Born: June 29, 1965
Age: 59
Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland, United States
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Matthew Weiner
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Biography
Matthew Weiner (/ˌwaɪnər/; born June 29, 1965) is an American writer, director and producer. He is the creator of the AMC television drama series Mad Men, which premiered in 2007 and ended in 2015 with the airing of the series finale "Person to Person". He is also noted for his work on the HBO drama series The Sopranos, on which he served as a writer and producer during the show's fifth and sixth seasons (2004; 2006-2007). He directed the comedy film Are You Here in 2013, marking his filmmaking debut.
Weiner has received nine Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on Mad Men and The Sopranos, winning three for Mad Men, as well as three Golden Globe Awards for Mad Men. 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 (2004, 2007). In 2011, Weiner was included in Time's annual Time 100 as one of the "Most Influential People in the World". In November 2011, The Atlantic named him one of 21 "Brave Thinkers."
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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. 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.
Career
Weiner described the start of his career as a "dark time. Show business looked so impenetrable that I eventually stopped writing." 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). He was a writer and producer on The Naked Truth and Andy Richter Controls the Universe. Weiner wrote the pilot of Mad Men in 1999 as a spec script while working as a writer on Becker. The Sopranos creator and executive producer David Chase offered Weiner a job as a writer for the series after being impressed by the script.
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 network 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. 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. Weiner produced the pilot during a hiatus in "The Sopranos" final season and it premiered on July 19th, 2007, six weeks after "The Sopranos" concluded. Weiner has served as showrunner, an executive producer, and head writer of Mad Men throughout its 7 seasons, each consisting of 13 episodes, with the exception of Season 7, which was 14 and split into two halves, aired 10 months apart. As the showrunner he has had a major role in the writing and directing of each episode, also approving actors, costumes, hairstyles, and props. 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), and in 2010, for "Shut the Door. Have a Seat" (shared with Erin Levy). 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. 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. 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. 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.
Personal life
Weiner is married to architect Linda Brettler. One of his four sons, Marten Holden Weiner, played the recurring role of Glen Bishop on Mad Men. Weiner currently resides in Los Angeles. He was a one-day champion on the quiz show Jeopardy!
Works
Television
| Title | Year | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Stumble in the Bronx" | 1999 | Writer | |
| "Blind Curve" | 1999 | Writer | |
| "For Whom the Toll Calls" | 2000 | Writer | |
| "The Wrong Man" | 2000 | Writer | |
| "Pretty Poison" | 2001 | Writer | |
| "The Ugly Truth" | 2001 | Writer | |
| "Psycho Therapy" | 2001 | Writer | |
| "The Ghost of Christmas Presents" | 2001 | Writer |
| Title | Year | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Love Is the Key" | 2002 |
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| Title | Year | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| "The Maid Man" | 2003 | Writer |
| Title | Year | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Rat Pack" | 2004 | Writer | |
| "Sentimental Education" | 2004 | Writer | |
| "Unidentified Black Males" | 2004 | Writer, with Terence Winter | Nominated, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series |
| "The Test Dream" | 2004 | Writer, with David Chase | |
| "Mayham" | 2006 | Writer | |
| "Luxury Lounge" | 2006 | Writer | |
| "Moe n' Joe" | 2006 | Writer | |
| "Kaisha" | 2006 | Writer, with David Chase and Terence Winter | |
| "Soprano Home Movies" | 2007 | Writer, with David Chase and Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider | |
| "Chasing It" | 2007 | Writer | |
| "Kennedy and Heidi" | 2007 | Writer, with David Chase | Nominated, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series |
| "The Blue Comet" | 2007 | Writer, with David Chase |
| Title | Year | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" | 2007 | Writer |
|
| "Ladies Room" | 2007 | Writer | |
| "5G" | 2007 | Writer | |
| "Shoot" | 2007 | Writer, with Chris Provenzano | |
