Matt groening biography simpsons

He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, Groening was born on February 15,[ 2 ] [ 3 ] in Portland, Oregon[ 4 ] the middle of five children older sister Patty and brother Mark were born in andand younger sisters Lisa and Maggie in andrespectively. Groening's grandfather, Abram A. Schulz as inspirations. Inat age 23, Groening moved to Los Angeles to become a writer.

He went through what he described as "a series of lousy jobs", including being an extra in the television movie When Every Day Was the Fourth of July[ 25 ] busing tables, [ 26 ] washing dishes at a nursing home, clerking at the Hollywood Licorice Pizza record store, landscaping in a sewage treatment plant, [ 27 ] and chauffeuring and ghostwriting for a retired Western director.

Groening described life in Los Angeles to his friends in the form of the self-published comic book Life in Hellwhich was loosely inspired by the chapter "How to Go to Hell" in Walter Kaufmann's book Critique of Religion and Philosophy. He made his first professional cartoon sale to the avant-garde Wet magazine in Groening had gained employment at the Los Angeles Readera newly formed alternative newspaperdelivering papers, [ 14 ] typesetting, editing and answering phones.

However, the column would rarely actually be about music, as he would often write about his "various enthusiasms, obsessions, pet peeves and problems" instead. In the following week's column, he would confess to fabricating everything in the previous column and swear that everything in the new column was true. Eventually, he was finally asked to give up the "music" column.

Life in Hell became popular almost immediately. Work Is Hell soon followed, also published by Caplan. It's my foundation," [ 37 ] the June 16,strip marked Life in Hell ' s conclusion. The poster contained tribute cartoons by 22 of Groening's cartoonist friends who were influenced by Life in Hell. Brookswho had been shown the strip by fellow producer Polly Platt.

Originally, Brooks matt groening biography simpsons Groening to adapt his Life in Hell characters for the show. Groening feared that he would have to give up his ownership rights, and that the show would fail and take down his comic strip with it. Brooks's office and hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family : Homerthe overweight father; Margethe slim matt groening biography simpsons Bartthe miscreant oldest child; Lisathe intelligent middle child; and Maggiethe baby.

Claiming that it was a bit too obvious to name a character after himself, he chose the name "Bart", an anagram of brat. Maggie Groening has co-written a few Simpsons books featuring her cartoon namesake. The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead, they just traced over his drawings.

Groening decided that this would be too distracting though, and redesigned the ear to look normal. He still draws the ear as a 'G' when he draws pictures of Homer for fans. The number was later limited to nine spikes, all of the same size. Years later, during the early seasons of The Simpsonswhen it came time to give Grampa a first name, Groening says he refused to name him after his own grandfather, Abraham Groening, leaving it to other writers to choose a name.

By coincidence, they chose "Abraham", unaware that it was the name of Groening's grandfather. Although The Tracey Ullman Show was not a big hit, [ 59 ] the popularity of the shorts led to a half-hour spin-off in A team of production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The team included what is now the Klasky Csupo animation house.

James L. Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content. The series quickly became a worldwide phenomenon, to the surprise of many. Groening said: "Nobody thought The Simpsons was going to be a big hit. It sneaked up on everybody. Groening and Simon, however, did not get along [ 59 ] and were often in conflict over the show; [ 26 ] Groening once described their relationship as "very contentious.

Like the main family members, several characters from the show have names that were inspired by people, locations or films. The name "Wiggum" for police chief Chief Wiggum is Groening's mother's maiden name. Terwilliker from the film The 5, Fingers of Dr. Although Groening has pitched a number of spin-offs from The Simpsonsthose attempts have been unsuccessful.

InGroening and other Simpsons producers pitched a live-action spin-off about Krusty the Clown with Dan Castellaneta playing the lead rolebut were unsuccessful in getting it off the ground. InGroening got into a major disagreement with Brooks and other Simpsons producers over " A Star Is Burns ", a crossover episode with The Critican animated show also produced by Brooks and staffed with many former Simpsons crew members.

Groening claimed that he feared viewers would "see it as nothing but a pathetic attempt to advertise The Critic at the expense of The Simpsons ," and was concerned about the possible implication that he had created or produced The Critic. He also co-wrote and produced The Simpsons Moviereleased in He currently serves at The Simpsons as an executive producer and creative consultant.

After spending a few years researching science fiction, Groening got together with Simpsons writer and producer David X. Cohen known as David S. Cohen at the time in and developed Futuramaan animated series about life in the year After four years on the air, the show was canceled by Fox. When Comedy Central began negotiating for the rights to air Futurama reruns, Fox suggested that there was a possibility of also creating new episodes.

