Ellen DeGeneres donates $5K to late producer Matthew Wright's family after his 'unfathomable' death

The family of Matthew Wright have raised over $70,000 with the help of people like Ellen DeGeneres.

The former chat show host shared a tearful video to Instagram yesterday (November 2) announcing that her former executive producer Wright had passed away suddenly at the age of 52.

"He was an amazing guy," DeGeneres said in the clip. "He was funny. God, he made me laugh. He would surprise me with things that he did all the time.

"He was smart. He was kind. He was the part of our show that — I mean, everyone loved him. I loved him. And it’s just shocking — it’s shocking."

She added: "We’re gonna miss him. He is and always will be the glue to our entire family at The Ellen Show."

His family have created a GoFundMe page to help raise funds to get Wright's body home to New York from Los Angeles where he died. It's unclear how the late producer passed away, but his family said he was 'working remotely' at the time.

The fundraiser's bio reads: "In an unfathomable tragedy, Matt Wright passed away Oct 30th while working remotely in Los Angeles.

"His husband, father, sister and niece are in New York, desperate to be reunited for a proper goodbye. We’re asking for all of his friends, who Matt loved so fully, to help the family at this time. As many of you know, Matt & Justin were both laid off this summer. And the unexpected costs of getting Matt home, a funeral and a memorial are impossible for the family to bear."

At the time of writing over $70,000 has been raised for Wright's family, surpassing it's $50,000 target. $5,000 of this figure was donated by DeGeneres.

Fellow executive producer Andy Lassner was with Matthew Wright shortly before his passing (andylassner/Instagram)

Others to have paid tribute to Wright following the news of his untimely death include fellow former Ellen producer Andy Lassner and Jennifer Hudson. Lassner is now an EP on the Dreamgirls actor's show.

Lassner said he was with Wright in the hours before his death. Sharing photos of them together, he penned: "These photos were taken Thursday, while we were taping our Halloween show. Matt came by to visit. A few hours later, he was gone. We are all in shock."

He proceeded to describe his friend as 'a brilliant producer and an even better human being'.

Elsewhere Hudson said of Wright: "So saddened by the loss of Matt Wright, one of our former producers who helped launch The Jennifer Hudson Show.

"He was just back to visit on Thursday for our Halloween show! He made such a huge impact on so many people in this industry and beyond!"

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