Matei Vișniec (Romanian pronunciation: [maˈtej viʃˈnjek]; born 29 January 1956 in Rădăuți) is a Romanian-French playwright, poet and journalist living in Paris.

He is internationally known especially for his writings in the French language.

He graduated in 1980 from the History and Philosophy Faculty of the University of Bucharest.^[2] Between 1977 and 1987 he wrote 8 plays in two or three acts, about twenty short plays, and some screenplays, but all were turned down by the censors.^[2] In 1987 he was invited to France by a literary foundation, and he asked for political asylum. Between August 1988 and October 1989 he lived in London, where he worked for the Romanian section of the BBC.^[2]

After settling down in France, he has been writing mostly in French, and has received French citizenship. After the fall of communism in Romania, in 1989, Matei Vișniec became one of the most performed playwrights in the country, with more than 30 plays put on in Bucharest and other towns. In 1996 the National Theatre of Timișoara organized a Matei Vișniec Festival with 12 companies presenting his plays. His international audience as a playwright started in 1992, with the play Horses at the Windows performed in France, and Old Clown Wanted at the "Bonner Biennale".

Since then, Vișniec has had more than 20 plays performed in France (Théâtre Guichet Montparnasse, Studio des Champs-Elysées, Théâtre du Rond-Point des Champs Elysées – Paris, Théâtre de l'Utopie – La Rochelle, Compagnie Pli Urgent – Lyon, Théâtre Le Jodel – Avignon, Théâtre de Lenche and Théâtre de la Minoterie – Marseille, Compagnie Nice-Théâtre Vivant – Nice, etc.). Old Clown Wanted has been performed in: France, Germany, United States, Denmark, Austria, Poland, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Brazil, Romania, Azerbaijan, Moldavia, and Georgia.^[3]

He is working as a journalist at Radio France Internationale.^[1]

Literary critic Alex Ștefănescu [ro] considers his plays to be "bizarre, unclassifiable".^[4]