| "Long Weekend" | 2007 | Writer, with Bridget Bedard and Andre Jacquemetton & Maria Jacquemetton | |
| "Indian Summer" | 2007 | Writer, with Tom Palmer | |
| "The Wheel" | 2007 |
|
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| "For Those Who Think Young" | 2008 | Writer | Season 2 premiere |
| "Flight 1" | 2008 | Writer, with Lisa Albert | |
| "The Benefactor" | 2008 | Writer, with Rick Cleveland | |
| "Maidenform" | 2008 | Writer | |
| "A Night to Remember" | 2008 | Writer, with Robin Veith | Nominated, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series |
| "Six Month Leave" | 2008 | Writer, with Andre Jacquemetton & Maria Jacquemetton | Nominated, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series |
| "The Inheritance" | 2008 | Writer, with Lisa Albert & Marti Noxon | |
| "The Jet Set" | 2008 | Writer | Nominated, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series |
| "The Mountain King" | 2008 | Writer, with Robin Veith | |
| "Meditations in an Emergency" | 2008 |
|
|
| "Out of Town" | 2009 | Writer | Season 3 premiere |
| "Love Among the Ruins" | 2009 | Writer, with Cathryn Humphris | |
| "My Old Kentucky Home" | 2009 | Writer, with Dahvi Waller | |
| "The Arrangements" | 2009 | Writer, with Andrew Colville | |
| "Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency" | 2009 | Writer, with Robin Veith | Nominated, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series |
| "Seven Twenty Three" | 2009 | Writer, with Andre Jacquemetton & Maria Jacquemetton | |
| "Souvenir" | 2009 | Writer, with Lisa Albert | |
| "Wee Small Hours" | 2009 | Writer, with Dahvi Waller | |
| "The Color Blue" | 2009 | Writer, with Kater Gordon | |
| "The Gypsy and the Hobo" | 2009 | Writer, with Marti Noxon & Cathryn Humphris | |
| "The Grown-Ups" | 2009 | Writer, with Brett Johnson | |
| "Shut the Door. Have a Seat" | 2009 |
|
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| "Public Relations" | 2010 | Writer | Season 4 premiere |
| "Christmas Come But Once a Year" | 2010 | Writer, with Tracy McMillan | |
| "The Good News" | 2010 | Writer, with Jonathan Abrahams | |
| "The Rejected" | 2010 | Writer, with Keith Huff | |
| "Waldorf Stories" | 2010 | Writer, with Brett Johnson | |
| "The Suitcase" | 2010 | Writer | Nominated, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series |
| "The Summer Man" | 2010 | Writer, with Lisa Albert & Janet Leahy | |
| "The Beautiful Girls" | 2010 | Writer, with Dahvi Waller | |
| "Hands and Knees" | 2010 | Writer, with Jonathan Abrahams | |
| "Tomorrowland" | 2010 |
|
Season 4 finale |
| "A Little Kiss" | 2012 | Writer | Season 5 premiere, two-part episode |
| "Tea Leaves" | 2012 | Writer, with Erin Levy | |
| "Mystery Date" | 2012 | Writer, with Victor Levin | |
| "Signal 30" | 2012 | Writer, with Frank Pierson | |
| "Far Away Places" | 2012 | Writer, with Semi Chellas | Nominated, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series |
| "Lady Lazarus" | 2012 | Writer | |
| "Christmas Waltz" | 2012 | Writer, with Victor Levin | |
| "The Other Woman" | 2012 | Writer, with Semi Chellas | Nominated, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series |
| "The Phantom" | 2012 |
|
Season 5 finale |
| "The Doorway" | 2013 | Writer | Season 6 premiere, two-part episode |
| "Collaborators" | 2013 | Writer, with Jonathan Igla | |
| "The Flood" | 2013 | Writer, with Tom Smuts | |
| "For Immediate Release" | 2013 | Writer | |
| "Man With a Plan" | 2013 | Writer, with Semi Chellas | |
| "The Crash" | 2013 | Writer, with Jason Grote | |
| "The Better Half" | 2013 | Writer, with Erin Levy | |
| "A Tale of Two Cities" | 2013 | Writer, with Janet Leahy | |
| "Favors" | 2013 | Writer, with Semi Chellas | |
| "In Care Of" | 2013 |
|
Season 6 finale |
| "Time Zones" | 2014 | Writer | Season 7 premiere |
| "A Day's Work" | 2014 | Writer, with Jonathan Igla | |
| "Field Trip" | 2014 | Writer, with Heather Jeng Bladt | |
| "The Runaways" | 2014 | Writer, with David Iserson | |
| "Waterloo" | 2014 |
|
Season 7 mid-season finale |
| "Severance" | 2015 | Writer | Season 7 mid-season premiere |
| "New Business" | 2015 | Writer, with Tom Smuts | |
| "The Forecast" | 2015 | Writer, with Jonathan Igla | |
| "Time & Life" | 2015 | Writer, with Erin Levy | |
| "Lost Horizon" | 2015 | Writer, with Semi Chellas | Nominated, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series |
| "The Milk and Honey Route" | 2015 | Writer, with Carly Wray
Director |
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| "Person to Person" | 2015 |
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Film
| Title | Year | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| What Do You Do All Day? | 1996 |
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| Are You Here | 2013 |
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[ Source: Wikipedia ]
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