Better call saul s3 Press Kit overview

Bob Odenkirk is an Emmy Award–winning comedy writer, producer, actor and New York Times bestselling author. For his work on Saturday Night Live, Odenkirk garnered an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program" in 1989. The "Motivational Speaker" sketch Odenkirk wrote for his friend Chris Farley, which originated at Second City in Chicago, was recently named by Rolling Stone magazine as the best SNL sketch of all time. In 1993, Odenkirk earned another Emmy Award for writing on The Ben Stiller Show. 

Over the years Odenkirk has been instrumental in helping emerging comedy writer/performers get their work on the air. He was an executive producer of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim's first Adult Swim series, Tom Goes to the Mayor, and was a consultant on their subsequent shows Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule. In 2013, Odenkirk teamed up with the young comedy group The Birthday Boys to executive-produce their sketch show on IFC, which ran for two seasons.

Odenkirk can be seen in in Girlfriend’s Day for Netflix. In addition, he also starred in and executive-produced Netflix’s four-part sketch show W/ Bob and David, along with David Cross.

Odenkirk also co-wrote, along with David Cross and Brian Posehn, the New York Times best seller Hollywood Said No!, a collection of their unproduced screenplays. In October 2014, McSweeney’s published a book of Odenkirk's comedy writing titled A Load of Hooey.

Michael McKean is a multitalented actor, writer and director associated with some of pop culture’s most iconographic films and television shows of the last three decades. He has appeared in hundreds of movies and TV shows.  

McKean studied acting at Carnegie Mellon University and at New York University (with Olympia Dukakis) before heading out to LA, where he joined Harry Shearer and David L. Lander in the satirical squad the Credibility Gap. In 1976, McKean and Lander became notorious as Lenny and Squiggy of the TV series Laverne & Shirley. His film credits include Steven Spielberg’s 1941, Used Cars, Young Doctors in Love and Rob Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap on which McKean shared starring, screenwriting and composing credits.  Other films include: Clue, Light of Day, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Coneheads, The Brady Bunch Movie, Jack, True Crime and about 70 others, including Christopher Guest’s The Big Picture (which he also co-wrote), Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, Whatever Works and The Meddler.

On television, McKean has appeared as a series regular on Saturday Night Live, Dream On, Sessions, Family Tree, Tracey Takes On…, Martin Short’s Primetime Glick and Family Tree. His many TV guest appearances include: Friends, Murphy Brown, The Simpsons, The X-Files, Law & Order, Smallville, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Unit, Off the Map, Homeland, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and many others.

At Chicago’s famed Steppenwolf Theatre, McKean originated the role of Arthur Przybyszewski in Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts, which went on to Broadway. McKean starred in the Barrow Street Theatre production of Our Town, the new Randy Newman musical Harps and Angels at LA’s Mark Taper Forum and Yes, Prime Minister at LA’s Geffen Playhouse.  

Most recently, McKean starred on Broadway in Gore Vidal’s The Best Man and appeared in the Tony Award®–winning Broadway production of All the Way with Bryan Cranston and the LA production of Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts I, II & III.  For the past two seasons, Michael has explored age-old adages, fascinating food mysteries and myths baked inside everything we eat as the host of the Cooking Channel's Food: Fact or Fiction?

Born in Washington, D.C, Jonathan Banks’ work as an actor has spanned five decades in film, television and theater. He began his career with the musical Hair in 1969.  

Rhea Seehorn grew up in Virginia Beach but has lived in a variety of places from Arizona to Japan before relocating to Los Angeles. She graduated with a degree in drama and visual arts, which she used to develop further her craft in Washington, D.C., where she starred in numerous productions, including the Arena Stage and the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company of which she remains a member. Seehorn then transitioned to Manhattan, where she performed with Playwrights Horizons and made her Broadway debut in Neil Simon’s 45 Seconds from Broadway.  Shortly after that, she was cast as a series regular on the comedy series I’m with Her opposite Teri Polo, David Sutcliffe and Danny Comden. 

Seehorn has enjoyed several series regular and guest-star roles, including House of Lies, The Starter Wife, The Closer, Head Cases, Trust Me, Dollhouse, Burn Notice and Franklin & Bash. She’s also appeared alongside Tim Allen in Disney’s The Shaggy Dog. From 2011 to 2013, Seehorn was seen on the NBC comedy Whitney. She used her innate comedic timing to put her stamp on the character of Roxanne, a no-nonsense divorcee whose views on marriage derive from paying alimony to her loser ex-husband.

A veteran actor for over a quarter of a century, Patrick Fabian has spent the bulk of his career in television, with recurring roles on Grey’s Anatomy, The Newsroom, Big Love, Desperate Housewives, Veronica Mars, Joan of Arcadia, 24, Providence and The Education of Max Bickford. Guest-star roles include Scandal, Castle, Criminal Minds, Longmire, NCIS, Hot in Cleveland, Burn Notice, Bones, Friends, Will & Grace, The Mentalist, Pushing Daisies and all of the CSI franchise.

