Matthew Weiner | |
|---|---|
 Weiner at the2011Time 100 gala | |
| Born | Matthew Hoffman Weiner (1965-06-29)June 29, 1965 (age 59) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Wesleyan University (BA) University of Southern California (MFA) |
| Occupation(s) | Screenwriter, television producer, director |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
Matthew Hoffman Weiner (/ˈwaɪnər/;[1] born June 29, 1965)[2] is an Americantelevision writer,producer, anddirector best known as the creator andshowrunner of the television seriesMad Men, and as a writer and executive producer onThe Sopranos.
Weiner began his television career as a writer onBecker and worked on several othersitcoms before writing thepilot episode ofMad Men as aspec script and joining the writing staff ofThe Sopranos in 2004. After achieving success on bothThe Sopranos andMad Men, he wrote, directed, and produced thecomedy-drama filmAre You Here in 2013, published his first novelHeather, the Totality in 2017, and created theanthologydrama seriesThe Romanoffs in 2018.
Weiner has won ninePrimetime Emmy Awards, two forThe Sopranos and seven forMad Men, as well as threeGolden Globe Awards forMad Men.[3][4][5][6][7][8]Mad Men won thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series for four consecutive years (2008,2009,2010,2011);The Sopranos (with Weiner as an executive producer) won the same award twice, in2004 and2007.[9][10] In 2011, Weiner was included inTime's annualTime 100 as one of the "Most Influential People in the World".[11] In November 2011,The Atlantic named him one of 21 "Brave Thinkers".[12]
Weiner was born in 1965 inBaltimore to aJewish family. He attendedThe Park School of Baltimore and grew up inLos Angeles where he attendedHarvard School for Boys. His father was a medical researcher and chair of the neurology department atUniversity of Southern California. His mother graduated from law school but never practiced.[1] He enrolled in the College of Letters atWesleyan University, studyingliterature,philosophy, andhistory and earned anMFA from theUniversity of Southern California School of Cinema and Television.[13][14]
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Weiner described the start of his career as a "dark time. Show business looked so impenetrable that I eventually stopped writing."[15] During this time, his wife financially supported them with her work as an architect. He began his screenwriting career writing for the short-livedFoxsitcomParty Girl (1996).[1] He was a writer and producer onThe Naked Truth[16] andAndy Richter Controls the Universe.[13][14] Weiner wrote thepilot ofMad Men in 1999 as aspec script while working as a writer onBecker.[1]The Sopranos creator and executive producerDavid Chase offered Weiner a job as a writer for the series after being impressed by the script.[1][17]
Weiner served as a supervising producer for the fifth season ofThe Sopranos (2004), a co-executive producer for the first part of the sixth season (2006), and an executive producer for the second part of the sixth season (2007). He has sole or joint credit for 12 episodes overall, including thePrimetime Emmy Award-nominated episodes "Unidentified Black Males" (co-written withTerence Winter) and "Kennedy and Heidi" (co-written with David Chase). He received two Primetime Emmy Awards as a producer ofThe Sopranos — one for the show's fifth season in 2004 and one for the second part of the show's sixth season in 2007.
In addition to writing and producing, he acted in two episodes, "Two Tonys" and "Stage 5" as fictional mafia expert Manny Safier, author ofThe Wise Guide to Wise Guys, on TV news broadcasts within the show. Weiner also spent the hiatus between the two seasons teaching at his alma mater, the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television (now School of Cinematic Arts), where he taught an undergraduate screenwriting class on Feature Rewriting during the Fall 2004 semester.
During his time onThe Sopranos Weiner began looking for a network to produceMad Men. HBO,Showtime and FX passed on the project. HBO offered to produce the series if Chase would be on board as a writer or producer, but Chase instead chose to focus on developing feature films.[1] Weiner eventually pitched the series toAMC, which had never produced an original dramatic television series. They picked up the show, ordering a full 13-episode season.[17]Mad Men premiered on July 19, 2007, six weeks afterThe Sopranos concluded. Weiner served asshowrunner, an executive producer, and head writer ofMad Men throughout its seven seasons. As the showrunner he had a major role in the writing and directing of each episode, also approving actors, costumes, hairstyles, and props.[1] He is credited with writing or co-writing seven episodes of the first season, eleven episodes of the second, twelve episodes of the third, ten of the fourth, nine of the fifth, ten of the sixth, and twelve of the seventh. He has also directed all sevenseason finales, along with the season seven midseason finale and the penultimate episode of the series.
