The Wire Creator Awarded MacArthur 'Genius' Grant 6.16K Adrian Chen 09/27/10 11:44PM Filed to: Geniuses Geniuses David Simon Macarthur genius grant the wire Awards Gettypic David Simon, creator of The Wire, was among 23 recipients of the $500,000 MacArthur "Genius" grant. Clearly the MacArthur committee spent all last week watching The Wire instead of choosing geniuses and did this to justify their procrastination.