 
MICHAEL MANDO

Michael Mando returns as Nacho Varga, as seen in the first two seasons of Better Call Saul. However, astute fans recognize that the character Ignacio was initially referenced by Saul Goodman during the second season of Breaking Bad, but not featured on screen at the time. 

Born in Quebec City, Mando was raised by his single father as the middle child of three boys. His family traveled a lot, but he and his brothers spent the greater part of their childhood in Africa (Ivory Coast and Ghana). Mando studied psychology and international relations before joining the Dome Theatre from 2004–2007. He instantly excelled at the Dome where he was named by the chairman “one of the finest talents to emerge from the program in the past 25 years.”

Mando burst onto the international scene via the video game world with his award-winning full performance capture as Vaas Montenegro in Far Cry 3 (2012) as well as his live-action performance in the web series The Far Cry Experience (2012).

In 2013, Mando joined BBC’s original Orphan Black cast and went on to be nominated twice in the same year at the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards for both his performance as Vic Schmidt in Orphan Black and his guest-star role of Cesar Medina in Rookie Blue.

Upcoming, Mando will be seen opposite Michael Keaton and Tom Holland in Spiderman: Homecoming, an installment of the Spiderman franchise to be released July 2017.

Vince Gilligan was born in Richmond, Va., and raised in Farmville and Chesterfield County. He received the Virginia Governor’s Screenwriting Award in 1989 for his screenplay Home Fries, which was later turned into a film starring Drew Barrymore and Luke Wilson.

After writing and directing the Breaking Bad pilot, Vince received the 2009 Writers Guild Award for Episodic Drama. The series went on to win five more WGA Awards, including three for Drama Series (2012–2014) and two for Episodic Drama (2012, 2014). Over five seasons, Breaking Bad garnered 16 Primetime Emmy Awards, including the 2013 and 2014 Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, and 53 nominations, including three nominations for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series.

Breaking Bad also won the Golden Globe® Award for Best Drama Series (2014), two Peabody Awards (2009, 2014) and a Producers Guild Award for Episodic Drama (2014). The series was named one of the “Top 10 Programs of the Year” by the American Film Institute (2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013) and hailed in 2009 as “the best of the 21st century” by renowned novelist Stephen King.

As a writer and executive producer on The X-Files, Gilligan shared Golden Globe Awards in 1996 and 1997 for Best Drama Series. His other credits include the Fox Television series The Lone Gunmen, which he co-created, and the features Hancock, starring Will Smith and Charlize Theron, and Wilder Napalm, starring Debra Winger and Dennis Quaid.

Vince lives in Los Angeles with his girlfriend, Holly.
PETER GOULD

Co-Creator/Executive Producer/Writer/Director

For all five seasons, Peter Gould was a writer for the Emmy Award–winning series Breaking Bad, also serving as executive story editor, producer, supervising producer and eventually, co-executive producer. Peter made his TV directorial debut in season 4 and also directed the penultimate episode of the series.

Producer Mark Johnson won the Best Picture Academy Award for the 1988 drama Rain Man and two Emmys for Outstanding Drama Series (2013 and 2014) for Breaking Bad.

Melissa Bernstein graduated cum laude from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She started her career working in documentary television on National Geographic’s Explorer series and The Learning Channel’s A Wedding Story. Melissa then segued into public relations, specializing in technology while working for one of the leading global public relations agencies, FleishmanHillard, on accounts including the Digital Entertainment Network, The Body Shop Digital and Sony PlayStation.  

Thomas Schnauz is a New Jersey–born writer and producer and a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he first met Vince Gilligan. After working several years in various production jobs, from parking production assistant and studio manager to cinematographer, he optioned his first screenplay, Spirits in Passing, with Paramount Pictures and Mark Johnson.

Gennifer Hutchison grew up an Air Force brat. Born in Concord, Massachusetts, she moved with her family every few years, living in exotic locations from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Prattville, Alabama.

A lifelong film and television fan, Hutchison received her bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of San Francisco and moved to Los Angeles shortly after graduation, landing a PA job on The X-Files, later moving her way up to an assistant position. From there, she worked as a writers’ and producer’s assistant on several shows, including Star Trek: Enterprise, Grey’s Anatomy and Mad Men.

Hutchison later reunited with fellow The X-Files alum Vince Gilligan, to join his fledgling series, Breaking Bad, as the writers’ assistant. After penning several webisodes and a blog for the show, Hutchison was assigned a freelance episode in Season 3, “I See You,” which garnered her a WGA nomination. Hutchison was soon promoted to staff writer and remained with the acclaimed series until the finale, rising to the rank of executive story editor. Along the way, she earned six more WGA nominations, winning three consecutive times alongside her Breaking Bad colleagues for Best Dramatic Series and once for Outstanding Episodic Drama for her final Breaking Bad episode, “Confessions.” Hutchison served as producer on FX’s The Strain and was named one of Variety’s 2013 10 TV Writers to Watch.

