Schnauz started his career in various production jobs. His first screenplay was called Spirits in Passing. He eventually joined Vince Gilligan on the writing staff of The X-Files and its spinoff show, The Lone Gunmen.[3] He also co-wrote the screenplays for the 2008 film Otis and the 2008 television film Infected. In 2010, he re-teamed with Gilligan on Breaking Bad, where he remained through the show's 2013 conclusion.
Schnauz served as co-executive producer on AMC's Breaking Bad spinoff series Better Call Saul.[6] He has written and/or directed a number of its episodes including "Pimento", the penultimate episode of the show's first season, which received critical acclaim, as well as "Plan and Execution", the finale of the sixth season's first half that also received praise for Schnauz's writing.[7][8]
In April 2015, it was reported that he had been tapped to write the screenplay for "a revisionist take" on "Jack and the Beanstalk", also to be produced by Vince Gilligan.[9]
In 2019, Schnauz joined other WGA writers in firing their agents as part of the WGA's stand against the ATA and the practice of packaging.[10]
Schnauz has been nominated for Writers Guild of America Awards on six occasions, winning three times, for his work on the writing staffs of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Schnauz shared in the show's 2010 Dramatic Series nomination, and subsequent category wins in 2011, 2012[11] and 2013,[12] for his work on Breaking Bad. He was nominated again in 2015 and 2016 in the Dramatic Series category for Better Call Saul.
^"'X-Files' Episode Set in Stafford". The Asbury Park Press. October 14, 2001. p. AA3. One of the show's writers, Thomas Schnauz, 34, spent his adolescence in southern Ocean County and is a 1984 graduate of Southern Regional High School.
