MATT GROENING
Name: Matt Groening
Born: 15 February 1954 Portland, Oregon, U.S.
Matthew Abram Groening (born February 15, 1954)
is an American cartoonist, television producer and writer from Portland, Oregon.
Groening is best known as the creator of The Simpsons. He is also the creator of
Futurama and the author of the weekly comic strip Life in Hell. Groening
distributed Life in Hell in the book corner of Licorice Pizza, a record store in
which he worked. He made his first professional cartoon sale to the avant-garde
Wet magazine in 1978. The cartoon is still carried in 250 weekly newspapers.
Life in Hell caught the attention of James L. Brooks. In 1985, Brooks contacted
Groening with the proposition of working in animation for the FOX variety show
The Tracey Ullman Show. Originally, Brooks wanted Groening to adapt his Life in
Hell characters for the show. Fearing the loss of ownership rights, Groening
decided to create something new and came up with a cartoon family, the Simpsons
and named the members after his own parents and sisters — while Bart was an
anagram of the word brat. The shorts would be spun off into their own series:
The Simpsons, which has since aired over 400 episodes in 19 seasons. In 1997,
Groening got together with David X. Cohen and developed Futurama, an animated
series about life in the year 3000, which premiered in 1999. After four years on
the air, the show was cancelled by Fox in 2003, but Comedy Central commissioned
16 new episodes from 4 Direct-to-DVD Movies to be aired in 2008.
Groening has won 10 Primetime Emmy Awards, nine for The Simpsons and one for
Futurama as well as a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to
comedy" in 2004. In 2002, he won the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award
for his work on Life in Hell.
Name: Matt Groening
Born: 15 February 1954 Portland, Oregon, U.S.
Matthew Abram Groening (born February 15, 1954)
is an American cartoonist, television producer and writer from Portland, Oregon.
Groening is best known as the creator of The Simpsons. He is also the creator of
Futurama and the author of the weekly comic strip Life in Hell. Groening
distributed Life in Hell in the book corner of Licorice Pizza, a record store in
which he worked. He made his first professional cartoon sale to the avant-garde
Wet magazine in 1978. The cartoon is still carried in 250 weekly newspapers.
Life in Hell caught the attention of James L. Brooks. In 1985, Brooks contacted
Groening with the proposition of working in animation for the FOX variety show
The Tracey Ullman Show. Originally, Brooks wanted Groening to adapt his Life in
Hell characters for the show. Fearing the loss of ownership rights, Groening
decided to create something new and came up with a cartoon family, the Simpsons
and named the members after his own parents and sisters — while Bart was an
anagram of the word brat. The shorts would be spun off into their own series:
The Simpsons, which has since aired over 400 episodes in 19 seasons. In 1997,
Groening got together with David X. Cohen and developed Futurama, an animated
series about life in the year 3000, which premiered in 1999. After four years on
the air, the show was cancelled by Fox in 2003, but Comedy Central commissioned
16 new episodes from 4 Direct-to-DVD Movies to be aired in 2008.
Groening has won 10 Primetime Emmy Awards, nine for The Simpsons and one for
Futurama as well as a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to
comedy" in 2004. In 2002, he won the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award
for his work on Life in Hell.