D. B. Weiss

D. B. Weiss
Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Name	Daniel Brett Weiss
Caption	Weiss in 2013
Birth date	23 April 1971
Birth place	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Screenwriter, Television producer, Novelist, Film director
Years active	1990s–present
Notable works	A Song of Ice and Fire adaptation, Lucky 7 (unrealized), The New Yorker contributions
Spouse	Caitlin Paley

D. B. Weiss is an American screenwriter, television producer, and novelist best known for co-creating and showrunning the HBO series Game of Thrones, the television adaptation of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. He has worked extensively in television and film development, collaborated with prominent figures in contemporary Hollywood, and published fiction and journalistic work in major outlets including The New Yorker and The Paris Review. Weiss's career spans adaptations, original projects, and partnerships with producers, directors, and studios across the United States and United Kingdom entertainment industries.

Early life and education

Weiss was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in a milieu shaped by Midwestern cultural institutions such as Northwestern University and the University of Chicago that anchor the region's intellectual life. He attended St. Louis University High School before enrolling at Dartmouth College, where he studied English literature and engaged with campus publications and theatrical groups, alongside peers who later joined the film and television sectors. After Dartmouth, Weiss was awarded a Marshall Scholarship to pursue graduate studies at Trinity College, Oxford, earning a degree in English. He later earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, training alongside writers linked to institutions such as Harvard University and Columbia University.

Career

Weiss began his career writing fiction and criticism for outlets including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Harper's Magazine, and publishing short fiction that placed him among alumni of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and practitioners featured by NPR and The Atlantic. Transitioning to screenwriting, he sold scripts to Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, and Paramount Pictures, and worked in development rooms with producers from Legendary Entertainment and Imagine Entertainment. Weiss partnered with David Benioff in a long-term deal that placed them at the center of multiple adaptations and original pilots for networks such as HBO, streaming services like Netflix, and studios including 20th Century Fox and Amazon Studios. His career includes unproduced features, television pilots, and stage projects connected to figures from Steven Spielberg to Ridley Scott.

Game of Thrones

Weiss co-developed the HBO series Game of Thrones with screenwriter David Benioff, adapting the epic fantasical saga A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. As co-showrunners, Weiss and Benioff guided the series across eight seasons, collaborating with directors such as Alan Taylor, Michelle MacLaren, David Nutter, and Miguel Sapochnik, and with lead cast members including Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. The show premiered on HBO and drew production support from companies including Kilter Films and Bighead Littlehead, with visual effects vendors like Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital contributing to large-scale episodes such as "The Battle of the Bastards". Weiss and Benioff navigated adaptation challenges from George R. R. Martin's unfinished source material, integrating elements from later volumes and original conclusions while overseeing writing rooms, casting, and post-production. The series generated global cultural impact, influencing networks like BBC, provoking critical debate among outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, and Variety, and spawning spinoff development at HBO Max.

Other projects and collaborations

Outside Game of Thrones, Weiss and Benioff pursued film and television projects including an announced adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation (later developed by David S. Goyer and Graham Yost), a proposed feature with Paramount Pictures based on Star Wars-era ideas, and a multi-year overall deal with Netflix producing titles with directors such as Joss Whedon and Rian Johnson. Weiss collaborated with Marvel Studios alumni and producers across projects involving genre properties, and he co-wrote scripts with writers from Lost, The Walking Dead, and Battlestar Galactica lineages. He directed and developed original pilots and feature treatments, worked with actors represented by agencies like CAA and WME, and participated in industry panels at SXSW and the Tribeca Film Festival.

Personal life

Weiss lives in the United States and has been public about aspects of his private life in interviews with magazines such as GQ and Esquire. He is married to Caitlin Paley, a figure connected to the publishing and entertainment communities, and they have children. Weiss's social and professional circles include collaborators from HBO, alumni of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and contemporaries in the screenwriting and publishing worlds.

Awards and recognition

As co-creator and showrunner of Game of Thrones, Weiss shared multiple awards with David Benioff and production teams, including Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series and nominations from the Golden Globe Awards and the BAFTA Television Awards. Individual recognition includes guild nominations from the Writers Guild of America and Producers Guild of America, as well as industry honors from Peabody Awards stakeholders and critics' circles such as the Television Critics Association and AFI. The global popularity of the series also resulted in honors from fan communities, festival retrospectives at San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con, and academic study within departments at UCLA, NYU, and Oxford University.

Category:American screenwriters Category:American television producers Category:Living people