David Mills, an Emmy Award-winning television writer who contributed to dramas The Wire and ER, has died at age 48, the HBO cable television network said today.
Mills died last night in New Orleans, said Diego Aldana, a spokesman for HBO, the channel behind The Wire and the soon-to-debut series Treme that Mills worked on.
Mr Aldana declined to say how Mills died, but the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported the writer suffered a brain aneurysm.
"HBO is deeply saddened by the sudden loss of our dear friend and colleague David Mills," HBO said in a statement.
"He was a gracious and humble man, and will be sorely missed by those who knew and loved him, as well as those who were aware of his immense talent," the network said.
Mills wrote for the Washington Post in the early 1990s.
He later wrote episodes for TV police dramas NYPD Blue and Homicide: Life on the Street and hospital series ER, all during the 1990s.
Mills contributed to The Wire from 2006 to 2008, a show created by former journalist David Simon that took a gritty look at Baltimore's drug trade, police force, newspaper business and bureaucracy.
Treme, a show about New Orleans in the wake of 2005's Hurricane Katrina, was Mills' latest project. The program, which he produced along with Simon, will debut on April 11th.
Mills won a pair of prime-time Emmy Awards in 2000 for his work on The Corner, another show from Simon.
Reuters