Matthew Weiner

Matthew Hoffman Weiner (; born June 29, 1965) 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.

Weiner began his television career as a writer on Becker. He 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 prior to its fifth season. 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. 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. In 2011, Weiner was included in Time 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".

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.

Career

1997–2007: Early work and The Sopranos 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). and Andy Richter Controls the Universe.

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.

2007–2015: Mad Men and acclaim 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. 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.

2016–present Weiner's first novel, Heather, the Totality, was published in the fall of 2017. In 2018, Weiner created The Romanoffs, an Amazon Video anthology series.

In May 2025, the world premier of Weiner's play, John Wilkes Booth: One Night Only, took place at Baltimore Center Stage. Both Weiner and Booth were originally from the Baltimore, Maryland area. The premiere was about a mile from Green Mount Cemetery where Booth is buried.

Prospective projects In 2020, it was announced that Weiner was developing a half-hour dramedy at FX which he would write, direct and executive produce as his next TV project. While no plot details were disclosed, sources said at the time that the show would also contain elements of mystery. However, by 2022, the project was no longer moving forward at FX.

In 2025, it was reported that New Regency had hired Weiner to write a television series adaptation of the 1989 psychological thriller film Dead Calm.

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.

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. 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."

Works Television Series Year Network Credited as Notes Writer Producer Director Other The Naked Truth 1997–1998 ABC Becker 1999–2002 CBS Baby Blues 2002 The WB In-Laws 2002 NBC Andy Richter Controls the Universe 2002–2003 Fox The Sopranos 2004–2007 HBO Role: Manny Safier Mad Men 2007–2015 AMC The Simpsons 2011 Fox Role: Businessman Orange Is the New Black 2016 Netflix Episode "The Animals" The Romanoffs 2018 Amazon Prime Video Goliath 2019 Amazon Prime Video Role: Matthew

Film Title Year Credited as Notes Writer Producer Director Other Name of the Game, Sports Tales and Tunes 1994 Short film Hanukkah Tales and Tunes 1994 Short film What Do You Do All Day? 1996 Short film, role: Matt Are You Here 2013

Published works Title Year Credit Notes Heather, the Totality 2017

Awards and nominations Primetime Emmy Awards Year Category Nominated work Result2004 Outstanding Drama Series The Sopranos (season 5) Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series The Sopranos (episode: "Unidentified Black Males") 2006 Outstanding Drama Series The Sopranos (season 6 - Part 1) 2007 The Sopranos (season 6 - Part 2) Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series The Sopranos (episode: "Kennedy and Heidi") 2008 Outstanding Drama Series Mad Men (season 1) Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Mad Men (episode: "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes") Mad Men (episode: "The Wheel") 2009 Outstanding Drama Series Mad Men (season 2) Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Mad Men (episode: "A Night to Remember") Mad Men (episode: "Six Month Leave") Mad Men (episode: "The Jet Set") Mad Men (episode: "Mediatations in an Emergency") 2010 Outstanding Drama Series Mad Men (season 3) Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Mad Men (episode: "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency") Mad Men (episode: "Shut the Door. Have a Seat") 2011 Outstanding Drama Series Mad Men (season 4) Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Mad Men (episode: "The Suitcase") 2012 Outstanding Drama Series Mad Men (season 5) Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Mad Men (episode: "Far Away Places") Mad Men (episode: "The Other Woman") 2013 Outstanding Drama Series Mad Men (season 6) 2014 Mad Men (season 7 - Part 1) 2015 Outstanding Drama Series Mad Men (season 7 - Part 2) Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Mad Men (episode: "Lost Horizon") Mad Men (episode: "Person to Person")