Jorge Zamacona
Encyclopedia
Jorge Zamacona is an American television writer
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

 and producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...

. He worked extensively on the police drama Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...

and wrote the series cross-over episodes with the crime drama Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

. Zamacona co-created the police dramas 10-8: Officers on Duty and Wanted
Wanted (TV series)
Wanted is a 2005 American primetime police drama television series broadcast on the TNT network. The series was created by Louis St. Clair and Jorge Zamacona, and executive produced by Aaron Spelling, E...

.

Biography

Zamacona was born on December 30, 1959 in Tacoma, Washington. He grew up in Madison Wisconsin. He studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison until he relocated to Los Angeles in 1980. In 1983 he graduated with a degree in television and film writing and production from California State University-Northridge.

Zamacona is married with three children.

1980s

Zamacona began working for television in 1984 as a writer for the second season of medical drama St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...

. The series focused on the staff of a declining urban teaching hospital. It was created by Joshua Brand
Joshua Brand
Joshua Brand is an American television writer, director, and producer who created St. Elsewhere, I'll Fly Away and Northern Exposure with his writing-and-producing partner John Falsey....

 and John Falsey
John Falsey
John Henry Falsey, Jr. is an American television writer and producer.Falsey was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Patricia Helene and John Henry Falsey...

 and developed by Mark Tinker
Mark Tinker
Mark Tinker is an American television producer and director. Tinker was an executive producer and regular director on the HBO original series, Deadwood. Prior to Deadwood, Tinker served as a director/producer on NYPD Blue which was co-created by Deadwood writer, David Milch. Tinker has also...

 and John Masius
John Masius
John Masius is an American writer and producer of television series, credited for creating the series Touched by an Angel , Providence and HawthoRNe ....

. He co-wrote the teleplay for the episode "Vanity" with Ray De Laurentis and John Tinker
John Tinker (producer)
John Tinker is an Emmy award winning American television producer and writer. Tinker is the co-creator of the CBS drama Judging Amy, and has been an executive producer and writer on American television shows such as the CBS drama Chicago Hope, the ABC drama The Practice, and the NBC drama The Book...

 from a story by producer Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana is an American writer and producer.-TV career:Fontana has been a writer/producer for such series as Oz , The Jury, The Beat, The Bedford Diaries, Homicide: Life on the Street, St...

. He returned as a writer for the third season and co-wrote the teleplay for the episode "Saving Face" with Norma Safford Vela
Norma Safford Vela
-Credits:Her credits include What I Like About You, Good Advice, Studio 5-B, The Jersey, The Slap Maxwell Story, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, Spenser: For Hire, St...

 from a story by Fontana.

In 1988 Zamacona wrote the science fiction film World Gone Wild
World Gone Wild
World Gone Wild is a 1988 film directed by Lee H. Katzin. It stars Bruce Dern and Michael Paré. It was nominated for a Young Artist Award in 1989.-Cast:*Bruce Dern as Ethan*Michael Paré as George Landon*Catherine Mary Stewart as Angie...

. The film was set in a post apocalyptic future where water is a precious resource.

1990s

In 1993 Zamacona became a writer for the first season of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 police drama Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...

. The series focused on a single squad of homicide detectives in Baltimore, Maryland. It was based on a non-fiction book by David Simon
David Simon
David Simon is an American author, journalist, and a writer/producer of television series. He worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years. He wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood with Ed Burns...

 and created by Paul Attanasio
Paul Attanasio
Paul Albert Attanasio is an American screenwriter and producer of film and television, who is currently an executive producer on the television series House.-Life and career:...

. Zamacona's St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...

co-writer Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana is an American writer and producer.-TV career:Fontana has been a writer/producer for such series as Oz , The Jury, The Beat, The Bedford Diaries, Homicide: Life on the Street, St...

 was the series executive producer and show runner. Zamacona contributed to two first season episodes as a writer. He wrote the teleplay for the episodes "A Shot in the Dark
A Shot in the Dark (Homicide: Life on the Street)
"A Shot in the Dark" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on February 24, 1993. The teleplay was written Jorge Zamacona based on a story by executive director Tom...

" and "And the Rockets' Dead Glare
And the Rockets' Dead Glare
"And the Rockets Dead Glare" is the seventh episode of the first season of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on March 17, 1993. In the episode, Howard testifies in a murder trial, Pembleton is offered a...

