Drive Consulting Producer (Season 1)[22]
2015-2018 12 Monkeys Creator, Showrunner, Writer, Director, Executive Producer (Seasons 1-4)[12]
2012-2013 Nikita Writer, Producer (Seasons 3-4)[23]
2011 Terra Nova Writer (Season 1)[7]
2003 Star Trek: Enterprise Writer (Season 3)[6]
gollark: Yemmel was finding running everything too stressful so shut down everything.
gollark: Skyrelay? It is in Ale's basement.
gollark: It broke but is now back-ish!
gollark: What is the use-case?
gollark: Wait, no, bad encryption *combined* with a bad hashing-like thing.

References
  1. Barr, Merrill (2017-05-15). "'12 Monkeys' Showrunner Terry Matalas On The Insanity Of Season Three". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  2. Franich, Darren (2018-07-06). "12 Monkeys had one of the great series finales". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  3. Cruz, Rachel (2019-06-10). "'MacGyver' Season 4 Promotes Levy Tran, Premiere Pushed Back To January 2020". Business Times. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  4. Pantozzi, Jill (19 July 2016). "JK Rowling Saved the Back to the Future III Train From Becoming a Harry Potter Attraction". The Nerdy Bird. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  5. Longo, Chris (2015-01-15). "On Location with Syfy's 12 Monkeys". Den of Geek. Retrieved 2019-07-16.
  6. Goldberg, Lesley (2018-10-04). "'12 Monkeys' Showrunner Sets FBI Drama at CBS (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  7. Otterson, Joe (2018-10-10). "NBC to Develop Drama Series Based on Character From 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'". Variety. Retrieved 2019-06-23.
  8. Johnston, Rich (14 July 2010). "PREVIEW: Witch by Terry Matalas, Travis Fickett and Tony Shasteen from Kickstart Comics". Bleeding Cool News. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  9. Chantaal (8 June 2011). "Review: Witch". Wordpress. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  10. Armitage, Hugh (2012-06-17). "'Star Trek: The Next Generation' miniseries announced by IDW". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2019-06-23.
  11. McCarthy, Erin (11 June 2018). "26 Facts About Syfy's 12 Monkeys". Mental Floss. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  12. Matalas, Terry (2018-07-06). "'12 Monkeys' Series Finale: The Deeply Personal Road to "Happily Ever Now" (Guest Column)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  13. Andreeva, Nellie (2013-08-26). "'12 Monkeys' Drama Gets Pilot Order At Syfy". Deadline. Retrieved 2019-06-23.
  14. Mitchell, Be (5 August 2018). "12 Monkeys' final season lands an air date". Digital Spy. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  15. Skrabala, Joanna (19 May 2016). "'12 Monkeys': 6 reasons you should be watching the best show on Syfy". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  16. Elfring, Mat (11 March 2016). ""12 Monkeys" Season 2 Set Visit". Gamespot. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  17. Nguyen, Hanh (2016-04-18). "'12 Monkeys' Season 2: Can the Time Travelers Actually Challenge Fate?". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  18. Goldberg, Lesley (2018-03-19). "'Nightflyers' Showrunner Exits Syfy's George R.R. Martin Drama (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-06-30.
  19. Levine, Daniel (2019-09-27). "'MacGyver' Fans Upset After Season 4 Premiere Delayed". Popculture.tv.
  20. Goldberg, Lesley (31 July 2019). "Terry Matalas' 'Last American Vampire' Moves to Quibi (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  21. Alaniz, Anthony (2018-06-12). "Jay Leno Drives Doc Brown's DeLorean From Back To The Future". Yahoo!. Retrieved 2019-07-16.
  22. "Terry Matalas". IMDb.
  23. Andreeva, Nellie (2016-04-14). "'12 Monkeys' Showrunner Terry Matalas Signs Overall Deal With UCP". Deadline. Retrieved 2019-06-30.
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