Biography
Screenwriter and director Paul Weitz, like his younger brother and creative partner Chris Weitz, came from a Hollywood background. Their mother was Academy Award-nominated actress Susan Kohner, father fashion designer John Weitz, grandfather famed talent agent Paul Kohner, grandmother Mexican actress Lupita Tovar, and uncle producer Pancho Kohner. Before achieving success in film, Weitz received some acclaim as a playwright, with "Mango Tea" produced by New York's Ensemble Studio Theater (EST) and performed off-Broadway featuring Marisa Tomei and Rob Morrow. Other plays of Weitz's produced by EST include "All for One" and "Captive," the latter leading to his first film credit. The lurid story of a couple who finds that taking a hostage serves as romantic inspiration was adapted by writer-director Karl Slovin into "Sex and the Other Man" (1995), starring Kari Wuhrer, Ron Eldard and Stanley Tucci. The brothers first gained notice when they co-wrote the screenplay for the computer animated feature "Antz" (1998), after which they introduced a new generation to the teen sex comedy with the "American Pie" (1999) franchise. Although Weitz only directed the first film, the brothers would go on to executive produce two sequels, "American Pie 2" (2001) and "American Wedding" (2003) before taking a more hands-off approach to the series. After co-writing the pilot episode of the remake series "Fantasy Island" (ABC 1998-99) and Eddie Murphy's hit sequel "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" (2000), Weitz co-created the short-lived sitcom "Off Centre" (WB 2000-01) starring Eddie Kaye Thomas. The following year, the brothers teamed with screenwriter Peter Hedges to adapt British novelist Nick Hornby's cult novel "About a Boy" (2002), which the brothers also co-directed. Weitz next tackled a solo project, serving as writer, director and producer of the serio-comic "In Good Company" (2004), starring Dennis Quaid as a successful middle-aged ad salesman who suddenly finds himself with a new boss half his age (Topher Grace) who also begins seeing his daughter (Scarlett Johansson). This was followed by the same triple-threat work on political satire "American Dreamz" (2006), which was unrelated to his previous franchise and fantasy "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" (2009). Weitz also served as producer on "The Golden Compass" (2007) and teen romantic comedy "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" (2008) and as director of Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro's comedy sequel "Little Fockers" (2010). Weitz's TV work during this period included producing Mike White's sitcom "Cracking Up" (Fox 2004), police drama "Lone Star" (Fox 2010) and musical drama "Mozart in the Jungle" (Amazon 2014- ), for which he also occasionally wrote and directed episodes. Weitz wrote and directed dark drama "Being Flynn" (2012), directed Tina Fey and Paul Rudd romantic comedy "Admission" (2013), and wrote and directed Lily Tomlin vehicle "Grandma" (2015). After a small role in White's "Chuck and Buck" (2000), Weitz resumed his acting career in films written and directed by longtime friend Jeff Baena, appearing in small roles in "Life After Beth" (2014), "Joshy" (2016) and "The Little Hours" (2017).
