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David Benioff

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David Benioff
Born
David Benioff Friedman

(1970-09-25) September 25, 1970 (age 54)
New York City, New York, U.S.
EducationDartmouth College (BA)
Trinity College Dublin
University of California, Irvine (MFA)
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, television producer, television writer, director, novelist
Years active2002–present
Spouse
​
(m. 2006)​
Children3
Parents

David Benioff Friedman (/ˈbɛniɒf/ /ˈfriːdmən/; born September 25, 1970), better known by his pen name David Benioff,[1][2] is an American screenwriter and television producer, writer, and director. Along with his collaborator D. B. Weiss, he is best-known as co-creator, showrunner, and writer of Game of Thrones (2011–2019), the HBO adaptation of George R. R. Martin's series of books A Song of Ice and Fire. He is also known for writing Troy (2004) and co-writing X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009).

Early life

Benioff was born David Friedman in New York City, to a Jewish family who emigrated from Austria, Romania, Germany, Poland and Russia.[3][4] He is the son of Barbara (Benioff) and Stephen Friedman, who is a former head of Goldman Sachs.[5] He is a distant cousin of Salesforce founder Marc Benioff.[6] He is the youngest of three children; his sisters are Suzy and Caroline.[7] and grew up in Manhattan, first in Peter Cooper Village, then on 86th Street where he spent most of his childhood, before eventually moving near the U.N. headquarters when he was 16.[8]

Benioff is an alumnus of The Collegiate School and of Dartmouth College. While at Dartmouth he was a member of Phi Delta Alpha Fraternity and the Sphinx Senior Society. After graduating in 1992, he worked in a number of jobs: for a time as a club bouncer in San Francisco, and as a high school English teacher at Poly Prep in Brooklyn, New York City for two years, where he served as the school's wrestling coach.[8][9]

Benioff became interested in pursuing an academic career and went to Trinity College Dublin in 1995, for a one-year program to study Irish literature. While in Dublin he met D. B. Weiss, who would later become his collaborator.[3] Benioff wrote a thesis on Samuel Beckett while at Trinity College, but decided against a career in academia after writing the thesis.[8] He worked as a radio DJ in Moose, Wyoming for a year—mostly as a side job, which he mainly accepted to take a year in the countryside at a writer's retreat.[10] He then applied to join the Creative Writing Program at the University of California, Irvine after reading The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon (an alumnus there),[11] and received a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing there in 1999.[12]

In 2001, People magazine included Benioff on its list of America's Top 50 Most Eligible Bachelors.[13]

As an adult, he began using the pen name "David Benioff" when his first novel was published in 2001. "Benioff" is actually his middle name, and is itself his mother's maiden name.[14] He explained that he did this to avoid confusion with other writers named David Friedman.[6][15]

Career

Writing career

Benioff spent two years writing his first published novel The 25th Hour,[16][17] originally titled Fireman Down, and completed the book as his thesis for his master's degree at Irvine.[18][19] He was asked to adapt the book into a screenplay after Tobey Maguire read a preliminary trade copy and became interested in making a film of the book.[12] The film adaptation, titled 25th Hour and starring Edward Norton, was directed by Spike Lee.[19][20] Benioff then wrote a collection of short stories titled When the Nines Roll Over (And Other Stories) (2004).[21]

He drafted a screenplay of the mythological epic Troy (2004), for which Warner Bros. pictures paid him $2.5 million.[22] He also wrote the script for the psychological thriller Stay (2005), which was directed by Marc Forster, and stars Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts. His screenplay for The Kite Runner (2007), adapted from the novel of the same name, marked his second collaboration with director Marc Forster.

Benioff was hired in 2004 to write the screenplay for the X-Men spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). He based his script on Barry Windsor-Smith's "Weapon X" story, Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's 1982 limited series on the character,[23][24] as well as the 2001 limited series Origin.[25] Hugh Jackman collaborated on the script, which he wanted to be more of a character piece compared with the previous X-Men films.[26] Skip Woods was later hired by Fox to revise and rewrite Benioff's script.[27] Benioff had aimed for a "darker and a bit more brutal" story, writing it with an R rating in mind, although he acknowledged the film's final tone would rest with the producers and director.[23]

In 2006, Benioff became interested in adapting George R.R. Martin's novel series, A Song of Ice and Fire, and began working with D. B. Weiss on a proposed television series, Game of Thrones.[28] The pilot, "Winter Is Coming", was put into development by HBO in 2007 and the series greenlit in 2010. Benioff and Weiss acted as the executive producers, showrunners, and writers of the show, which began airing on HBO in 2011. Benioff and Weiss had previously worked together on a script for a horror film titled The Headmaster, but it was never made.[8]

In October 2007, Universal Pictures hired Benioff to write an adapted screenplay of the Charles R. Cross biography of Kurt Cobain, but the screenplay was not used.[29] In 2008, Benioff's second novel, City of Thieves, was published.