Since no new Futurama projects were in production, the movie Into the Wild Green Yonder was designed to stand as the Futurama series finale. However, Groening had expressed a desire to continue the Futurama franchise in some form, including as a theatrical film. We're having discussions and there is some enthusiasm but I can't tell if it's just me".

The show continued in to[ 76 ] [ 77 ] before Comedy Central announced in April that they would not be renewing it beyond its seventh season.

Matt groening biography simpsons

The final episode aired on September 4, On February 9,the series was revived at Hulu, set for a release. On January 15,it was announced that Groening was in talks with Netflix to develop a new animated series. Disenchantment ran from August 17,to September 1,and consisted of 50 episodes in 5 parts. According to Groening, the goal with Bongo is to "[try] to bring humor into the fairly grim comic book market.

Groening is known for his eclectic taste in music. Groening and Deborah Caplan married in [ 27 ] and had two sons together, Homer who goes by Will and Abe, [ 44 ] both of whom Groening occasionally portrays as rabbits in Life in Hell. The couple divorced in InGroening married Agustina Picasso, an Argentine artist, after a four-year relationship, and became stepfather to her daughter Camila Costantini.

She joked that "his godfather is SpongeBob 's creator Stephen Hillenburg ". Groening's brother-in-law is Hey Arnold! Groening is a self-identified agnostic. Groening has made a number of campaign contributions, all towards Democratic Party candidates and organizations. He has donated money to the unsuccessful presidential campaigns of Democratic candidates Al Gore in and John Kerry inas well as previously donating to Kerry's Massachusetts senator campaign.

In an interview with Wired fromhe stated that if he were president, his first act would be "campaign finance reform", observing that modern campaign funding is "a real detriment to democracy". Groening has a great disdain towards former President Richard Nixonand enjoyed ridiculing him by making him the butt of jokes in The Simpsons and Futurama.

Groening has been nominated for 41 Emmy Awards and has won thirteen, eleven for The Simpsons and two for Futurama in the " Outstanding Animated Program for programming one hour or less " category. He was awarded the Inkpot Award in He received the 2,th matt groening biography simpsons on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, Contents move to sidebar hide.

Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. American cartoonist born Portland, OregonU. Deborah Caplan. Agustina Picasso. Early life [ edit ]. Spouses Agustina Picasso - present 1 child. Deborah Caplan October 29, - divorced, 2 children. Abe Groening.

Homer Groening. Margaret Groening. Amy Groening Niece or Nephew. Lisa Groening Sibling. Katie Bartlett Niece or Nephew. Cartoon characters with overbites. His characters' middle name often begins with the letter "J", e. Homages to classic films. Often works his initials into a drawing. For instance, Homer Simpson has hair forming an M and ears shaped like Gs.

Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening born February 15, is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. Groening made his first professional cartoon sale of Life in Hell to the avant-garde Wet magazine in The cartoon is still carried in weekly newspapers. On Ice! He also appeared in The Simpsons Take the Bowl. He also voiced a soccer announcer in " Holidays of Future Passed ".

Talk Contributions Create account Log in. Essential pages. After graduating inGroening headed to Los Angeles with the idea of pursuing a writing career. He found some work along those lines, whipping up slogans for horror movies, but also took on a series of jobs that included chauffeur, dishwasher and record store clerk to make a living.

Groening's rough-and-tumble early days in Tinseltown provided endless fodder for a comic he titled Life in Hellfeaturing the anthropomorphic rabbit Binky. Along with mailing the comics to friends and family back in Portland, he attempted to sell his stapled-together books from his record store. The artist saw his first non-self-published comic appear in a issue of Wet magazine.

That year, he also began working for the alternative-weekly newspaper the L. Reader through an ever-shifting array of responsibilities that included reporter, distribution manager, punk rock critic and assistant editor. He finally added staff cartoonist to his resume when Life in Hell first appeared in the paper in the spring of The strip gained traction after a shift in tone, with Binky becoming less preachy and more of a victim of the cultural and social forces that browbeat dissidents into submission.

With a developing cast of characters that included Binky's girlfriend Sheba, his one-eared son Bongo and the gay entrepreneurs Akbar and Jeff, and recurring components like "The 16 Types of Sisters" and "The 9 Secret Love Techniques That Could Possibly Turn Men Into Putty in Your Hands," the minimally drawn but meticulously written Life in Hell found its niche between the underground comics and mainstream fare.