Terry Matalas

Terry Matalas (born December 11, 1975) is an American television writer, director, and executive producer, best known for co-creating and showrunning 12 Monkeys (201518), which ran for four seasons on SyFy. He was a showrunner on the fourth season of MacGyver for CBS and the second and third seasons of Star Trek: Picard on Paramount+ (202223).

Early life and education Matalas grew up near Raritan, New Jersey. 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.

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

Career

Career beginnings: 2001–2012 Matalas began his career working as an associate on the TV series Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise, including writing two stories for the latter. He also wrote for Terra Nova on Fox and Nikita on The CW.

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

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 for 12 Monkeys. Rather than completely rewriting their script, Matalas suggested simply changing the characters' names to those from 12 Monkeys. Atlas agreed, and SyFy ordered the series. The show ran for four seasons.

During its run, 12 Monkeys earned both critical acclaim and a dedicated viewer base. 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."

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. Matalas also cast Christopher Lloyd in the third season of 12 Monkeys, which he called a "dream come true".

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

Matalas' drama series The Last American Vampire was announced for defunct streaming service Quibi. Matalas had originally sold the project to NBC as an adaptation of the novel Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.

Personal life While making 12 Monkeys, Matalas became a parent. During that time, he also lost his father.

Filmography Year Title Director Writer Producer Creator Showrunner Notes Ref. 2003 Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3 2015–18 12 Monkeys Seasons 1–4 2018 Nightflyers Season 1 2026 VisionQuest Best Writing in a Streaming Series, Drama 2024 Writers Guild of America Awards Television: Episodic Drama