Early work Zien began his career in unscripted television development, working at
All3Media America and
Studio Lambert on reality and documentary projects for major networks.
The Intellectual Property Corporation In 2016, Zien joined
The Intellectual Property Corporation (IPC) as its first development executive. He later became Vice-President of Development and Creative Director, and head of brand development for
Industrial Media, overseeing more than 20 series and specials across HBO, Amazon, Netflix, Showtime, and A&E. While at IPC, Zien developed the Emmy-winning series
Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (A&E), which won the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series or Special in 2017 and Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special in 2020. He was promoted to senior vice-president prior to the sale of
Industrial Media to Sony Pictures Television in 2022, a deal reportedly valued at US$350 million.
Recent projects Zien served as producer on the true-crime docuseries
The Curse of Von Dutch: A Brand to Die For (Hulu, 2021), which explored the turbulent rise and fall of the
Von Dutch fashion brand. In 2025 he produced
Slauson Rec, a feature documentary directed by
Leo Lewis O’Neil. The film, which uses more than 800 hours of footage to explore Shia LaBeouf’s theater collective, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. In an interview with
Deadline, Zien described the independently funded project as “the dream,” recalling that on the first day of post-production O’Neil wrote “We Cannes do it” on the office whiteboard. In 2024, Zien produced
Lincoln at Gettysburg, a 6-minute AI-driven short film that swept the AI International Film Festival, winning Best Picture, Best AI Film, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, plus Audience Choice Awards for Best Message, Best Film, and Best Use of AI. In 2025, Zien’s AI-driven mockumentary
The First Humans won the Mockumentary Award at the MetaMorph AI Film Awards. The festival described his work as pushing the boundaries of generative cinema, and Zien reflected in an accompanying interview on how AI enabled him to visualize 300,000 years of human prehistory.
KNGMKR Labs Zien is the founder of KNGMKR Labs, a creative studio focused on experimental content at the intersection of cinema, technology, and culture. Alongside co-founder Mac Boucher, Zien has developed speculative, AI-assisted video-art projects including
Camelot, an alternate-history JFK narrative created using generative tools. In a 2025
Forbes feature on emerging XR technologies, Matt Zien was described as a “nonfiction‑TV and film vet turned AI filmmaker,” highlighting his crossover into AI-enhanced creative media. That same year,
GamePressure covered his short video
Last Call Before A.G.I., created with eight AI tools, noting that it was “so good that some have called it art” in response to audience reactions on YouTube and Reddit. In 2025, Zien’s short film
Forgive the Haters was cited during a
Masters of Scale podcast interview with
Runway CEO
Cristóbal Valenzuela, in a discussion about AI filmmaking’s impact on Hollywood. ==Selected filmography==