Family Reveals More Details About “Ellen” Producer Matthew Wright’s Sudden Death at 52
Matt Wright and Ellen DeGeneres on ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’Credit: Warner Bros.
Matthew Wright, who was an executive producer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show for 16 years, died suddenly on Friday, Oct. 30, at 52
A GoFundMe page was created to help his family on Nov. 1, and the description of the page was recently to share more details about how Wright died
“Everyone loved him,” DeGeneres said in an emotional video shared on Nov. 2
New details have been revealed after the death of TV producer Matthew Wright.
Wright’s sudden death at age 52 was confirmed in a GoFundMe page created on Monday, Nov. 1. “In an unfathomable tragedy, Matt Wright passed away Oct 30th while working remotely in Los Angeles,” read the description. His former boss, Ellen DeGeneres, with whom he worked for 16 years on her talk show, shared an emotional video on Instagram mourning his death the following day.
The fundraising page, which has since accumulated over $94,000 in donations, was recently with new information about Wright’s life and career, as well as further details about how he died. According to the fundraiser, Wright “died suddenly but peacefully in his sleep on Friday, October 30th in Los Angeles.” (An official cause of death has not been released.)
The page added, “The sun may have prematurely set for our magical Matty, but his memory lives on in all of the sky’s vibrant colors. He would want everyone to remember his most important rule of living — don’t forget to course it out.”
Matthew WrightCredit: Matthew Wright/Instagram
“The light of every room, Matt curated a beautiful life, menu by menu, sunset by sunset, person by person,” the fundraiser description also added. “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 worked on several hit talk shows throughout his career, including The View, The Jennifer Hudson Show and The Drew Barrymore Show.
Wright worked on The Ellen DeGeneres Show for 16 years, becoming an executive producer, and in her tribute, DeGeneres, 68, said, “He was an amazing guy. He was funny. God, he made me laugh. He would surprise me with things that he did all the time. He was smart. He was kind. He was the part of our show that — I mean, everyone loved him.”
An obituary shared on the GoFundMe page touted Wright’s rise at Ellen: “Over the course of the next 16 years, he rose the ranks to executive producer and became one of the most loyal and hard-working employees at the show, always willing to help on any segment that could use his brilliantly creative mind. It was impossible not to smile at the sight of Matt in his sweater vest, just as it was impossible not to love his relentless pursuit of the perfect segment. Matt was a mentor and a leader and the entire production was better for it.”
In her video, DeGeneres revealed that she and Wright had been planning to reunite professionally before his unexpected death. “We were working on a project to do together that we were supposed to start,” she said, adding, “We’re gonna miss him. He is and always will be the glue to our entire family at the Ellen show.”
Andy Lassner, another producer from Ellen, said in his tribute to Wright that he’d seen his former coworker just “hours” before he died. “These photos were taken Thursday, while we were taping our Halloween show,” Lassner captioned a series of photos of him and Wright at The Jennifer Hudson Show, where he’s an executive producer, that he posted on Instagram on Nov. 1. “Matt came by to visit. A few hours later, he was gone. We are all in shock.”
Matthew WrightCredit: Matthew Wright/Instagram
“He was a brilliant producer and an even better human being,” Lassner, 59, wrote. “My heart breaks for his husband, Justin, his family, and all of us who loved him. I was so lucky to work beside Matt for so many years and to call him my friend. We should have had so much more time with him.”
According to the GoFundMe page, Wright is survived by “his husband Justin Fusella, his father David Wright, his sister Mandy Wright, his niece Samantha Wright and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. He is also survived by his in-laws, Lori and Enzo Fusella, Nick Fusella, Risper Otsyula, Ari Fusella along with the scores and scores of friends Matt treated as family.”
Source: Entertainment
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