Who Is Glenn Weiss? Emmy-Winning Director Proposes To Girlfriend During Award Ceremony

Film director and producer Glenn Weiss, 57, made jaws drop by proposing to his longtime girlfriend at the 2018 Emmys on Monday after accepting the award for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special for "The Oscars."

He started off by giving a heart-warming speech thanking his family members and girlfriend. He then went on to propose to his girlfriend, Jan Svendsen, on national television in front of the whole crowd.

"Mom always believed in finding the sunshine in things. Jan, you are the sunshine in my life,” he said as the cameras turned toward Svendsen in the audience. "And Momma always said, don't ever lose your sunshine. You wonder why I don't like to call you my girlfriend? Because I want to call you my wife." Upon realizing his words, the audience immediately erupted into applause.

Svendsen, visibly shocked, walked to the stage where Weiss offered her a ring that his dad gave to his mom over 67 years ago.

"Jan, I want to put this ring that my mom wore on her finger in front of all these people and in front of my mom and your parents watching from above. Will you marry me?" he asked before she said a yes.

Weiss, a native of Long Island, New York, has a whopping 11 Emmy Awards to his name including Monday’s award for the Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special. He won the same award last year too. He also has 6 Directors Guild of America awards to his credit.

Weiss graduated from the University of Maryland, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He worked on the set of "America’s Most Wanted," a popular TV crime show, in the late ’80s. He then went on to direct numerous televised events, including 16 Tony Awards, 3 Academy Awards, 39th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, CableACE Awards, Billboard Music Awards, BET Awards, Peter Pan Live! and Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards among others, Hollywood Life reported.

Weiss and Svendsen have been dating for at least 6 years. They made their first appearance together in 2012 at the Governors Ball Music Festival. They also attended Emmys 2012 together. Svendsen works as the chief creative officer at Charity Network and focuses her effort on “creating content, developing strategic partnerships, working on film projects for 2,929 Entertainment and business development for Charitybuzz and Prizeo,” according to her LinkedIn profile.

In a 2016 interview, Weiss spoke about “unexpected” speeches at award shows and said “Do I expect some of the speeches to not necessarily go in a direction that they would’ve gone in years past? Yeah, I think with what’s going on, things like that could happen. Every comment is potentially going to have a reaction, and you have to be very tuned in and listening and ready to keep the presentation moving forward, regardless of something happening on stage that was planned or not.”

His Monday’s speech may have exceeded the time limit; however, it definitely brought a smile on everyone’s face.