Rob Weiss | |
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Born | Baldwin, Nassau County, New York |
Occupation | Television producer, film producer, screenwriter, actor, film director |
Years active | 1993-present |
Rob Weiss is an American television and film producer, screenwriter, actor, and director. His break came in 1993 when he wrote and directed the 1993 film Amongst Friends. The film was well received at film festivals and scored Weiss a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
Weiss was born in Baldwin, Nassau County, New York. He attended the Parsons School of Design, studying fashion and film, but never graduated. Unemployed, he ended up living with his father in Lawrence in the Five Towns.[1] He has attended both film and design school and worked as a promoter on Long Island, in New York City.[2]
Weiss attended Woodmere Academy with Doug Ellin, creator of the HBO series Entourage, and now writes for the show. He wrote (or co-wrote) episodes including Aquamansion, The Bat Mitzvah and The Sundance Kids.
In an Aug. 2007 New York Observer interview with Ellin, he confirms that Weiss was the basis for the character of Billy Walsh (played by Rhys Coiro), a perfectionist filmmaker who is a recurring character on the series. Ellin even asked Weiss if he’d play “Walsh,” but Weiss declined. Instead, the role went to Rhys Coiro, to whom Weiss bears little outward resemblance.
Weiss is currently an executive producer of the HBO comedy-drama, How to Make It in America.[3]
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Weiss was engaged to Charmed actress Shannen Doherty. They met in 1994; announced engagement December 1995; reportedly separated April 1996",[4] around the time she was filming the movie Mallrats, and was claimed by the film's director, Kevin Smith, to be a disruptive long distance presence. Smith has theorized that this may be the reason for three separate jabs at him on Entourage, coming in the second, third, and fifth seasons respectively.[5] They reconciled and re-affirmed engagement February 1997; separated in 1998.
The following were episodes written or co-written by Weiss: