Geoffrey Mandel grew up in New York City in a family of writers and editors, including LIFE Magazine editors and novelists Paul and Sheila Mandel. After graduating from Tufts and Stanford and kicking around the publishing world in New York and Boston, Mandel took a career detour to NYU’s graduate film program, where he wrote and directed the Student Academy Award-nominated short “Kill the Director.” His first industry job was as an art department P.A. on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and since 1995 he has been working as a graphic designer for films and TV shows, including Space: Above & Beyond, JAG, NCIS, Star Trek: Voyager, The X-Files, Spider-Man 2, Serenity, Parks and Recreation, Mad Men, La La Land, VEEP, The Kominsky Method and Star Trek: Picard.