Joe Weisberg
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Joseph Weisberg is an American television writer, producer, novelist, and school teacher. Weisberg is best known as the creator and showrunner of the FX TV series ''
The Americans ''The Americans'' is an American period spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg that aired on the FX television network for six seasons from January 30, 2013, to May 30, 2018. Weisberg and Joel Fields also serve as showrunners a ...
''.


Career

A 1987 graduate of
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, Weisberg became a
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
officer three years after graduation, and after a short career with the Agency, Weisberg taught at The Summit School, a private
special education Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...
high school in
Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, New York until 2010 when he went on to pursue a career in television. One of his final projects at Summit School was helping students found the school newspaper, ''The Summit Sun''. Weisberg wrote episodes for TNT's alien invasion series '' Falling Skies'' and the
DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...
legal drama ''
Damages At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...
''. He then created ''
The Americans ''The Americans'' is an American period spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg that aired on the FX television network for six seasons from January 30, 2013, to May 30, 2018. Weisberg and Joel Fields also serve as showrunners a ...
'', an FX series centering on two KGB sleeper agents, who pose as American citizens in Washington, D.C. during the 1980s. The Americans was executive-produced by Weisberg and '' Justified'' creator
Graham Yost Graham John Yost (born September 5, 1959) is a Canadian film and television screenwriter. His best-known works are the films ''Speed'', '' Broken Arrow'', and '' Hard Rain'' and the TV series '' Justified''. Early life, family and education Yo ...
. In 2022, Weisberg co-created and showran the limited FX series '' The Patient''. Weisberg authored two novels: ''10th Grade'' and ''An Ordinary Spy''. ''An Ordinary Spy'' was nominated for the
Believer Book Award Believer Book Award is an American literary award presented yearly by '' The Believer'' magazine to novels and story collections, nonfiction books or essay collections, poetry collections, and, beginning in 2021 (awarding to books published in 2020) ...
. Weisberg is also the author of the non-fiction book ''Russia Upside Down: An Exit Strategy for the Second Cold War.''


Personal life

Weisberg grew up in a
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
, the son of civil rights attorney Bernard Weisberg and former Commissioner of Cultural Affairs
Lois Weisberg Lois Weisberg (May 6, 1925 – January 13, 2016) was the first Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the City of Chicago, from 1989 until January 2011. She was profiled by writer Malcolm Gladwell in a 1999 ''New Yorker'' essay, "Six Degrees of Lois ...
. He is the younger brother of '' Slate Group'' editor-in-chief
Jacob Weisberg Jacob Weisberg (born 1964) is an American political journalist, who served as editor-in-chief of The Slate Group, a division of Graham Holdings Company. In September 2018, he left Slate to co-found Pushkin Industries, an audio content company, ...
. Weisberg married Julia Rothwax, former press secretary to presidential candidates
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
and Bill Bradley, in 2005. The couple have a daughter.


Filmography


''Falling Skies''

* " Silent Kill" (1.05) * " Mutiny" (1.09) * " Love and Other Acts of Courage" (2.05)


''Damages''

* "Next One's on Me, Blondie" (4.04)


''The Americans''

* "
Pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
" (1.01) * " The Clock" (1.02) * " In Control" (co-written with Joel Fields) (1.04) * "
Mutually Assured Destruction Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy which posits that a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by an attacker on a nuclear-armed defender with second-strike capabilities would cause the ...
" (co-written with Joel Fields) (1.08) * " The Colonel" (co-written with Joel Fields) (1.13) * "
Comrades The term ''comrade'' (russian: товарищ, tovarisch) generally means 'mate', 'colleague', or 'ally', and derives from the Spanish and Portuguese, term , literally meaning 'chamber mate', from Latin , meaning 'chamber' or 'room'. It may also ...
" (co-written with Joel Fields) (2.01) * " Cardinal" (co-written with Joel Fields) (2.02) * "
Operation Chronicle Operation Chronicle was the Allied invasion of Woodlark and Kiriwina Islands, in the South West Pacific, during World War II. The operation was a subordinate action that formed part of the wider Operation Cartwheel, the advance towards Rabau ...
" (co-written with Joel Fields) (2.12) * "
Echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...
" (co-written with Joel Fields) (2.13) * " EST Men" (co-written with Joel Fields) (3.01) * " Baggage" (co-written with Joel Fields) (3.02) * "Stingers" (co-written with Joel Fields) (3.10) * "March 8, 1983" (co-written with Joel Fields) (3.13) * "Glanders" (co-written with Joel Fields) (4.01) * "Pastor Tim" (co-written with Joel Fields) (4.02) * "Roy Rogers in Franconia" (co-written with Joel Fields) (4.12) * "Persona Non Grata" (co-written with Joel Fields) (4.13) * "Amber Waves" (co-written with Joel Fields) (5.01) * "Pests" (co-written with Joel Fields) (5.02) * "The World Council of Churches" (co-written with Joel Fields) (5.12) * "The Soviet Division" (co-written with Joel Fields) (5.13) * "Dead Hand" (co-written with Joel Fields) (6.01) * "Tchaikovsky" (co-written with Joel Fields) (6.02) * "Jennings, Elizabeth" (co-written with Joel Fields) (6.09) * " START" (co-written with Joel Fields) (6.10)


Bibliography

*''10th Grade'' (2002) *''An Ordinary Spy'' (2008)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weisberg, Joe The Americans (2013 TV series) Living people American television writers Yale University alumni American male television writers Jewish American writers Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) People of the Central Intelligence Agency Showrunners Schoolteachers from New York (state) 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Writers from Chicago Novelists from Illinois Primetime Emmy Award winners Screenwriters from Illinois 21st-century American screenwriters 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American Jews