", both were based on stories by Fontana. He returned to the series as a story editor and writer for the third season
Homicide: Life on the Street (season 3)
The third season of Homicide: Life on the Street aired in the United States on the NBC television network from 1994-10-14 to 1995-05-05 and contained 20 episodes. It was the first full season of episodes.The third season marked the debut of character Lt...

 in 1994. He contributed to six third season episodes as a writer. Zamacona wrote the teleplay for the episode "Nearer My God to Thee" from a story he wrote with Fontana. Noel Behn
Noel Behn
Noel Behn was an American novelist, screenwriter and theatrical producer. His first novel, The Kremlin Letter, drawn from his work in the US Army's Counterintelligence Corps, was made into a film by John Huston in 1970. Behn's non-fiction The Big Stick-Up at Brink's was adapted into a 1978 movie...

 wrote the teleplay for the episode "A Model Citizen" from a story from Zamacona and Fontana. He co-wrote the teleplay for the episode "Cradle to Grave" with David Mills
David Mills (writer)
David Eugene Mills was an American journalist, writer and producer of television programs. He was an executive producer and writer of the HBO miniseries The Corner, for which he won two Emmy Awards, and the creator, executive producer, and writer of the NBC miniseries Kingpin.-Early life:Mills was...

 from a story by Fontana. He co-wrote the teleplay for the episode "The City That Bleeds" with fellow story editor Julie Martin
Julie Martin (writer)
Julie Martin is an American television writer and producer. She has worked on the NBC crime dramas Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She won a Humanitas Prize and was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for her work on Homicide...

 from a story by Fontana and executive story editor James Yoshimura
James Yoshimura
James Yoshimura is a Japanese American writer and producer, best known for his screenwriting work on the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street and the short-lived Fox series The Jury, for which he served as a co-creator. He also co-wrote Homicide: The Movie, a made-for-television film that came...

. He co-wrote the teleplay for the episode "Dead End" with Martin from a story by Yoshimura. Randall Anderson wrote the teleplay for the episode "The Old and the Dead" from a story by Zamacona and co-executive producer Henry Bromell
Henry Bromell
Henry Bromell is an American author, screenwriter, and director.Bromell attended Eaglebrook School and the United World College of the Atlantic . He graduated from Amherst College in 1970. He won the Houghton Mifflin Literary Award for his first novel, The Slightest Distance...

. Zamacona was promoted to producer for the fourth season
Homicide: Life on the Street (season 4)
The fourth season of Homicide: Life on the Street aired in the United States on the NBC television network from 1995-10-20 to 1996-05-17 and contained 22 episodes....

 in 1995. He contributed to a further three episodes as a writer. He wrote the teleplays for the episodes "Thrill of the Kill" and "The Damage Done" both from stories by Fontana and Bromell. He co-wrote the episode "For God and Country
For God and Country (Homicide: Life on the Street)
"For God and Country" is an episode of the fourth season of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street. It originally aired on NBC on February 9, 1996. The episode was written by Jorge Zamacona and Michael S. Chernuchin and directed by Ed Sherin...

" with Michael S. Chernuchin
Michael S. Chernuchin
Michael S. Chernuchin is an American television writer and producer. He has worked on the NBC crime dramas Law & Order and Brooklyn South...

. Zamacona left the production team at the end of the fourth season. Chernuchin and Zamacona also collaborated on the sixth season Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

episode "Charm City" in 1996. The episodes were a two-part story and marked the first crossover between Homicide and Law & Order.

In 1996 Zamacona was hired as a co-executive producer and writer for new Fox Network science fiction series Millenium
Millennium (TV series)
Millennium is an American television series created by Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files. Millennium aired on the Fox Network from 1996 to 1999. The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, though most episodes were ostensibly set in or around Seattle, Washington...

. The series was created by Chris Carter
Chris Carter (screenwriter)
Christopher Carl Carter is an American screenwriter, film director and producer. He is the creator of The X-Files and Millennium.- Ten Thirteen Productions :...

 following the success of Carter's earlier series The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...

. The series follows a law enforcement consultant working for a mysterious organization known as the Millennium Group
Millennium Group
The Millennium Group is a fictional secret society and "criminal investigative consulting firm" featured in the television series Millennium...

