Mark Valadez

A native of Chicago's rough-and-tumble southeast side, Mark Valadez was born into a family of steelworkers, although his father later became a police officer. A graduate of Northern Illinois University and the ABC-Disney TV Writing Program, Mark cut his teeth as a writer in fiction, publishing a couple of Young Adult novels, and in the world of comic books, adapting Stephen King's short story "Popsy" for the graphic novel anthology, J.N. Williamson's Illustrated Masques, which has been published in a couple of languages. He landed his first big break in television as a staff writer on the FOX series Gang Related. Later, he wrote on Audience Network's Ice and Sony-Crackle's The Oath. More recently, he wrapped three seasons as a writer-producer on USA Network's Queen of the South, and has a feature film, McQueen, in development with producers Lucas Foster, Ralph Kamp, and Eric Blakeney.