Matt Wickline

Matt Wickline
Born	(1962-04-28) April 28, 1962 Mentor, Ohio, U.S.
🎓 Alma mater	Ohio University
💼 Occupation	Creator showrunner director producer writer
📆 Years active	1983–present
👩 Spouse(s)	Marcy Hardart (m. 1996)
👶 Children	3, including Jane

Matthew "Matt" John Wickline (born April 28, 1962) is an Emmy Award-winning American television writer, producer, director, and actor best known for being a longtime member of the writing staff for Late Night With David Letterman and writing for In Living Color, Martin, The Jamie Foxx Show, and co-creating The Hughleys and Frank TV.

Early life

Matt Wickline grew up in Willowick, Ohio as one of four brothers and the son of William and Elva Wickline. William was the President of the US division of the television antenna company Kathrein. Matt Wickline attended Eastlake North High School and Ohio University.

Career

After college, he interned at Late Night with David Letterman and started submitting jokes to David Letterman at the suggestion of his boss. When several of the show's writers left in 1983 to write for The New Show, Wickline joined Late Night's writing staff, serving as a member for what critics would call the program's "creative peak." He stayed in his position for seven years, occasionally acting in bit parts on the show. Although he didn't create the show's famous Top Ten List segment, Wickline did write the first installment. Wickline quickly became writing partners and best friends with Chris Elliott, another staff member who was promoted to writer in 1983 and one of the only non-Harvard alum writers on the show at the time. Wickline and Elliott co-wrote all of Elliott's character bits on the show, including his series of "Guy" characters, The Guy Under The Seats, The Fugitive Guy, The Panicky Guy, The Conspiracy Guy, and The Regulator Guy.

Wickline and Elliott pitched Late Night's first theme show, an Emmy-winning hour-long interactive episode called "The Custom-Made Show , leading the program to do a series of ambitious experimental one-off episodes. Wickline pitched two notable theme shows that were developed but never made it to air: an episode entirely in Claymation that the network deemed too expensive and the first talk show filmed underwater, which Letterman canceled due to neck pain after a run-through with a scuba diver in a pool in New Jersey. While at Late Night, Wickline, Elliott, and fellow writer Sandy Frank worked on nights and weekends to write Elliott's critically-acclaimed Cinemax Comedy Experiment TV specials FDR: A One-Man Show and Action Family together, with Wickline making his directorial debut on the former. While at the show, Wickline and Elliott had a falling-out and ceased working together, with Wickline frustrated with Elliott's lust for stardom. Elliott switched to collaborating with another writer, Adam Resnick, on his character bits on the show and subsequent projects.

Wickline departed Late Night in 1990, amidst a major turnover in the show's writing roster, to join the original staff of In Living Color. Along with longtime Late Night writer Joe Toplyn, he joined In Living Color following its pilot episode along with At the show, Wickline reunited with Sandy Frank, and the two of them co-created Damon Wayans's iconic character Homey D. Clown, based on Paul Mooney's behavior in the writer's room. Homey D. Clown was one of the series' most famous characters, and even spawned his own video game. He joined Martin Lawrence's Fox sitcom Martin as a writer and co-executive producer, hired by his In Living Color collaborator, Martin creator John Bowman. In 1995, Wickline and Frank co-created the short-lived Comedy Central medical drama spoof The Clinic, in which they cast Adam West as the lead after being fans of the cult classic pilot Lookwell. Wickline then co-created The Show, a sitcom focused on the only white writer on a black TV sketch show and based on Wickline and co-creator John Bowman's time at In Living Color and Martin. After the demise of those series, he wrote for The Jamie Foxx Show for a season.

In 1998, Wickline and D.L. Hughley co-created the sitcom The Hughleys as a starring vehicle for the comedian. The series ran for four seasons and 89 episodes on ABC and UPN. Next, Wickline developed sitcoms that didn't make it to air at NBC and The WB centered on standups Joe Matarese and Cedric the Entertainer before reuniting with frequent collaborator John Bowman to co-create two TV sketch shows that did make it to air alongside their comedian-stars: Cedric the Entertainer Presents with Cedric the Entertainer and Frank TV with Frank Caliendo.

Filmography

Year	Title	Creator	Director	Showrunner	Writer	Executive Producer	Notes
1983-1990	Late Night with David Letterman	No	No	No	Yes	No
1987	Action Family	No	No	No	Yes	No	TV special; Co-written with Chris Elliott and Sandy Frank
	FDR: A One-Man Show	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	TV special; Co-written with Chris Elliott and Sandy Frank
1990-1993	In Living Color	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
1991	Good Sports	No	No	No	Yes	No
1993	Homey D. Clown	No	No	No	Character Homey D. Clown created by	No	Video game
1993-1995	Martin	No	No	No	Yes	Co-executive producer
1995	The Clinic	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-created with Sandy Frank and Mark Drop
1996	The Show	Developer	No	Yes	Yes	Co-executive producer	Co-created with John Bowman
1996-1997	The Jamie Foxx Show	No	No	Yes	No	No
1998	Blasto	No	No	Yes	No	No	Video game
1998-2002	The Hughleys	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-created with D.L. Hughley
2001	Cedric the Coach	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	TV pilot; Co-created with John Bowman
2002-03	Cedric the Entertainer Presents	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-created with Cedric the Entertainer and John Bowman
2005	Barbershop	No	Yes	No	No	Co-executive producer
2007-2008	Frank TV	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-created with Frank Caliendo and John Bowman
2010-2013	Pair of Kings	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
2013	The Garcias Have Landed	No	Yes	No	No	No	TV pilot

Personal life

On February 17, 1996, Wickline married Marcy Hardart, whom he met when he was writing at Late Night and she was Lorne Michaels's assistant at Saturday Night Live. Hardart switched from entertainment to a career as a pediatrician. They have three children together, including SNL cast member Jane Wickline.

Awards

As a member of Late Night's writing staff, Wickline won four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program in 1984, 1985, 1986, and 1987. He was nominated for an additional seven Emmys for his work on Late Night and In Living Color.

External links

• Matt Wickline on IMDb

Template:EmmyAward ComedyVarietyMusicWriting 1980s

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