. Zamacona wrote two episodes for the first season
Millennium (season 1)
The first season of the serial crime-thriller television series Millennium commenced airing in the United States on October 25, 1996, concluding on May 16, 1997, and consisting of twenty-two episodes. It tells the story of retired FBI Agent Frank Black...

; "Kingdom Come" and "The Wild and the Innocent". Zamacona left the series at the end of the first season.

In 1997 Zamacona returned to Homicide and Law & Order to write a further crossover storyline. He wrote the eighth season Law & Order episode "Baby, It's You" and the sixth season
Homicide: Life on the Street (season 6)
The sixth season of Homicide: Life on the Street aired in the United States on the NBC television network from 1997-10-17 to 1998-05-08 and contained 23 episodes....

 Homicide episode "Baby, It's You: Part 2".

In 1999 Zamacona served as an executive producer and writer for CBS pilot St. Michael's Crossing but the network did not order a series.

2000s

In 2001 Zamacona was an executive producer for the feature Hudson's Law which starred Rob Morrow
Rob Morrow
Robert Alan "Rob" Morrow is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Don Eppes on Numb3rs and as Dr. Joel Fleischman on Northern Exposure, a role which garnered him three Golden Globes and two Emmy Award nominations for "Best Actor in a Dramatic Series."-Personal life:Morrow was born in...

. Zamacona joined the crew of TNT
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...

 occult police drama Witchblade
Witchblade (TV series)
Following a pilot film in August 2000, the cable network TNT premiered a Witchblade television series based on the Witchblade Top Cow Productions comic book series in 2001. Some of the episodes were written by Ralph Hemecker, Marc Silvestri and J.D...

as a consulting producer and writer in summer 2002. Witchblade follows a homicide detective who acquires super powers after inheriting the titular weapon. The series was created by Ralph Hemecker
Ralph Hemecker
Ralph W. Hemecker is an American director, writer and producer.Hemecker has amassed numerous credits in television, directing episodes of Dead at 21, The X-Files, Millennium, Numb3rs, Blue Bloods as well as directing a number of television films....

 based on a comic by Marc Silvestri
Marc Silvestri
Marc Silvestri is an American comic book artist, creator and publisher. He currently acts as the CEO for Top Cow Productions.-Early life:Marc Silvestri was born in Palm Beach, Florida.-Career:...

. Zamacoma wrote or co-wrote four episodes for the second season. Hemecker wrote the teleplay for the episode "Emergence" based on a story he co-wrote with Zamacona. Hemecker, Zamacona and William J. MacDonald co-wrote the teleplay for the episode "Destiny" from a story by Zamacona and MacDonald. Zamacona wrote the episodes "Lagrimas" and "Veritas" himself.

In fall 2002 Zamacona was hired as a writer for the third season of NBC emergency services drama Third Watch
Third Watch
Third Watch is an American television drama series which first aired on NBC from 1999 to 2005 for a total of 132 episodes, broadcast in 6 seasons of 22 episodes each....

. The series was created by retired Chicago police officer Edward Allen Bernero
Edward Allen Bernero
Edward Allen Bernero is an American television writer, producer and director. He co-created the series Third Watch and has worked as an executive producer on Criminal Minds...

 and television producer John Wells
John Wells (TV producer)
John Marcum Wells is an American theater and television producer, writer and director. He is best known for his role as executive producer and show runner of the television series ER, Third Watch, and The West Wing. His company, John Wells Productions, is currently based at Warner Bros. studios in...

. The series focused on police officer, firefighters and paramedics working the same shift as one another in New York City. Bernero wrote the teleplay for the episode "Superheroes: Part 1" based on a story he co-wrote with Zamacona. Zamacona co-wrote the episode "The Unforgiven" with producer Scott A. Williams
Scott A. Williams
Scott A. Williams is an American television writer and producer. He has worked on the NBC crime dramas Brooklyn South and Third Watch. He worked as a co-executive producer and writer for the Fox procedural Bones from 2006 to 2009...

 and executive story editor Julie Hébert
Julie Hebert
Julie Hébert is a television writer, director and producer. She worked on the John Wells-produced series Third Watch, ER, and The West Wing. She was also a co-executive producer and regular writer and director for Numb3rs.-Biography:In 1996 she adapted the novel Female Perversions into a...

. Zamacona left the series at the end of the third season having contributed to two episodes.

