Clay Weiner is an American director and writer of commercials, film and television.

Life and career

Weiner grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Clay studied philosophy at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. During college, Clay began working with

Robert Smigel Robert Smigel (born February 7, 1960) is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, producer, and puppeteer, known for his ''Saturday Night Live'' " TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic D ...

(writer: Conan O'Brien, SNL) on The Dana Carvey Show. Weiner has now written for

The Conan O'Brien Show ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

The Onion ''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August 2 ...

and is a contributor to Dazed & Confused,

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

, Flaunt and

BlackBook ''BlackBook'' is an arts and culture magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase ...

. Many know Clay as MTV's "Intro Guy." The campaign, which he wrote, directed and starred in, is rumored to be the inspiration for Napoleon's nerdy dance routine in the film

Napoleon Dynamite ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a 2004 American comedy film produced by Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt and Sean Covel, written by Jared and Jerusha Hess and directed by Jared Hess. The film stars Jon Heder in the role of the titular character, a nerdy high- ...

. The vignettes developed a cult following and won top honors at

The One Show ''The One Show'' is a British television magazine and chat show programme. Broadcast live on BBC One weeknights at 7:00 pm, it features topical stories and studio guests. It is currently co-hosted by Alex Jones, Jermaine Jenas, and Ronan K ...

. Weiner began his official advertising career as a writer at Cliff Freeman & Partners. He then went to work with David Droga at

Publicis Publicis Groupe is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. One of the oldest and largest marketing and communications companies in the world by revenue, it is headquartered in Paris. After 1945, the little-known Paris ...

New York,

Bartle Bogle Hegarty Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) is a British global advertising agency. Founded in 1982 by British ad men John Bartle, Nigel Bogle, and John Hegarty, BBH has offices in London, New York City, Singapore, Shanghai, Mumbai, Stockholm and Los Angeles ...

New York and

Wieden+Kennedy Wieden+Kennedy (W+K; earlier styled ''Wieden & Kennedy'') is an American independent global advertising agency best known for its work for Nike. Founded by Dan Wieden and David Kennedy, and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, it is one of the l ...

Portland. As a creative, he won numerous awards from

D&AD Design and Art Direction (D&AD), formerly known as British Design and Art Direction, is a British educational organisation that was created in 1962 to promote excellence in design and advertising. Its main offices are in Spitalfields in London. I ...

and One Show Pencils, to Cannes Gold Lions and Clio Awards. He has worked with agencies such as

, Carmichael Lynch,

DDB Worldwide DDB Worldwide Communications Group LLC, known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies. The international advertising networks ...

, Cutwater, Droga5, 72&Sunny, Mother, Adam&Eve, Ground Zero and

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (also known as GSP) is an advertising agency based in San Francisco. History The agency was founded on April 15, 1983 as Goodby, Berlin & Silverstein by Jeff Goodby, Andy Berlin and Rich Silverstein. Andy Berlin lef ...

. Clay later launched an animated campaign for MTV called "Puberty," which he also wrote, designed and directed. In addition to

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

, Clay has directed commercial films for Ray-Ban, Bud Light, Subaru, Facebook, Uber, Amazon, ESPN, Sonic, Axe, Slim Jim, Vonage, Hyundai, Liquid Plumber, Kraft, Xbox and Snickers. His Bud Light "Dude" campaign has had over 100 million views Clay's television directing credits include Fred: The Movie and Blue Mountain State. He has created short films such as the Emmy-nominated "The Christmas Tree," "Dad's New Girlfriend" and "Happy Father's Gay." The latter two were co-created with

Gemini Award The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in the United States ...

nominee, Jenna Wright. Clay has written and produced two pilots for F/X and one for Adult Swim. He currently resides in New York City and Los Angeles.

''Fred: The Movie''

In 2010 Weiner’s first feature, '' Fred: The Movie'', was released by

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

. ''Fred'' is the first Hollywood feature to star a YouTube character,

Fred Figglehorn Fred Figglehorn (stylized as FЯED) was the central character in an Internet video series created by then-teenager Lucas Cruikshank in 2006. It yielded other spin-off series and a relationship with Nickelodeon, including three movies and a telev ...

. The character was created by

Lucas Cruikshank Lucas Alan Cruikshank (born August 29, 1993) is an American YouTuber and actor who created the character Fred Figglehorn and the associated ''Fred'' series for his channel on the video hosting service, video-hosting website YouTube in late 2006. ...

and the screenplay was written by

David A. Goodman David A. Goodman (born December 13, 1962) is an American writer, producer, and president of the Writers Guild of America West. He has been a writer for several television series, such as ''The Golden Girls'', his first job; ''Futurama'', where he ...

, head writer of ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...

''. The film went on to be the highest watched TV movie of the year with a debut of 7.6 million views. It opened in the No. 8 spot, taking in £257,133 in the first week, despite being shown in over 243 cinemas.

Photography book

Weiner's photography book, TRY-ONs, was published in 2010. The book chronicles Weiner's exploration of identity as he personifies an eccentric array of real and imaginary characters. Designer and stylist Jenna Wright helped transform Clay into over 140 different people. The book won the 2011

Award for Photography.Dandad.org
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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weiner, Clay Living people American television directors American artists Jewish American writers Columbia College (New York) alumni 1975 births Wieden+Kennedy people Writers from Shaker Heights, Ohio American male writers Film directors from Ohio Film producers from Ohio 21st-century American Jews