Matt Piedmont

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Matt Piedmont is an American Emmy winning writer, producer and director. After hopping freight trains and hitchhiking to New York City after college in 1992, Piedmont began his career as an NBC Page. At age 25 he secured a job as a writer for Saturday Night Live, a position he held for six years, earning an Emmy for his work in the process.^[1] On his final show in 2002, Will Ferrell held up a sign in the show's closing credits that read "Matt Piedmont is the best in the biz".^[2] His sketches appear in several of the "Best Of" Saturday Night Live DVD's, including the sketch "Patriotism" in which Will Ferrell appears in a star-spangled Speedo, post 9-11. Piedmont can also be heard on the audio commentary of the Best of David Spade DVD.^[3] He made several references to squirrels in his sketches, most notably in two sketches: "Squirrel Skin Jockstrap" in which Alan Cumming appears to his co-workers in said apparatus, and "The Essential Marv Badvil" with John Goodman where a squirrel writing the sketch at a typewriter ends the sketch.

Piedmont went on to write several screenplays including "Kent McBannon: 70's Cop" for Disney, and "El Romantico" for Fox. ^[4] He also co-wrote the movie Joe Dirt, and wrote a pilot for Fox based on his days as an NBC page.^[5]

Piedmont began his directing career when he was hired to produce, write and direct 56 shorts for Budweiser for their fledgling Bud.Tv website. The launch included a profile of Piedmont by Lorne Manly in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.^[6]

The enthusiastic reception led to Piedmont being included in the "Director's Roundtable" for Creativity Magazine alongside such notable directors as Zack Snyder and Dayton and Ferris.^[7]

Most recently, Piedmont has created a pilot for a hybrid late night comedy program with sportscaster Joe Buck. Piedmont and Buck wrote and produced the pilot with Piedmont directing, filming in New York City and Los Angeles and featuring Molly Shannon, David Spade and Paul Rudd. The pilot is currently in consideration for a series on Fox.^[8]

Piedmont also records music under the pseudonym Clyde Mego. Two of his compositions are featured in the cult-horror film Pervert!.^[9] It has been noted that Clyde Mego records exclusively on analog tape, never digital, and that his recording studio is lined with vintage rabbit fur skins to provide a natural sounding overall fur of sound that tends to emphasize the highs and lows of the recording process.