Matt Wright dies: Jennifer Hudson, Ellen DeGeneres mourn veteran talk show producer
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- Ellen DeGeneres and Jennifer Hudson remember producer Matt Wright, who died Thursday at age 52.
- ‘He made such a huge impact on so many people in this industry and beyond,’ Hudson says.
- A GoFundMe campaign to benefit Wright’s survivors has surpassed its $50,000 goal.
The daytime talk show space is in mourning, following the death last week of longtime TV producer Matt Wright.
Hosts Ellen DeGeneres and Jennifer Hudson paid tribute to Wright on Monday, with the former struggling to express her grief.
“He was smart, he was kind, he was part of our show — I mean everyone loved him,” DeGeneres, teary-eyed, said in a video shared to Instagram on Monday. “I loved him. It’s just shocking.”
Wright died Friday in Los Angeles in an “unfathomable tragedy,” according to a GoFundMe created to benefit the producer’s survivors. The fundraiser was later updated to include the producer died “suddenly but peacefully in his sleep.” A cause of death was not revealed. He was 52.
DeGeneres, whose daytime talk series aired from 2003 to 2022, said she and her former executive producer were collaborating on a new project before his death. She remembered Wright as the “glue to our entire family at the ‘Ellen’ show.” Wright served as a producer for nearly 1,000 episodes of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” from 2006 to 2022, according to IMDb. He also worked with the host for her game show “Ellen’s Game of Games.”
Wright and his husband, Justin, often appeared on “Ellen,” participating in skits and wearing costumes. DeGeneres expressed her condolences to Wright’s loved ones “’cause we lost a good guy.” As she paid tribute to Wright, she also remembered another late member of the “Ellen” family: dancer and DJ Stephen “Twitch” Boss who died in 2022.
Wright and Twitch, she said, “are together dancing and laughing.”
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Jennifer Hudson remembered Wright on social media as one of the producers who helped get her talk series off the ground. She said on Facebook that while Wright was in Los Angeles he visited the series on Thursday for its Halloween episode.
“He made such a huge impact on so many people in this industry and beyond,” Hudson said, adding her condolences to his family.
Matthew David Wright was born Dec. 13, 1973, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and was also a producer for “The Drew Barrymore Show” and “The View,” according to the GoFundMe. Wright began his TV career as an intern with “The Sally Jessy Raphael Show,” the fundraiser said. He attended Dutchess Community College and graduated from State University of New York, New Paltz with a bachelor’s degree in communications. He moved from New York to Los Angeles for work.
The GoFundMe campaign seeks to raise funds to take Wright’s body back to New York, to cover funeral costs and to help provide for the producer’s family. The description for the campaign, which has surpassed its $50,000 goal as of Tuesday morning, said Wright and his husband were laid off during the summer.
“The light of every room, Matt curated a beautiful life, menu by menu, sunset by sunset, person by person,” the fundraiser said. “He will be remembered for being everything everyone loved - sweetly stubborn and stubbornly sweet, persistently curious and curiously persistent, profoundly loving and lovingly profound.”
Wright was predeceased by his mother, Rosemarie. He is survived by his husband; father David Wright; sister Mandy Wright and a niece among other friends and family.
