Daniel Brett Weiss (; born April 23, 1971) is an American television writer, director, and producer. Along with his collaborator

David Benioff David Friedman (; born September 25, 1970), known professionally as David Benioff (), is an American writer, director and producer. Along with his collaborator D. B. Weiss, he is best known as co-creator and showrunner of '' Game of Thrones'' (2 ...

, he is best-known as co-creator of '' Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), the HBO adaptation of

George R. R. Martin George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948), also known as GRRM, is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and short story writer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels ''A Song ...

's series of books '' A Song of Ice and Fire.''

Early life

Weiss was born and raised in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. His family is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, with ancestral roots in Germany. He graduated from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

and earned a

Master of Philosophy The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil ...

in Irish literature from

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, where he wrote his thesis on

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

's ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...

'', "Understanding the (Net) Wake." He later earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative W ...

Career

Weiss worked as personal assistant on films such as ''

The Viking Sagas ''The Viking Sagas'' is a 1995 American film directed by Michael Chapman (cinematographer), Michael Chapman and starring Ralf Möller and Sven-Ole Thorsen. It is heavily inspired by the ''Njáls saga'', through it features an original plot. It wa ...

'' for

New Line Cinema New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after ...

. For a brief period, he also worked as a personal assistant for musician

Glenn Frey Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, guitarist and a founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don H ...

. Weiss went to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

in 1995 to study Anglo-Irish literature and met

, the screenwriter of ''

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...

''. Three years later, around 1998, they met again in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...

. Weiss and Benioff co-wrote a screenplay for a film titled ''The Headmaster'', but it was never made. In 2003, they were hired to collaborate on a new script of

Orson Scott Card Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the first and (as of 2022) only person to win both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for both ...

's book '' Ender's Game'', in consultation with the then-designated director

Wolfgang Petersen Wolfgang Petersen (14 March 1941 – 12 August 2022) was a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for the World War II submarine warfare film '' Das Boot'' (1981). His other films include '' The ...

. It was not used. Weiss's 2003 debut novel, ''

Lucky Wander Boy ''Lucky Wander Boy'' is the 2003 debut novel by D. B. Weiss. The book's official website describes the work as: "A novel of video game addiction, Hollywood serfdom, ill-fated romance and extremely misguided notions about Japan, Lucky Wander Boy m ...

'', is themed around video games. In 2006, he said he had written a second novel that "needs a second draft". The same year, Weiss completed a screenplay for a film adaptation of the video game series ''

Halo Halo, halos or haloes usually refer to: * Halo (optical phenomenon) * Halo (religious iconography), a ring of light around the image of a head HALO, halo, halos or haloes may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Video games * ''Halo'' (franch ...

'', based on a script by

Alex Garland Alexander Medawar Garland (born 26 May 1970) is an English writer and filmmaker. He rose to prominence as a novelist in the late 1990s with his novel '' The Beach'', which led some critics to call Garland a key voice of Generation X. He subsequ ...

, but director

Neill Blomkamp Neill Blomkamp (; born 17 September 1979) is a South African filmmaker. He employs a documentary-style, hand-held, cinéma vérité technique, blending naturalistic and photo-realistic computer-generated effects, and his films often deal wit ...

declared the project dead in late 2007. Weiss also worked on a script for a prequel to '' I Am Legend,'' but in May 2011, director

Francis Lawrence Francis Lawrence (born March 26, 1971) is an Austrian-born American filmmaker and producer. After establishing himself as a director of music videos and commercials, Lawrence made his feature-length directorial debut with the superhero thrille ...

said that he did not think the prequel would ever happen. Weiss collaborated with Benioff on the HBO television series '' Game of Thrones'', based on George R. R. Martin's book series ''A Song of Ice and Fire''. Benioff and Weiss also directed three episodes together. For the first two, they flipped a coin to decide who would get the credit on the show. Weiss received directing credit for " Two Swords",

Season 4 Season 4 may refer to: * "Season 4" (''30 Rock'' episode), an episode of ''30 Rock'' See also * * Season One (disambiguation) * Season 2 (disambiguation) Season 2 may refer to: * ''Season 2'' (Infinite album) * '' 2econd Season'' See also * ...

episode 1, while Benioff was credited for "

Walk of Punishment "Walk of Punishment" is the third episode of the third season of HBO's medieval fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones.'' The 23rd episode of the series overall, it was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and direc ...

Season 3 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In tempera ...

episode 3. Benioff and Weiss were both credited for co-directing the series finale, " The Iron Throne". On July 19, 2017, Weiss announced that he and Benioff were going to begin production on another HBO series, ''

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

'', after the final season of ''Game of Thrones''. Weiss and Benioff said, "We have discussed ''Confederate'' for years, originally as a concept for a feature film, but our experience on ''Thrones'' has convinced us that no one provides a bigger, better storytelling canvas than HBO." In January 2020, HBO President Casey Bloys confirmed that the project had been officially canceled. On February 6, 2018,

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

announced that Weiss and Benioff would write and produce a new series of '' Star Wars'' films after the last season of ''Game of Thrones'' ended in 2019. Toward the end of the last season, a petition to HBO was started on

Change.org Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...

. It described showrunners Benioff and Weiss as "woefully incompetent writers" and demanded "competent writers" to remake the eighth season of ''Game of Thrones'' in a manner "that makes sense". The petition eventually amassed over 1.5 million signatures. In the ''

Chicago Sun Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'',

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...

wrote that the backlash to the eighth season was so great that he doubted he had "ever seen the level of fan (and to a lesser degree, critical) vitriol leveled at" ''Game of Thrones''. In early 2019, Weiss and Benioff entered into an exclusive $200 million deal with

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

to produce several films and television shows exclusively for it. In late October 2019, it was reported that Weiss and Benioff had exited their deal with Disney due to their commitments to Netflix. Weiss and Benioff's first project on Netflix were as directors of Leslie Jones's stand-up comedy special ''Time Machine''. In September 2020, it was announced that Weiss, Benioff and

Alexander Woo Alexander Woo is an American writer and producer for television. Biography Screenwriting Alexander Woo is best known for writing several episodes of the HBO drama series ''True Blood''. In an interview, Woo describes the "True Blood" writing ro ...

would write and executive produce a Netflix series based on '' The Three-Body Problem'' trilogy in a four-part series.

Personal life

Weiss and his wife, Andrea Troyer, have two children.

Bibliography

Author

Filmography

Film Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, D.B. 1971 births 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American screenwriters Alumni of Trinity College Dublin American male novelists American male screenwriters American male television writers American people of German-Jewish descent American television directors American television writers Hugo Award-winning writers Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Jewish American screenwriters Living people Novelists from Illinois Primetime Emmy Award winners Screenwriters from Illinois Showrunners Television producers from Illinois Wesleyan University alumni Writers from Chicago