Ellen DeGeneres spoke through tears on November 2 as she remembered Matthew “Matt” Wright, her friend and longtime producer, who died October 30 at 52. Four years after their talk show ended, the two had plans. “We were working on a project to do together that we were supposed to start,” she said in her Instagram tribute.
Wright was working in Los Angeles when he died. His husband, Justin, and other relatives were in New York, according to a fundraiser organized for the family. No cause of death has been made public.
Wright joined The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2006 and went on to become an executive producer. As the series ended in May 2022, he thanked the show on Instagram for taking a chance on him. In 16 years there, he wrote, he had made some of his closest friends, met his heroes and even fallen in love.
His work in daytime television continued after Ellen. The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences credited him as a senior supervising producer on The Drew Barrymore Show. Jennifer Hudson also remembered him as one of the producers who helped get her talk show on the air.
DeGeneres Shared the Onscreen Moments That Made Her Laugh
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DeGeneres described Wright as smart and kind, someone who was always finding ways to surprise her. “God, he made me laugh,” she said. She paused as she tried to find the words to offer her condolences to Justin and the rest of Wright’s family.
She also remembered how close Wright had been to Stephen “tWitch” Boss, the show’s DJ and a fellow executive producer who died in December 2022. DeGeneres said she pictured the two friends dancing and laughing together.
Her video then cut to Wright in front of the cameras. In his recurring segment Strong Opinions With Matt, he could get worked up about pillows or the way restaurants served appetizers. The montage ended with a simple title card, “We love you, Matt,” according to TheWrap.
Andy Lassner Saw Wright at Jennifer Hudson’s Halloween Taping
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On Thursday, October 29, Wright stopped by The Jennifer Hudson Show while the crew was taping its Halloween episode. Andy Lassner, his former Ellen colleague and an executive producer on Hudson’s show, shared photos from the set on November 1. “Matt came by to visit. A few hours later, he was gone,” Lassner wrote.
Lassner remembered how Wright had cared for his mother before she died, flying from Los Angeles to New York almost every weekend to see her. Lassner said Wright brought that same care to his friendships.
Hudson shared two photos on Instagram on November 2. In one, she posed with Wright on the set. The other caught them at work, with Hudson seated and looking down at a cue card as Wright stood beside her, pointing something out.
Friends Are Helping Bring Wright Home to New York
The Leman family organized a GoFundMe on behalf of Mandy Wright. They said Wright and Justin had both been laid off over the summer. The money will help bring Wright home, cover a funeral in New York and pay for a memorial in Los Angeles. Anything left over will go into a trust for his niece, Sami.
The organizers remembered Wright as the friend who ordered an extra appetizer for everyone to share. They asked friends to think of him the next time they were out to dinner at sunset, imagining him looking down with love and still “wildly disappointed in what you ordered.”