Dan Mathews (born October 24, 1964) is the senior vice president of

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; , stylized as PeTA) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. PETA reports that PETA entities have ...

. He is known for creating PETA's most newsworthy campaigns, including the "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" ads, as well as campaigns involving celebrities such as

Alec Baldwin Alexander Rae Baldwin III (born April 3, 1958) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. In his early career, Baldwin played both leading and supporting roles in a variety of films such as Tim Burton's ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), Mike Nichol ...

Pamela Anderson Pamela Denise Anderson (born July 1, 1967) is a Canadian-American actress and model. She is best known for her glamour modeling work in ''Playboy'' magazine and for her appearances on the television series ''Baywatch'' (1992–1997). Anders ...

Pink Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...

, and

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

. He has been profiled by the NY Times, USA Today, and Wall St. Journal and has lectured on animal rights and veganism at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Oxford and Cambridge. Mathews is best known for heading PETA's successful fashion campaigns, having persuaded designers like Michael Kors and Calvin Klein to stop using fur, and working with Tim Gunn to promote animal-free materials at Fashion Week events and through programs at the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). In 2020, Mathews convinced Tommy Hilfiger to ban exotic animal skins after reports showed that the wild animal trade posed risks to spawning zoonotic diseases like COVID-19. In 2000, Mathews was named by gay lifestyle magazine ''

Genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

'' as one of the most influential people of the new millennium, and in 2007, Mathews was ranked 37th in ''Out'' magazine's "50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America".Oxfield, Jesse, Idov, Michael (March 4, 2007)
'Out' Ranks the Top 50 Gays; Anderson Is No. 2
, ''New York Magazine''. Retrieved June 28, 2007. Mathews has written two acclaimed memoirs published by Atria/

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

. ''Committed: A Rabble-Rouser's Memoir'' was published in the US and Australia in 2007, and in the UK, Italy, Germany and France over the following decade. "Committed is a bold, offbeat globe-trotting memoir that shows how the most ridiculed punching bag in high school became an internationally renowned crusader for the most downtrodden individuals of all - animals.". ''Like Crazy: Life with my Mother and her Invisible Friends'' was published in 2020. In this book, Mathews writes about caring for his clever, schizophrenic mother in her last years. In a starred review,

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

wrote "Mathews conveys potentially heavy and gut-wrenching family crises with page-turning style and heaps of wit." In 2021, Jeopardy host and neurologist

Mayim Bialik Mayim Chaya Bialik ( ; born December 12, 1975) is an American actress, game show host, and author. From 1991 to 1995, she played the title character of the NBC sitcom ''Blossom (TV series), Blossom''. From 2010 to 2019, she played neuroscientist ...

featured Mathews on her mental health podcast Bialik's Breakdown to launch the paperback edition of "Like Crazy".

Bibliography

* ''Committed: A Rabble-Rouser's Memoir'', 2007 * ''Like Crazy: Life with my Mother and her Invisible Friends'', 2020

References

External links

Dan Mathews
in conversation with Richard Fidler (audio available)
MikeyPod
podcast interview with Dan Matthews. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mathews, Dan 1964 births 21st-century LGBT people American animal rights activists American University alumni American veganism activists LGBT people from California Living people People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals personnel

See also

Bibliography

References

External links