Peter Gould is an American television writer, director and producer. He worked on all five seasons of the AMC drama Breaking Bad, and was nominated for four Writers Guild of America (WGA) Awards for his work on the series. After Breaking Bad ended, he went on to become the co-creator and co-showrunner, with Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, of the show's spinoff, Better Call Saul. He became the series' sole showrunner after Gilligan left the writers room.
Peter Gould | |
|---|---|
 Gould in 2018 | |
| Born | New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation |
|
| Education | |
| Notable works | |
| Spouse | Nora Doyle |
| Children | 1 |
Education
editGould was born in New York City.[1] In 1978, Gould graduated from the Lawrenceville School, a private preparatory school in New Jersey,[2] before entering Sarah Lawrence College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1982.[3] In 1990, he graduated from the University of Southern California with a Master of Fine Arts.[4]
Career
editAfter graduating from college, he did commercials in New York for a while before entering USC Film School.
In 2008, he joined the writing staff of the first season of Breaking Bad as a story editor. He wrote the first-season episode "A No-Rough-Stuff-Type Deal".[5] The first season writing staff was nominated for the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award for best new series at the February 2009 ceremony.[6][7][8]
Gould was promoted to executive story editor for the second season. He wrote the second-season episodes "Bit by a Dead Bee"[9] and "Better Call Saul".[10] The writing staff was nominated for the WGA award for best drama series at the February 2010 ceremony for their work on the second season.[11] Gould was promoted to producer for the third season and wrote the episode "Caballo sin Nombre"[12] and co-wrote the episode "Kafkaesque" with fellow producer George Mastras.[13] Gould was promoted again to supervising producer for the fourth season in 2011.
In 2011, he wrote the HBO television film Too Big to Fail based on Andrew Ross Sorkin's book of the same name chronicling the events of the 2008 financial crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers from the point of view of Wall Street CEOs and US government regulators.[14]
With Gilligan, he became co-creator and co-showrunner of the spinoff series, Better Call Saul. The show debuted on February 8, 2015, and was the highest-rated cable television series premiere to date.[15][16] Gould would become the series sole showrunner after Gilligan left the writing staff early in the third season to focus on other projects. This transition had been planned since the show's debut.[17]
The episode "Uno" from the first season of Better Call Saul won the 2015 Writers Guild of America award for Best Dramatic Episode in February 2016.[18] The episode was written by Gould and Gilligan.
In 2017 and 2022, Better Call Saul was honored with a Peabody Award for "developing its own unique tone mixing legal drama, crime thriller, and dark comedy."[19]
Personal life
editGould and his wife Nora Doyle are parents of a daughter.[20][21]
Filmography
editScreenplays
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Double Dragon | Co-writer | Based on the video game |
| 2000 | Meeting Daddy | Writer and director | |
| 2011 | Too Big to Fail | Writer | Television film |
Television episodes credits
| Year | Show | Season | Episode number | Episode title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Breaking Bad | 1 | 7 | "A No-Rough-Stuff-Type Deal"[5] | No | Yes | |
| 2009 | 2 | 3 | "Bit by a Dead Bee"[9] | No | Yes | ||
| 8 | "Better Call Saul"[10] | No | Yes | ||||
| 2010 | 3 | 2 | "Caballo sin Nombre"[12] | No | Yes | ||
| 9 | "Kafkaesque"[13] | No | Yes | Co-written with George Mastras | |||
| 12 | "Half Measures" | No | Yes | Co-written with Sam Catlin | |||
| 2011 | 4 | 7 | "Problem Dog" | Yes | Yes | ||
| 10 | "Salud" | No | Yes | Co-written with Gennifer Hutchison | |||
| 2012 | 5 | 3 | "Hazard Pay" | No | Yes | ||
| 2013 | 9 | "Blood Money" | No | Yes | |||
| 15 | "Granite State" | Yes | Yes | ||||
| 2015 | Better Call Saul | 1 | 1 | "Uno" | No | Yes | Co-written with Vince Gilligan |
| 2 | "Mijo | No | Yes | ||||