Hutchison reunited with her Breaking Bad colleagues as supervising producer, and later executive producer, also serving on the writing staff, of Better Call Saul.  In addition, she recently wrote the screenplay for Red Queen for Universal, adapted from the young adult fantasy novel. The feature is currently in development with Elizabeth Banks attached to direct.

Diane Mercer began her career working on late-night comedy shows in New York, later moving to Los Angeles in pursuit of her dream to produce episodic television. As she learned the ropes, she collected credits including the ahead-of-its-time Hollywood satire Action and the original FOX incarnation of the cult-favorite Arrested Development. 

As a producer and production manager, Robin Sweet has served a wide variety of film and television projects, ranging from low-budget indie films, award-winning features and studio blockbusters. Sweet returns to the third season of Better Call Saul as a producer, having joined the acclaimed prequel to Breaking Bad in its second season.

Bob Odenkirk is an Emmy^® Award-winning comedy writer, producer, actor and New York Times bestselling author. For his work on Saturday Night Live, Odenkirk garnered an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program" in 1989. The "Motivational Speaker" sketch Odenkirk wrote for his friend Chris Farley, which originated at Second City in Chicago, was recently named by Rolling Stone magazine as the best SNL sketch of all time. In 1993, Odenkirk earned another Emmy Award for writing on The Ben Stiller Show. 

In 2015, Bob Odenkirk reprised the character he originated on the hit drama Breaking Bad, playing the title role in AMC's Better Call Saul, which has earned him a Critics' Choice TV Award and nominations for an Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award. The show is currently in its second season.

Odenkirk co-created and starred in Mr. Show with Bob and David, which ran on HBO for four years and has been called "the American Monty Python." As an actor he has brought many film and television characters to life, including "Stevie Grant" in The Larry Sanders Show, ex-porn star"Gil Bang" in Curb Your Enthusiasm, "Ross Grant" in Alexander Payne's acclaimed feature Nebraska, and "Bill Oswalt" on the FX series Fargo. 

Over the years Odenkirk has been instrumental in helping emerging comedy writer/performers get their work on the air. He was an executive producer of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim's first Adult Swim series Tom Goes to the Mayor and was a consultant on their subsequent shows Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and Check it Out! with Dr. Steve Brule. In 2013, Odenkirk teamed up with the young comedy group The Birthday Boys to executive produce their sketch show on IFC, which ran for two seasons.

Odenkirk was most recently seen in the 4-part sketch show With Bob and David for Netflix, which he starred in and executive produced with David Cross. He will next be seen in Girlfriend’s Day (February 2017).

Odenkirk also co-wrote, along with David Cross and Brian Posehn, the New York Times bestseller Hollywood Said No! a collection of their unproduced screenplays. In October 2014, McSweeny’s published a book of Odenkirk's comedy writing titled, A Load of Hooey.

Before serving as a writer-producer on Better Call Saul, Jonathan was a writer on the first season of the WGA Award-nominated drama series Bloodline for Sony Entertainment and Netflix.  He recently concluded production on Bliss, created by David Cross for SkyTV in Britain for which he was a writer and executive producer.  

His feature film as writer/director, What Goes Up was released by Sony in 2009 and starred Steve Coogan, Molly Shannon, and Olivia Thirlby. 

Currently, Jonathan is writing a feature for Bold Films and director Marc Forster about the Greenpeace organization. Upcoming, he is a writer and supervising producer for HBO’s new show, Succession.

 

GORDON SMITH

Writer-Producer

Gordon Smith was born and raised in Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan where he studied writing and lurked around the theatre department, writing plays. Afterward, he walked the earth like Caine from Kung Fu for a few years, working random jobs, including helping out at a (non-metaphorical) nut farm, taking care of his infirm grandparents and writing letters for the Secretary of the Army.

Gordon finally landed in Los Angeles to attend the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he earned an MFA in Film and Television Production. Afterward, he wrote for a few web series, including one where a haunted building did something or other to its residents, and maybe there was a portal to hell.

Then, Gordon got very, very lucky and joined the series Breaking Bad as an office P.A. While there, he rose to writers’ assistant, and wrote a wide assortment of things, including video games, comic books, webisodes, extra scenes, audition sides, and pretty much anything that wasn’t an episode of the show. He also acted as consulting producer on the Spanish- language version of the series, Metastasis, and helped supervise production of the pilot in Bogotá, Colombia.

Episode 301: “Mabel"

Director: Vince Gilligan

Written by: Vince Gilligan & Peter Gould

Jimmy helps Chuck regain his confidence, but Chuck makes clear to his brother that he hasn’t forgiven Jimmy for his trespasses. After discovering an ominous note, Mike obsesses over the identity of a mysterious stranger who has been surveilling him. Kim and Jimmy clash over the boundaries of their shared workspace.

Episode 302: “Witness”

Director: Vince Gilligan

Written by: Thomas Schnauz