Matthew Weiner

Matthew Hoffman Weiner (/ˈwaɪnər/;[1] born June 29, 1965)[2] is an American television writer, producer, and director best known as the creator and showrunner of the television series Mad Men, and as a writer and executive producer on The Sopranos.

This article is about the American writer, producer, director, actor, and author. For the American singer, musician, and record producer born with the same name, see Matthew Wilder.
Matthew Weiner
Weiner at the 2011 Time 100 gala
Born
Matthew Hoffman Weiner

(1965-06-29) June 29, 1965
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Alma materWesleyan University (BA)
University of Southern California (MFA)
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, television producer, director
Years active1996–present
Spouse
Linda Brettler
​
(m. 1991)​
Children4

Weiner began his television career as a writer on Becker and worked on several other sitcoms before writing the pilot episode of Mad Men as a spec script and joining the writing staff of The Sopranos in 2004. After achieving success on both The Sopranos and Mad Men, he wrote, directed, and produced the comedy-drama film Are You Here in 2013, published his first novel Heather, the Totality in 2017, and created the anthology drama series The Romanoffs in 2018.

Weiner has won nine Primetime Emmy Awards, two for The Sopranos and seven for Mad Men, as well as three Golden Globe Awards for Mad Men.[3][4][5][6][7][8] Mad Men won the Primetime 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, in 2004 and 2007.[9][10] In 2011, Weiner was included in Time's annual Time 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]

Early life and education

Weiner was born in 1965 in Baltimore to a Jewish family. He attended The Park School of Baltimore and grew up in Los Angeles where he attended Harvard School for Boys. His father was a medical researcher and chair of the neurology department at University of Southern California. His mother graduated from law school but never practiced.[1] He enrolled in the College of Letters at Wesleyan University, studying literature, philosophy, and history and earned an MFA from the University of Southern California School of Cinema and Television.[13][14]

Career

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-lived Fox sitcom Party Girl (1996).[1] He was a writer and producer on The Naked Truth[16] and Andy Richter Controls the Universe.[13][14] Weiner wrote the pilot of Mad Men in 1999 as a spec script while working as a writer on Becker.[1] The Sopranos creator and executive producer David 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 of The 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 the Primetime Emmy Award-nominated episodes "Unidentified Black Males" (co-written with Terence Winter) and "Kennedy and Heidi" (co-written with David Chase). He received two Primetime Emmy Awards as a producer of The 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 of The 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 on The Sopranos Weiner began looking for a network to produce Mad 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 to AMC, 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 after The Sopranos concluded. Weiner served as showrunner, an executive producer, and head writer of Mad 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 seven season 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 four Golden Globe Awards and fifteen Primetime Emmy Awards. It is the first basic cable series to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, winning the award in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. Weiner won the Primetime 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" (with Robin Veith). He also won Primetime Emmys for the same category in 2009, for "Meditations in an Emergency" (shared with Kater Gordon),[18] and in 2010, for "Shut the Door. Have a Seat." (shared with Erin Levy).[19] In 2009, he was also nominated for "A Night to Remember" (with Veith), "Six Month Leave" (with Andre 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 with Semi 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 a Writers Guild of America Award for Best New Series and were nominated for the award Best Dramatic Series at the February 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 the February 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 the February 2010 ceremony for their work on the third season. 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-writer Brett Johnson) and "Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency" (with Robin Veith).

Weiner's first feature film, Are You Here, filmed in North Carolina, premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in 2014.

Weiner's first novel, Heather, the Totality, was published in the fall of 2017.[25]

In 2018, Weiner created The Romanoffs, an Amazon Video anthology series.[26]

Personal life

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 of Glen Bishop on Mad Men.[1]

In August 2015, he signed, along with 98 other members of the Los Angeles Jewish community, an open letter supporting the proposed 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."[27]

Allegation of sexual harassment

On November 9, 2017, former Mad Men writer Kater 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.[28][29] Furthermore, Weiner told Vanity 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."[30]

Works

Television
Series Year 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 Video) Yes Executive Yes Creator

Film
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

Published works
Title Year Credit Notes
Heather, the Totality 2017
Author
Debut novel

References
  1. Witchel, Alex (2008-06-22). "Mad Men' Has Its Moment". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
  2. Augustyn, Adam. "Matthew Weiner: American writer and producer". Britannica.com. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
  3. Henneberger, Melinda (2011-09-19). "Emmys: 'Mad Men,' 'Modern Family' in a ho-hum year of repeats". The Washington Post.
  4. "Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series". Emmys.com. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  5. "Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for 2009". Emmys.com. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  6. "Primetime Emmy® Award Database". Emmys.com. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  7. Wyatt, Edward (2009-09-21). "Familiarity and a Few Surprises at the Emmys". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  8. "Awards for Matthew Weiner" Archived March 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, IMDb page.
  9. "Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for 2011 – Outstanding Drama Series". Emmys.com. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  10. "Primetime Emmy® Award Database". Emmys.com. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  11. "The 2011 Time 100". Time. 2011-04-22. Archived from the original on April 25, 2011.
  12. "Brave Thinkers 2011, November 2011, The Atlantic". Theatlantic.com. 2011-10-03. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  13. "HBO: Matthew Weiner, Executive Producer : The Sopranos". HBO. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
  14. "AMC » Matthew Weiner". AMC. Archived from the original on 2008-02-20. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
  15. Fast Company. ""Mad Men" Creator Matthew Weiner's Reassuring Life Advice for Struggling Artists". 16 April 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-10-14. Retrieved 2015-04-20.
  16. Itzkoff, Dave (March 7, 2012). "The Top Man at 'Mad Men' Isn't Mad Anymore". The New York Times. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
  17. Steinberg, Jacques (July 18, 2007). "In Act 2, the TV Hit Man Becomes a Pitch Man". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
  18. "Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for 2009". Emmys.com. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  19. "Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series". Emmys.com. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  20. "Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for 2012 - Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  21. "2008 Writers Guild Awards Television & Radio Nominees Announced". WGA. 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-12-19. Retrieved 2007-12-13.
  22. Perry, Byron (2007-12-12). "WGA announce TV, radio nominees". Variety. Retrieved 2007-12-13.
  23. "HBO tops WGA awards list with five noms". The Hollywood Reporter. 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-07-06. Retrieved 2007-12-13.
  24. "2009 Writers Guild Awards Television, Radio, News, Promotional Writing, and Graphic Animation Nominees Announced". WGA. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-12-12. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
  25. Birnbaum, Debra (2016-09-14). "'Mad Men' Creator Matthew Weiner To Publish a Novel". Variety. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  26. Rose, Lacey (March 2, 2017). "Matthew Weiner's Amazon Series Revealed: Russian Royals, 'Mad Men' Ties, $50M Budget". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  27. Abramovitch, Seth (August 12, 2015). "98 Prominent Hollywood Jews Back Iran Nuclear Deal in Open Letter (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  28. Lessin, Jessica (November 9, 2017). "Former 'Mad Men' Writer Starts Nonprofit After Alleged Harassment". The Information. San Francisco, California. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  29. Alexander, Bryan (November 9, 2017). "'Mad Men' creator Matthew Weiner accused of harassment by former writer Kater Gordon". USA Today. McLean, Virginia: Gannett Company. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
  30. "Matt Weiner on sexual harassment allegation: 'I really don't remember saying that'". The Guardian. October 2018.
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