On April 10, 2014, Benioff announced he and Weiss had taken on their first feature film project to write, produce, and direct Dirty White Boys, a novel by the Pulitzer prize-winning author Stephen Hunter.[30][31] On July 19, 2017, Benioff announced that he and Weiss would produce another HBO series, titled Confederate, after the final season of Game of Thrones. Benioff and Weiss 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."[32] The announcement of Confederate was met with public animosity, and as of August 2019 (when Benioff and Weiss' deal with Netflix deal was announced) would not be moving forward.[33]

On February 6, 2018, Disney announced that both Benioff and Weiss would write and produce a new series of Star Wars films after the final season of Game of Thrones is completed in 2019.[34]

Towards the end of the final season of Game of Thrones, a petition to HBO was started on Change.org. It described showrunners Benioff and Weiss as "woefully incompetent writers", and thus demanded "competent writers" to remake the eighth season of Game of Thrones in a manner "that makes sense".[35] The petition eventually amassed over 1.5 million signatures.[36] Richard Roeper, writing for the Chicago Sun Times, described that the backlash to the eighth season was so great that in his 25+ years of reviewing movies and television, he doubts that he has "ever seen the level of fan (and to a lesser degree, critical) vitriol leveled at" Game of Thrones.[37]

In early August 2019, Benioff and Weiss negotiated an exclusive multi-year film and television deal with Netflix worth US$200 million.[38][39] Due to their commitments to Netflix, Benioff and Weiss exited their contract to produce Star Wars films for Disney and Lucasfilm.[40][41][42]

Directing career

Benioff and Weiss together directed two episodes of Game of Thrones, but used a coin-flip to decide who would get the credit on the show. Benioff was given the credit for season 3 episode 3, "Walk of Punishment", while Weiss was credited with season 4 episode 1, "Two Swords".[8] Benioff and Weiss co-directed the series finale.[43]

Benioff and Weiss's first project on Netflix were as directors of the stand-up comedy special Leslie Jones: Time Machine.[44]

Personal life

On September 30, 2006, Benioff married actress Amanda Peet in New York City.[45] Together they have three children.[46] The family lives in Manhattan and Beverly Hills.

Bibliography

Author

Title Year Type Note
The 25th Hour 2001 Novel Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Plume; Reissue edition (January 29, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN 0-452-28295-0
When the Nines Roll Over (and Other Stories) 2004 Short Story Collection Hardcover: 223 pages
Publisher: Viking Books (August 19, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN 0-670-03339-1
City of Thieves 2008 Novel Hardcover: 281 pages
Publisher: Viking Books (May 15, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN 0-670-01870-8

Filmography

Film

Year Title Writer Producer Director Notes
2002 25th Hour Yes No Spike Lee Nominated—Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay (2002)
2004 Troy Yes No Wolfgang Petersen
2005 Stay Yes No Marc Forster
When the Nines Roll Over Yes Yes Himself Short film based on a story from When the Nines Roll Over
2007 The Kite Runner Yes No Marc Forster Christopher Award for Best Feature Film (2007)
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film (2008)
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (2008)
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (2007)
2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine Yes No Gavin Hood Co-wrote with Skip Woods
Brothers Yes No Jim Sheridan
2019 Gemini Man Yes No Ang Lee Co-wrote with Billy Ray and Darren Lemke
TBA Lovecraft No Yes TBA Co-produce with D.B. Weiss

Television

Year Title Writer Executive Producer Director Notes
2011–2019 Game of Thrones Yes Yes Yes Co-creator
Directed and wrote episode: "Walk of Punishment"
Directed and wrote episode (with D. B. Weiss):"The Iron Throne"
Wrote: 45 episodes
Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form (2012)[47]
Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form (2013-2014)[48][49]
Producers Guild of America Award for Best Episodic Drama (2015)[50]
Golden Nymph Awards for Outstanding International Producer (2012)[51]
Nominated—Producers Guild of America Award for Best Episodic Drama (2011-2014, 2016, 2018)[52][53][54][55][56][57]
Nominated—BAFTA for Best International Programme (2013)[58]
Nominated—Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form (2015, 2017)[59][60]
Nominated—USC Scripter Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (2016-2017)[61][62]
Nominated—Humanitas Prize for 60 Minute Network or Syndicated Television (2017)[63]
2013 It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Yes No No Wrote episode: "Flowers for Charlie"
Bored Lifeguard #1 (cameo in "The Gang Goes to a Water Park")
2020 Leslie Jones: Time Machine No No Yes Co-direct with D.B. Weiss

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Recipient Result
2011 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
2012 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards New Series Game of Thrones Nominated
2013 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
2014 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
2015 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Drama Series Game of Thrones Won
Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Game of Thrones Won
Writers Guild of America Awards Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
2016 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Drama Series Game of Thrones Won
Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Game of Thrones Won
Writers Guild of America Awards Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards Episodic Drama Game of Thrones Nominated
2017 Writers Guild of America Awards Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards Episodic Drama Game of Thrones Nominated
2018 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Drama Series Game of Thrones Won
Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated
2019 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Drama Series Game of Thrones Won
Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Game of Thrones Nominated

