Tommy Wiseau

Thomas Pierre Wiseau ( wiz-OH or WY-zoh; born Tomasz Wieczorkiewicz; born October 3, 1955) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is best-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 unknown to the general public, with conflicting details leading to fan speculation and various conflicting reports. The 2013 non-fiction book The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Greg Sestero, as well as its 2017 film adaptation, chronicles the making of The Room, intertwined with Wiseau's life behind the scenes.

Background

Wiseau maintains a high level of privacy regarding 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.