David Benioff

David Benioff
Benioff in 2016
Born	David Friedman (1970-09-25) September 25, 1970 New York City, New York
Alma mater	Dartmouth College The Collegiate School Trinity College Dublin University of California, Irvine
Occupation	Novelist, screenwriter, television producer, director
Spouse(s)	Amanda Peet (m. 2006)
Children	3
Parent(s)	Stephen Friedman

David Benioff (born David Friedman; September 25, 1970) is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and director. He is the co-creator and showrunner of the widely acclaimed award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones.

Early life

Benioff was born David Friedman in New York City, to a Jewish family.^[1] He is the son of Barbara (Benioff) and Stephen Friedman, who is a former head of Goldman Sachs.^[2] He is a distant cousin of Marc Benioff.^[3] As an adult, he uses the last name to Benioff, his mother's maiden name, to avoid confusion with other writers named David Friedman.^[4] He is the youngest of three children. He 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 sixteen.^[5]

He is an alumnus of The Collegiate School and of Dartmouth College. While at Dartmouth College, he was a member of Phi Delta Alpha Fraternity and the Sphinx Senior Society. After graduating in 1992, he worked for a time as a club bouncer in San Francisco, became a high school English teacher at Poly Prep in Brooklyn, New York City for two years, and served as the school's wrestling coach.^[5][6] 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, and while in Dublin he met D.B. Weiss, who would later become his collaborator.^[1] He wrote a thesis on Samuel Beckett while at Trinity College, but decided against a career in academia after writing the thesis.^[5] He worked as a radio DJ in Moose, Wyoming for a while.^[7] He then attended the University of California Irvine, where he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing in 1999.^[8]

Writing career

Benioff spent two years writing his first published novel The 25th Hour,^[9][10] originally titled Fireman Down, and completed the book as his thesis for his master's degree at Irvine.^[11][12] 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.^[8] It was filmed as 25th Hour, starring Edward Norton and directed by Spike Lee.^[7][12] He then wrote a collection of short stories titled When the Nines Roll Over (And Other Stories) in 2004.^[13]

Benioff drafted a screenplay of the mythological epic Troy (2004) for which Warner Bros pictures paid him $2.5 million.^[14] He also wrote the script for the psychological thriller Stay (2005), which was directed by Marc Forster and starred 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. He was hired in 2004 to write the screenplay for the X-Men spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), and worked on the script for three years.

In 2006, Benioff became interested in adapting the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series by George R.R. Martin and began working with D.B. Weiss on a proposed television series Game of Thrones.^[15] The pilot was put into development by HBO in 2007 and the series greenlit in 2010. They act as the executive producer, showrunner and writer 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.^[5]

In 2008, his second novel, City of Thieves was published. He has been working on an adapted screenplay of the Charles R. Cross biography of Kurt Cobain but as of 2010 the screenplay has not been used.^[16]

On April 10, 2014, Benioff announced he and D.B. Weiss had taken on their first feature film project to write, produce and direct Dirty White Boys, a novel by Pulitzer prize-winning author Stephen Hunter.^[17][18]

Personal life

On September 30, 2006, Benioff married actress Amanda Peet in New York City.^[19] Together they have three children: Frances "Frankie"^[20] Pen Friedman,^[21] born February 20, 2007;^[22] Molly June Friedman,^[21] born in 2010; and Henry Peet^[23] Friedman,^[21] born December 6, 2014.^[24] To avoid any confusion, Benioff's three children use the last name of Friedman,^[23] which is his given last name—he uses his mother's maiden name as his professional name.^[25] The family lives in Manhattan and Beverly Hills.

Books

The 25th Hour

• 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)

• Hardcover: 223 pages
• Publisher: Viking Books (August 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN 0-670-03339-1

City of Thieves

• Hardcover: 281 pages
• Publisher: Viking Books (May 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN 0-670-01870-8

Screenplays

• 25th Hour (2002)
• Troy (2004)
• Stay (2005)
• The Kite Runner (2007)
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
• Brothers (2009)
• Game of Thrones (2011–present, 39 episodes)
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2013, 1 episode)

In development

• Heavier Than Heaven (TBA)

Director

• Game of Thrones (season 3), episode 3 "Walk of Punishment" – Benioff and Weiss both directed a couple of episodes together, but used a coin-flip to decide who would get the credit on the show. Benioff was given the credit for this episode while Weiss was credited with "Two Swords" of season 4.^[5]

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to David Benioff.

• David Benioff at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by David Benioff at Open Library
  
• David Benioff at Authortrek.com
• Excerpt from City of Thieves