Matthew Weiner - Biography

Matthew Weiner (born 29 June 1965) is an American writer, director and producer of television drama. He is the creator, executive producer, head writer, and show runner of the AMC television series Mad Men. He is also noted for his work on the HBO series The Sopranos, on which he served as a writer and producer during the show's fifth and sixth seasons. Weiner has received nine Emmy Awards for his work on Mad Men and The Sopranos as well as three Golden Globe Awards for Mad Men. Mad Men has won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series four consecutive years (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011); the Sopranos (with Weiner as executive producer) won the same award twice (2004, 2007). Weiner was named one of the 2011 Time 100 Most Influential People In The World. In November 2011, The Atlantic named him one of 21 "Brave Thinkers".

Early life and education

Weiner was born in 1965 in Baltimore to a Jewish family, attended The Park School of Baltimore and grew up in Los Angeles. 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.

Early career

Weiner began his screenwriting career as an uncredited joke-writer for the short-lived Fox sitcom Party Girl. He is also credited as a writer on Nixon: the CD-ROM released the same year as Oliver Stone's film on the former president. He was a writer and producer on The Naked Truth and Andy Richter Controls the Universe. Weiner wrote the pilot of Mad Men in 2000 as a spec script while working as a staff writer on Becker. The Sopranos creator and executive producer David Chase offered Weiner a job as a staff writer on his show after being impressed by the script.

Weiner served as a writer and producer on The Sopranos during its final three seasons. He wrote or co-wrote a dozen episodes, including the Emmy Award-nominated episodes "Unidentified Black Males" (co-written with Terence Winter) and "Kennedy and Heidi" (co-written with David Chase). He received two 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 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.

Mad Men

After The Sopranos had finished its run, Weiner began looking for a network to produce Mad Men. He presented the show to HBO and Showtime; however, both networks passed on it. He 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 served as show runner, executive producer, and head writer of Mad Men for its first and second season. Weiner is credited with writing or co-writing seven episodes of the first season, ten episodes of the second, twelve episodes of the third and ten of the fourth. He has also directed all four of the season finales, although he had a major role in the writing and directing of every episode.

Mad Men received considerable critical acclaim and won four Golden Globes and fourteen Emmy Awards. Mad Men 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 2008 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the pilot episode, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". He also won Emmys for the same category in 2009 (shared with Kater Gordon) and in 2010 (shared with Erin Levy). 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 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).

Writing Credits

The Sopranos

Mad Men

Personal life

Weiner is married; Marten, one of his four sons, plays the recurring role of Glen Bishop on Mad Men. Weiner currently resides in Los Angeles. He was a 1-day champion on the quiz show Jeopardy!.

External links

• Talks between Lionsgate, Weiner continue
• Interview with the Archive of American Television