Maria Mastras Jacquemetton

Wellesley High School Author:
Maria Mastras Jacquemetton (1979)

          It was purely coincidental that Maria (Mad Men) and her brother George Mastras (Breaking Bad) ended up competing against each other at multiple Emmy Award ceremonies: because their last names were different, even people at their own shows (produced at the same AMC studio) didn’t realize they were related. 

            After a B.A. from Lehigh, graduate work in film production at Boston University, and a stint in local Boston television, Maria was chosen for the Disney ABC Writing Program.  That prestigious experience led to her writing for Mad Men, and to receiving numerous nominations and awards, including three Emmys, four Writers Guild of America Awards, and two Producers Guild Awards for Producer of the Year. She and her husband and writing partner Andre Jacquemetton worked together as Executive Producers of Mad Men.

            Some of her recent credits post-Mad Men include, along with her Andre, AMC’s limited series The Romanoffs, and a new current series on Apple+, Echo 3.  In addition to continuing to write and produce television, she teaches television writing at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in the John Wells Writing Program. 

            Maria writes of her time at WHS in the late 1970s:  “What I remember most was the sense of freedom, openness, and acceptance I felt as an aspiring writer.  At that time, the heartbeat of our society and culture was all about change, and progressiveness, and exploration in the arts.  The English department at WHS reflected that in every aspect.  Reading Shakespeare and Sylvia Plath, Oscar Wilde and e.e. Cummings in classes taught by Jeanie Goddard and Gerry Murphy (whom I had for sociology), fed into my lifelong love of literature and creative writing as a vehicle to reflect society in all its truths and ironies.”