Mad Men has received considerable critical acclaim and has won fourGolden Globe Awards and fifteenPrimetime Emmy Awards. It is the first basic cable series to win thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, winning the award in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. Weiner won thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the pilot episode, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", in 2008, as well as being nominated for "The Wheel" (withRobin Veith). He also won Primetime Emmys for the same category in 2009, for "Meditations in an Emergency" (shared withKater Gordon),[18] and in 2010, for "Shut the Door. Have a Seat." (shared withErin Levy).[19] In 2009, he was also nominated for "A Night to Remember" (with Veith), "Six Month Leave" (withAndre Jacquemetton &Maria Jacquemetton), and "The Jet Set"; he was also nominated in 2010 for "Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency" (with Veith). In 2011, he was nominated for "The Suitcase". In 2012, he was nominated for "Far Away Places" and "The Other Woman", both withSemi Chellas.[20] Most recently, in 2015, he was nominated for "Lost Horizon" with Chellas and "Person to Person".
Weiner and his writing staff also won aWriters Guild of America Award for Best New Series and were nominated for the award Best Dramatic Series at theFebruary 2008 ceremony for their work on the first season.[21][22][23] They were nominated for the WGA award for Best Dramatic Series a second time at theFebruary 2009 ceremony for their work on the second season.[24] Weiner and the writing staff won the WGA Award for Best Drama Series (after being nominated for the third consecutive year) at theFebruary 2010 ceremony for their work on the third season.[25] Weiner was also twice nominated for the WGA award for episodic drama at the February 2010 ceremony for his work on "The Grown-Ups" (with co-writerBrett Johnson) and "Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency" (withRobin Veith).[26] Weiner's first feature film,Are You Here, filmed inNorth Carolina, premiered at the2013 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in 2014.[27]
Weiner's first novel,Heather, the Totality, was published in the fall of 2017.[28] In 2018, Weiner createdThe Romanoffs, anAmazon Video anthology series.[29]
Weiner married architect Linda Brettler in 1991. He filed for divorce in July 2019. One of their four sons,Marten Holden Weiner, played the recurring role ofGlen Bishop onMad Men.[1]
In August 2015, he signed, along with 98 other members of the Los Angeles Jewish community, an open letter supporting theproposed nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers led by the United States "as being in the best interest of the United States and Israel."[30]
On November 9, 2017, formerMad Men writerKater Gordon accused Weiner of making a comment at the office one night to the effect that she owed it to him "to see her naked." Weiner denies any memory of making the alleged comment.[31][32] Furthermore, Weiner toldVanity Fair, "I can't see a scenario where I would say that. What I can see is, it was 10 years ago and I don't remember saying it. When someone says you said something, like the experience we just had right now – I don't remember saying that."[33]
| Series | Year | Network | Credited as | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | Producer | Director | Other | ||||
| The Naked Truth | 1997–1998 | ABC | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Becker | 1999–2002 | CBS | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| Baby Blues | 2002 | The WB | Yes | No | No | No | |
| In-Laws | 2002 | NBC | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Andy Richter Controls the Universe | 2002–2003 | Fox | Yes | Supervising | No | No | |
| The Sopranos | 2004–2007 | HBO | Yes | Executive | No | Actor | Role: Manny Safier |
| Mad Men | 2007–2015 | AMC | Yes | Executive | Yes | Creator | |
| The Simpsons | 2011 | Fox | No | No | No | Actor | Role: Businessman |
| Orange Is the New Black | 2016 | Netflix | No | No | Yes | No | Episode "The Animals" |
| The Romanoffs | 2018 | Amazon Prime Video | Yes | Executive | Yes | Creator | |
| Goliath | 2019 | Amazon Prime Video | No | No | No | Actor | Role: Matthew |
| Title | Year | Credited as | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | Producer | Director | Other | |||
| Name of the Game, Sports Tales and Tunes | 1994 | Yes | No | No | No | Short film |
| Hanukkah Tales and Tunes | 1994 | Yes | No | No | No | Short film |
| What Do You Do All Day? | 1996 | No | Yes | Yes | Actor | Short film, role: Matt |
| Are You Here | 2013 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Title | Year | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heather, the Totality | 2017 | Author | Debut novel |
