After graduating from the University of Maryland, Peter Mehlman, a New York native, became a writer for The Washington Post.

He slid to television in 1982, writing for SportsBeat with Howard Cosell . From 1985-90, he returned to forming full sentences as a writer for numerous national publications, including The New York Times Magazine , GQ , and Esquire .

In 1989, two years after moving to Los Angeles, he became a writer for the iconic TV show, Seinfeld . Over the eight-year run of the show, Mehlman rose to executive producer and coined such well-known Seinfeld-isms as "spongeworthy,"
"shrinkage," "double-dipping," and "yada, yada," the last of which has been included as an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary.

In 1997, Mehlman joined DreamWorks and created It's Like, You Know… a scathing look at life in Los Angeles. In recent years, he has written screenplays, novels, and humor pieces, many of which were collected in his book, Mandela Was Late.

Mehlman has appeared on-camera for TNT Sports and the Webby-nominated Peter Mehlman's Narrow World of Sports. He's the creator of the lifestyle brand Bravely Oblivious. He lives in Los Angeles.