In 2003 Zamacona reunited with his Homicide colleague Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana is an American writer and producer.-TV career:Fontana has been a writer/producer for such series as Oz , The Jury, The Beat, The Bedford Diaries, Homicide: Life on the Street, St...

 as a supervising producer on the sixth and final season of HBO prison drama Oz
Oz (TV series)
Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes . It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons...

. Oz centers on prisoners in a high security unit. The series was created by Fontana and ended in February 2003.

In fall 2003 Zamacona co-created the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 police drama 10-8: Officers on Duty with Louis St. Clair. Zamacona worked as an executive producer and writer for the series. The series centred on a rookie police officer in Los Angeles County. The other executive producers were Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...

 and E. Duke Vincent
E. Duke Vincent
E. Duke Vincent is an American television producer. He is a former producing partner of Aaron Spelling and an executive at various Spelling production company entities...

. The series was canceled after airing twelve episodes although fifteen episodes were produced. Zamacona contributed to thirteen of those episodes as a writer. Zamacona wrote the teleplay for the pilot episode "Brothers in Arms" from a story he co-wrote with St. Clair. Supervising producer Denitria Harris-Lawrence wrote the teleplay for the episodes "A Hard Day's Night", "Mercy, Mercy Me" and "Love Don't Love Nobody" from stories by Zamacona and St. Clair. Co-executive producer Frank Renzulli
Frank Renzulli
Frank Renzulli is an American film actor, writer and producer.As an Emmy nominated writer and Golden Globe winner, Renzulli has written teleplays for The Sopranos, mainly in the first two seasons, and another Emmy nominated episode in the third season of the highly acclaimed television show...

 wrote the teleplay for the episode "Gun of a Son" from a story by Zamacona and St. Clair. Zamacona wrote the teleplay for the episodes "Badlands", "Blood Sugar Sex Magik", "The Wild Bunch" and "Wild and the Innocent" from stories he co-wrote with St. Clair. Renzulli and Zamacona co-wrote the episodes "Late for School" and "Gimme Shelter". Bradford Winters wrote the teleplay for the episode "Flirtin' with Disaster" from a story by Zamacona and St. Clair. Zamacona wrote the episode "Gypsy Road" solo.

In 2004 Zamacona served as an executive producer for the television feature Silverlake. The film starred Kerr Smith
Kerr Smith
Kerr Van Cleve Smith is an American actor best known for playing Jack McPhee on The WB drama series Dawson's Creek, Kyle Brody in The WB's, supernatural drama, Charmed and more recently Axel Palmer in My Bloody Valentine 3D...

.

Zamacona and St. Clair created a second series in fall 2005. The police drama Wanted
Wanted (TV series)
Wanted is a 2005 American primetime police drama television series broadcast on the TNT network. The series was created by Louis St. Clair and Jorge Zamacona, and executive produced by Aaron Spelling, E...

aired on the TNT network. Zamacona once again served as an executive producer and writer for the project. Wanted follows a multilateral police taskforce charged with tracking the 100 most wanted criminals. The series other executive producers were again Spelling and Vincent. Zamacona wrote the teleplay for the pilot from a story he co-wrote with St. Clair. Zamacona wrote the teleplay for the episode "The Wild Bunch" from a story he co-wrote with St. Clair. Brian Logan wrote the teleplay for the episode "Click, Click, Boom" from a story by Zamacona and St. Clair.

Zamacona was an active participant in the 2007 Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....

 strike. He supported royalties for writers based on online streaming of episodes they had written.

In 2009 Zamacona became a consulting producer and writer for the ABC police drama The Unusuals
The Unusuals
The Unusuals is a comedy-drama television series which premiered on ABC on April 8, 2009 in the U.S. and Global in Canada. An ABC press release described The Unusuals as "like a modern-day M*A*S*H" that "explores both the grounded drama and comic insanity of the world of New York City police...

. The series was created by Noah Hawley
Noah Hawley
Noah Hawley is an American film and television producer, screenwriter, composer, and author. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Noah wrote and produced the television series Bones and also created The Unusuals and My Generation...

 and focused on detectives in the New York homicide unit. The series was canceled after ten episodes. Zamacona wrote the episode "The Dentist".

2010s

In 2010 Zamacona was attached to new series The Saint as an executive producer.
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