Zachary Alexander Weinersmith (born Weiner; March 5, 1982) is an American cartoonist and writer, best known for his webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC). Outside of SMBC, he has worked on a sketch comedy series, a podcast, and multiple other webcomics. With his wife Kelly Weinersmith, he has co-authored the 2017 book Soonish and the 2023 book A City on Mars. He illustrated the 2019 book Open Borders by economist Bryan Caplan, and wrote the 2023 children's book Bea Wolf, a loose adaptation of Beowulf.

Background and personal life

According to Weinersmith, his great-grandfather immigrated to the United States in 1925, and he has no family in Europe as they were killed in the Holocaust. Weinersmith describes being "raised Jewish, in an only casually religious environment". Weinersmith has been writing and drawing comics since high school, often using the name "Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal" for these comics. His early webcomics usually had three or more panels, but in 2002 he switched to a single-panel format. Weinersmith graduated from Pitzer College in California with an English degree in 2003. He then worked in the film industry for around two years, including at The Asylum, and later a talent agency. With the success of SMBC, Weinersmith returned to college at San Jose State University in order to satisfy personal interests while also creating topics and creative ideas for his comics; initially planning on biochemistry, he opted to pursue physics. By 2007, he was able to earn a living from the comic. While in California he met Kelly Smith, then a graduate student at U.C. Davis, later an adjunct professor at Rice University. They married, and both took the combined surname Weinersmith. They have two children, Ada and Ben. The Weinersmiths reside in Charlottesville, Virginia. In an interview in 2009, Weinersmith described his personal philosophy as "pragmatic" and said he is "probably" agnostic, saying "though I’m probably not willing to call myself an atheist per se, I almost certainly behave like an atheist, when it comes to specific activities related to spirituality."

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Weinersmith authors Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC), a popular webcomic that is updated daily. It features few recurring characters or storylines and has no set format. Recurring themes in SMBC include religion, superheroes, romance, dating, science, research, parenting and the meaning of life. Weinersmith's first version of SMBC was a character-based three-panel strip done while he was in college. This version of the comic focused on the romantic and academic endeavors of several college students. This version (referred to as Classic SMBC on the site's archives) ran from January 28, 2002 to September 3, 2002. Weinersmith then switched to single-panel and gag comics. That version of the strip began on September 5, 2002. SMBC is now a multi-panel comic. In 2005, Weinersmith wanted to work on SMBC full-time, and around this time moved to daily updates. By 2007, he was able to earn a living from the comic. Weinersmith also returned to study around 2006 to provide inspiration for the comic, and studied physics, and considers that the rise in the geekiness of the comic happened at that time. As of 2012, SMBC received a quarter-million visitors a day and was described as one of the most popular webcomics.

Other projects

Books

Collections of SMBC comics have also been published in physical books.

Other webcomics

Video and audio

Live events

Awards and nominations

Filmography