See also

References

  1. ^ "US Copyright Office: "A game of thrones / by David Benioff Friedman". US Copyright Office. July 30, 2020.
  2. ^ "Amanda Peet Gives Birth to Baby Boy, Welcomes Third Child With David Benioff Friedman: See His Name!". US Weekly. December 7, 2014.
  3. ^ a b Kamin, Debra (May 20, 2014). "The Jewish legacy behind 'Game of Thrones'". The Times of Israel. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  4. ^ Bloom, Nate (February 2, 2012). "Jewish Stars: genealogy and fairy tales". Cleveland Jewish News.
  5. ^ "Deaths: Benioff, Florence". The New York Times. August 28, 2000. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  6. ^ a b Bort, Julie (April 12, 2015). "How these famous Benioffs are related". Business Insider. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  7. ^ cityfile. "Stephen Friedman". gawker.com. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
  8. ^ a b c d e "The Surprising Connection Between Game of Thrones and Monty Python". Vanity Fair. March 24, 2014.
  9. ^ "Novelist and Hollywood Personality David Benioff: He's a Former English Teacher". Chalkboard Champions. December 18, 2013.
  10. ^ Ellis, James (October 27, 2009). "David Benioff". Metro.
  11. ^ Gottlieb, Jeff (September 2, 2002). "Program Gives Writers a Professional Polish". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 30, 2016. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
  12. ^ a b Katie Kilkenny (May 12, 2011). "Benioff '92 embraces storytelling in 'surreal' career". The Dartmouth. Archived from the original on August 16, 2016. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
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  14. ^ "US Copyright Office: "A game of thrones / by David Benioff Friedman". US Copyright Office. July 30, 2020. - All of his copyright filings through the 2010's continue to list "David Benioff Friedman" as his full name, which he never legally changed
  15. ^ Alden, William (March 19, 2014). "Former Goldman Chief Walks Among Warriors and Dragons". DealBook.
  16. ^ Jalon, Allan M. (May 13, 2001). "How to Write a Powerful First Novel in a Bland Age". Los Angeles Times.
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  18. ^ "Crowning achievement". UCI News. August 12, 2014.
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  21. ^ Stephenson, Anne (August 30, 2004). "Screenwriter's short stories shine". USA TODAY.
  22. ^ "Novelist and Hollywood Personality David Benioff: He's a Former English Teacher". Chalkboard Champions. December 18, 2013. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  23. ^ a b Mishler, James (June 2005). "David Benioff, Screenwriter of Wolverine: He's One of Us". Comics Buyer's Guide: 18–20.
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  29. ^ Rosenberg, Adam (April 5, 2010). "Kurt Cobain Biopic 'In The Works,' 16 Years After His Death". MTV News. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  30. ^ Fleming, Mike (April 10, 2014). "'Game Of Thrones' David Benioff & D.B. Weiss Plan 'Dirty White Boys' As First Movie". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
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    1. "Game of Thrones petition: 500,000 demand series eight remake". BBC News. May 16, 2019. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
    2. McCarthy, Tyler (May 16, 2019). "'Game of Thrones' fans are petitioning HBO to remake the last season 'with competent writers'". Fox News. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
    3. "'This was abysmal': Nearly 1 million disgruntled 'Game of Thrones' fans demand a final season remake". The Washington Post. May 17, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
    4. Fieldstadt, Elisha (May 16, 2019). "Nearly 800,000 'Game of Thrones' fans sign petition for remake of season 8". NBC News. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
    5. Jancelewicz, Chris (May 15, 2019). "More than 1 million upset 'Game of Thrones' fans sign petition to remake Season 8". Global News. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
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  42. ^ Byford, Sam (October 29, 2019). "Game of Thrones showrunners quit Star Wars trilogy to work on Netflix projects". The Verge. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
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  44. ^ Bucksbaum, Sydney (December 19, 2019). "'Leslie Jones gets a Game of Thrones-themed trailer for Netflix special Time Machine". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  45. ^ Messer, Lesley; Herbst, Diane (September 30, 2006). "Amanda Peet Weds Screenwriter Beau". People. Retrieved April 9, 2011.
  46. ^ Saad, Nardine. "Amanda Peet, 'Game of Thrones' producer David Benioff welcome baby boy". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
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  48. ^ "2013 Hugo Award Winners". thehugoawards.com. World Science Fiction Society. September 1, 2013. Archived from the original on September 23, 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
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  50. ^ "'Big Short' takes home top prize at Producers Guild of America awards". Fox News. January 24, 2016. Archived from the original on April 6, 2016. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  51. ^ Leffler, Rebecca (June 14, 2012). "HBO's 'Game of Thrones,' 'Game Change' Win Top Prizes at Monte Carlo TV Festival". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on June 18, 2012. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
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  53. ^ Chitwood, Adam (November 28, 2012). "Homeland, Game of Thrones, Modern Family, and Louie Lead Television Nominations for 2013 Producers Guild Awards". Collider. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
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  63. ^ "'Game of Thrones,' 'Black-ish' Top Humanitas Prize Finalists". Variety. January 11, 2018. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
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