| 10 | "Marco" | Yes | Yes | ||||
| 2016 | 2 | 9 | "Nailed" | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2017 | 3 | 1 | "Mabel" | No | Yes | Co-written with Vince Gilligan | |
| 10 | "Lantern" | Yes | No | ||||
| 2018 | 4 | 1 | "Smoke" | No | Yes | ||
| 10 | "Winner" | No | Yes | Co-written with Thomas Schnauz | |||
| 2020 | 5 | 1 | "Magic Man" | No | Yes | ||
| 10 | "Something Unforgivable" | Yes | Yes | Co-written with Ariel Levine | |||
| 2022 | 6 | 1 | "Wine and Roses" | No | Yes | ||
| 13 | "Saul Gone" | Yes | Yes |
Production staff
| Year | Show | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Breaking Bad | Story editor | Season 1 |
| 2009 | Executive story editor | Season 2 | |
| 2010 | Producer | Season 3 | |
| 2011 | Supervising producer | Season 4 | |
| 2012 | Co-executive producer | Season 5 | |
| 2013 | |||
| 2015 | Better Call Saul | Executive producer | Season 1 |
| 2016 | Season 2 | ||
| 2017 | Season 3 | ||
| 2018 | Season 4 | ||
| 2020 | Season 5 | ||
| 2022 | Season 6 |
References
edit- ^ "Peter Gould". TV Guide. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
- ^ Allegra, Mike (Winter 2015). "Heisenberg and the Harkeness". The Lawrentian. p. 26–27. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
- ^ "News articles from 2013-2014: Merritt Wever '02 and Peter Gould '82 win Emmy awards" (PDF). Sarah Lawrence College. September 23, 2013. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 7, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
- ^ "Trojan Alum-inaries". alumnigroups.usc.edu. University of Southern California. September 2014. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
- ^ a b Tim Hunter (director), Peter Gould (writer) (March 9, 2008). "A No-Rough-Stuff-Type of Deal". Breaking Bad. Season 1. Episode 7. AMC.
- ^ "2008 Writers Guild Awards Television & Radio Nominees Announced". WGA. 2007. Archived from the original on December 19, 2007. Retrieved December 13, 2007.
- ^ Perry, Byron (December 12, 2007). "WGA announce TV, radio nominees". Variety. Retrieved December 13, 2007.
- ^ "HBO tops WGA awards list with five noms". The Hollywood Reporter. 2007. Archived from the original on July 6, 2008. Retrieved December 13, 2007.
- ^ a b Terry McDonough (director), Peter Gould (writer) (March 22, 2009). "Bit by a Dead Bee". Breaking Bad. Season 2. Episode 3. AMC.
- ^ a b Terry McDonough (director), Peter Gould (writer) (April 26, 2009). "Better Call Saul". Breaking Bad. Season 2. Episode 8. AMC.
- ^ "2009 Writers Guild Awards Television, Radio, News, Promotional Writing, and Graphic Animation Nominees Announced". WGA. 2008. Archived from the original on December 12, 2008. Retrieved December 12, 2008.
- ^ a b Adam Bernstein (director), Peter Gould (writer) (March 28, 2010). "Caballo Sin Nombre". Breaking Bad. Season 3. Episode 2. AMC.
- ^ a b Michael Slovis (director), Peter Gould & George Mastras (writers) (May 16, 2010). "Kafkaesque". Breaking Bad. Season 3. Episode 9. AMC.
- ^ "Too Big to Fail - Interview with Peter Gould".
- ^ Rosenfeld, Laura (October 6, 2014). "This 'Better Call Saul' music video gives us a sneak peek of the new series".
- ^ Kondolojy, Amanda (February 9, 2015). "'The Walking Dead' Returns to 15.6 Million Viewers + 'Better Call Saul' is Biggest Series Premiere in Cable History". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on February 10, 2015. Retrieved February 9, 2015.
- ^ Birnbaum, Debra (April 5, 2017). "'Better Call Saul's' 'Breaking' Point: How It's Gearing Up for Gus Fring". Variety. Archived from the original on July 22, 2020. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
- ^ McNary, Dave (February 13, 2016). "WGA Honors 'Big Short,' 'Spotlight,' 'Mad Men' at 68th Awards". Variety. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
- ^ "Peabody Awards: Better Call Saul". Peabody Awards. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
- ^ Denise Martin (September 23, 2013). "Breaking Bad's Peter Gould Talks 'Granite State'". Vulture.com. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
- ^ "'Too Big To Fail' New York Premiere - Arrivals". Getty Images. May 16, 2011. Retrieved February 28, 2025.
Screenwriter Peter Gould and wife Nora Doyle...
External links
edit- Peter Gould on Twitter
- Peter Gould at IMDb