Tommy Wiseau

American director, actor, producer and screenwriter

Thomas Pierre Wiseau (/w//ɪ/'/z//oʊ/ wizOH or '/w//aɪ//z//oʊ/ WYzoh; born Tomasz Wieczorkiewicz) is a Polish American actor and filmmaker. He is known for writing, producing, directing, and starring in the 2003 film The Room, which has been described by many critics as one of the worst films ever made and has gained cult status. He also co directed the 2004 documentary Homeless in America and created the 2015 sitcom The Neighbors. Many details about Wiseau's personal life (including his age, source of wealth, and background) remain unverified, and as such have been the subject of intense fan speculation and various conflicting reports.]] Wiseau is very secretive about his early life. In various interviews, he has claimed to have lived in France "a long time ago"; claimed he grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana; and described having "an entire family" in Chalmette, Louisiana. In a 2010 interview with Crikey, Wiseau gave an age which would indicate he was born in 1968 or 1969, but friend Greg Sestero claims in his 2013 memoir The Disaster Artist that his brother's girlfriend obtained copies of Wiseau's U. S. immigration papers and found that Wiseau was born "much earlier" than he claimed, in an Eastern Bloc country in the mid to late 1950s. In his 2016 documentary Room Full of Spoons, Rick Harper, a longtime associate of Wiseau, claims to have researched Wiseau's background and concluded that he is Polish and originally from the city of Poznań, and that he was born in 1955. Wiseau confirmed publicly for the first time, in November 2017, that he is originally from Europe: "Long story short, I grew up in Europe a long time ago, but I'm American and very proud of it." In The Disaster Artist, Sestero asserts that Wiseau revealed to him—through "fantastical, sad, self contradictory stories"—that as a young adult he moved to Strasbourg, France, where he adopted the name "Pierre" and worked as a restaurant dishwasher. According to Sestero, Wiseau described being wrongfully arrested following a drug raid at a hostel and being traumatised by his mistreatment by the French police, which led him to emigrate to the U. S. to purportedly live with an aunt and uncle in Chalmette. These claims have not been verified. Sestero (the only source Wiseau is alleged to have told this to) asserts that after Wiseau had lived in Louisiana for some amount of time, he subsequently moved to San Francisco, California, where he worked as a street vendor selling toys to tourists near Fisherman's Wharf. Wiseau supposedly gained the nickname "The Birdman" for his bird toys, which were only popular in Europe at the time; this led him to legally change his name when he became a U. S. citizen to Thomas Pierre Wiseau, taking the French word for "bird" (oiseau) and replacing the O with the W of his birth name. Around this time, Wiseau also claims to have obtained a degree in psychology from Laney Community College in Oakland, asserting that he had graduated on the honor roll. According to Sestero, Wiseau claims to have worked a variety of jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area, including restaurant busboy and hospital worker, and ran a business called Street Fashions USA at Fisherman's Wharf, employing comedian Aaron Barrett, and selling irregular blue jeans at discounted prices. He then claims to have eventually purchased and rented out large retail spaces in and around San Francisco and Los Angeles, making him independently wealthy. Sestero states that the idea of Wiseau becoming wealthy so quickly via the jobs he claims to have had is so unlikely that he himself finds it impossible to believe. Sestero suggests on several occasions that many people involved with the creation of The Room believed the film to be part of some money laundering scheme for organized crime, but Sestero himself considers this unlikely. Wiseau claims to have been involved in a near fatal car crash in California after another driver ran a red light and struck Wiseau's vehicle; as a result, Wiseau was hospitalized for several weeks. Sestero suggests that this incident was the turning point in Wiseau's life that led him to pursue his dreams of becoming an actor and director, ambitions that he had long neglected while pursuing financial security.

In 2004, Wiseau produced and appeared in a short documentary, Homeless in America. In 2010 he starred in a 15 minute parody horror film entitled The House That Drips Blood on Alex. In September 2015, Wiseau expressed enthusiasm in directing a sequel to Fantastic Four (2015), having personal admiration for the film. He was featured as the villain Linton Kitano in Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance, the sequel to the cult classic Samurai Cop. In October 2016, it was announced that Wiseau and Sestero would star in a movie called Best F(r)iends. The movie was written by Sestero and was shot in secret in Los Angeles. The film premiered September 4, 2017 at the Prince Charles Cinema. The first volume of the film was released on March 30, 2017, and volume two was released on June 1 of that same year. In early February 2019, before a screening of The Room at the Prince Charles Cinema, Wiseau revealed a teaser trailer for his second directorial effort, Big Shark. The trailer features Wiseau, Sestero, Isaiah LaBorde, and a big shark. In a Q&A session afterwards, Sestero said the film was intended to premiere in September 2019, but could not be finished on time. Big Shark had its world premiere on April 2, 2023 at Cinema 21 in Portland, Oregon. Wiseau will also star alongside Greg Sestero in an upcoming UFO film.

In 2008, Wiseau produced and appeared in the pilot episode of a television series called The Neighbors. A trailer for The Neighbors showed a series of clips set in an office. The show's website, accompanied by trailers and announcements at The Room showings in 2015, stated that the show was coming to various media distribution outlets in March 2015. The first four episodes were released on Hulu on March 14, 2015. Two additional episodes were released two months later, on May 26. In 2009, Wiseau guest starred in an episode of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! titled "Tommy", wherein Wiseau guest directed a segment titled "Pigman". After Wiseau expressed a desire to work with the duo again,

In 2010, Wiseau appeared in Marc Wootton's 2010 comedy TV series La La Land. In a mockumentary format, Wootton's character, Gary Garner, accepted a role in Wiseau's present production at the time. Wiseau kicked Wootton off the set after Wootton jokingly alluded to using production funds to buy instant lotto tickets.

In 2011, Wiseau starred in a YouTube web series, Tommy Explains it All, in which he explained his views on various topics ranging from Citizen Kane to the art of kissing. Also in 2011, Wiseau starred in segments on Machinima. com called The Tommy Wi Show. The segments show Wiseau playing various video games, such as Mortal Kombat and Driver: San Francisco, and offering commentary. In 2019, Wiseau starred in the pilot for an animated webseries titled SpaceWorld. An advertisement for 1Password released in January 2024 features Wiseau.

Wiseau remains private about the details of his personal and family life. In 2017, he told Entertainment Weekly, "I think private life should be private life, the professional life should be the professional life, and that's where I stand, and I have right [sic] to do that." In a December 2017 interview with Howard Stern, he claimed to speak fluent French and said he is a Catholic. In early 2020, Wiseau was ordered by a Canadian judge to pay $550,000 in lost revenue and $200,000 in punitive damages to the makers of the documentary Room Full of Spoons, after Wiseau tried to block the film's release, feeling it depicted him in a negative way.

Year Work Award Category Result Ref. (Reference)2004Homeless in AmericaNew York International Independent Film and Video FestivalBest Social Documentary (L. A. Festival)The RoomNew York International Independent Film and Video FestivalAudience Award – Feature (Miami Festival)2010Harvard's Ivory Tower (Harvard Undergraduate Television) Filmmaker of the Year