Brett Weitz

Brett Weitz is Vice President of Drama Development 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. He and a few others from Columbia Tristar then defected to start the Artists Television Group with Michael Ovitz that became the No.1 studio of that year. After working as a development executive at ATG, Brett was persuaded to become a manager at Artists Management Group, where he began representing television writers and directors.

In 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 the short-lived 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, the drama Saved and the comedy FreeRide. The model has been so successful, other studios such as Paramount and Warner Bros. have followed suit, committing resources to the development of lower-budget shows. While at Fox 21 Brett also developed FX's Sons of Anarchy and a pilot for Lifetime called Mistresses that most recently shot in Vancouver.

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 NewSite and MySpaceTV, and other new media platforms for online opportunities.

During his tenure at Fox21, Weitz developed Saved for TNT. In June of this past year, Brett joined TNT as the Vice President of Drama Development, continuing to usher in critically acclaimed dramas alongside the team that created The Closer, Saving Grace and Raising the Bar.
Brett also serves as an adjunct Professor at Montana State University in Bozeman. Lastly, aside from television, Weitz's passions are producing wine, hunting, fishing and most importantly celebrating life with his beautiful bride Farrah.

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