Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, Brett Weitz essentially grew up in the entertainment business. His father is a prolific film and television producer who cultivated Brett’s interest in the industry at an early age. Weitz spent his summer vacations in college working as a production assistant on the sets of his father's TV movies. Ever since he can remember, Brett wanted to be a development executive and now he's doing precisely that at TNT.
After he graduated from college, he took a job in the mailroom at United Talent Agency. From there, he went on to assist the Senior VP of Comedy Series at Columbia Tristar Television. After becoming an executive he and a few others from Columbia Tristar then defected to start the Artists Television Group with Michael Ovitz. This group went on to become the number one studio of that year. After quite some time at ATG, Brett was persuaded to become a manager at Artists Management Group, where he began representing television writers and directors.
In August 2001, Weitz began working as a director of drama development at Columbia TriStar Television under department head Jennifer Nicholson Salke where they developed the WB’s “Everwood” and CBS’ “Hack”. He was settling into the job when a year later the pair migrated to 20th Century Fox Television, where Salke continued to run the drama department. The four-member team was divided into two development groups, and Weitz was paired with Jane Francis and proceeded to develop Fox’s long running program, “Prison Break”, and critically acclaimed “Wonderfalls”. When in spring 2004 TCFTV launched its lower-budget division Fox 21 and tapped Francis to run it, she invited her teammate Weitz to come along as her No. 2.
In its first three years of operation, Fox 21 developed such series as reality hit "Beauty and the Geek," drama "Saved" and comedy “FreeRide." The model had been so successful, other studios such as Paramount and Warner Bros. have followed suit, committing resources to the development of lower-budget shows. Before exiting his post at Fox 21, Brett also developed FX’s “Sons of Anarchy”.
Beyond his demanding executive role of finding ways to create low deficiting shows, Brett has also took on the challenge of finding alternative forms of development. Brett spear-headed these efforts by working with the film festival Slamdance and sponsored the original teleplay portion for undiscovered talent. He also worked with young and seasoned feature writers for cross-over opportunities for cable and broadcast television. In addition, Brett worked on webisode ideas for various News Corp portals, such as HULU and MySpaceTV, and other new media platforms for online opportunities.
During his tenure at Fox21, Weitz developed “Saved” for TNT. Because of the great working experience the quickly growing network approached him to spearhead their scripted division. In June of 2008, Brett joined TNT as the Vice President of Drama Development. Last fall the team successfully launched Jada Pinkett Smith’s “HAWHTORNE”, Jerry Bruckheimer’s crime drama “DARK BLUE”, and Ray Romano’s critically acclaimed “MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE”. This summer TNT will air two new series in Angie Harmon’s “RIZZOLI & ISLES” and Jason Lee’s “MEMPHIS BEAT”.
In 2006 Brett was recognized by the entertainment industry and the Hollywood Reporter as one of “35 Executives under 35 To Watch”. Lastly, aside from television, Weitz's passions include wine, fishing and most importantly celebrating life with his beautiful bride Farrah.
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