Matt Tyrnauer is an Americanfilm director. He directed the documentary feature , which was short listed for an Oscar nomination in 2010, Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, the 2018 documentary Studio 54 detailing New York's famed Studio 54 nightclub, and the 2019 documentary Where's My Roy Cohn? Tyrnauer also developed, and executive produced, with producing partner Corey Reeser, the docuseries Home, directing its Hong Kong episode, about the Gary Chang’s Domestic Transformer home. The nine-part series premiered on Apple TV Plus in April 2020. In May 2020, Showtime announced it had picked up the Matt Tyrnauer-directed four-part docuseries, The Reagans, to premiere later in the year. Tyrnauer has been Editor-At-Large and Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair, where he has contributed many feature articles.
Tyrnauer is also a writer. He first wrote for Spy magazine. Graydon Carter, the co-founder of Spy, later hired Tyrnauer to write for Vanity Fair. He currently writes for Vanity Fair, where he has written many feature stories. Tyrnauer's feature story, "Once Upon a Time in Beverly Hills," which appeared in the March 2011 issue of Vanity Fair, won the best magazine feature of 2011 from the Deadline Club. It is currently being adapted into a feature film for HBO. Additionally, he has written stories on Martha Stewart, Siegfried & Roy, Frank Gehry, Merv Griffin, and Gore Vidal. In 2007, art book publisher Taschen released a commemorative, signed book on fashion designer Valentino Garavani featuring interviews conducted by and archival material assembled by Tyrnauer. In addition to Valentino: An Extraordinary Story, Tyrnauer also wrote the foreword or contributed to the books Bottega Veneta by Tomas Maier, Theater of Shopping by Alastair Gordon, and the anthology Commune: Designed In California. In 2016, Rizzoli published the monograph Francesco Vezzoli, on the work and career of the Italian artist. Tyrnauer contributed an essay to the book, analyzing Vezzoli's exhibition and short film, Trailer for the Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula. Tyrnauer also appears in the film Best of Enemies , about the Vidal-Buckley debates on ABC News in 1968. He was interviewed as a friend of Vidal's, as well as editor of a half dozen of Vidal's essays, which appeared in Vanity Fair, and Vidal's celebrated anthologies, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace and Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia, and The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal. Tyrnauer's first feature premiered at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival, and won the Gold Hugo Award for Best Documentary at the 2008 Chicago International Film Festival and the Capri Documentary Award at the 2009 Capri Hollywood International Film Festival. His Citizen Jane: Battle for the City premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival; Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. Studio 54 premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, as did Where's My Roy Cohn? He is the co-founder, with his producing partner, Corey Reeser, of Altimeter Films. Valentino: The Last Emperor, Citizen Jane, Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood and Studio 54 were each the top grossing films at the specialty box office for the week of their theatrical premieres. Tyrnauer has been the recipient of grants from the Ford, Rockefeller, and Knight Foundations, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tyrnauer's father, Robert van Scoyk, was a successful TV writer and producer, responsible for scripting some of the best-known programs on TV, such as Columbo, The Virginian and Murder, She Wrote. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
