Facts about matt groening biography wikipedia

Groening has Norwegian and German ancestry. Groening identifies himself as agnostic [ 2 ] [ 3 ] and liberal. He has been married twice. Groening and Deborah Caplan married in Contents move to sidebar hide. Page Talk. Read Change Change source View history. Tools Tools. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. Matt Groening.

Matt Groening received the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award, and had been nominated for the same award in Matthew Abram Groening is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. People also liked. Matt Groening was born on February 15,, in Portland, Oregon, the middle of five children. Matt Groening graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism in In , at the age of 23, Matt Groening moved to Los Angeles to become a writer.

Matt Groening made his first professional cartoon sale to the avant-garde Wet magazine in Maggie Matt Groening has co-written a few Simpsons books featuring her cartoon namesake. Matt Groening requested his name be taken off the episode. He had chosen rabbits because they were the only easily identifiable animals he could draw. However, though Groening's art seems on the surface to be simple, even childish, he is skilled at revealing personality and emotion with just a few lines.

His first character, Binky, expressed all of his own grouchy exasperation with the unfairness of the world. Binky was soon joined by other rabbit-like characters, a girlfriend named Sheba and a one-eared son named Bongo, who was dropped off one day by Binky's partner in a forgotten one-night stand. Later, the family was joined by Akbar and Jeff, gay lovers whose love-hate relationship is made all the more hysterical by the fact that they look exactly alike.

As they negotiate their always tempestuous relationship, Akbar and Jeff do work well together as enterprising merchants who sell everything at their "hut" shops, from "Tofu Hut" to "Liposuction Hut. The popularity of Groening's cartoon letters home spread, and soon he was sending them to hundreds of recipients. He put together a zine of collected Life in Hell strips and sold it in the punk music section of the record store where he was working.

Indeed, there did seem to be a connection between the angry satire of the late s punk rebellion and Groening's adorable yet hostile bunny people. In , a small alternative newspaper called the Los Angeles Reader , where Groening wrote a music column, agreed to publish Life in Hell as a weekly cartoon. By , alternative papers all over the country had picked up Life in Hell , and Pantheon press had published Love Is Hell and Work Is Hell , bitingly funny graphic novels about the dangers in relationships and the workplace.

One of the major ways in which Groening's work in the Life in Hell series stands out from other cartoons and comics is his refusal to choose a format and stick with it. Life in Hell is a constant challenge to publishers and a delight to readers because it looks different almost every week. Sometimes the strip is a single potent panel, such as the frequently recurring image of the rebellious child named Bongo, tied and gagged in a chair in the middle of a cell, while invisible authorities speak to him through a slit in the door.

Sometimes, it is a series of small panels crammed full of dialog, such as the many Akbar and Jeff panels in which they berate each other over and over for their many faults before finding their way back to love. Groening's humor in the Life in Hell books is often bitter and depressed, but his skill as an artist allows him to soften what appears to be an angry and hopeless comment on life with an expression of goofy optimism or sad lovability on a character's face.

Seeking an interesting animated segment to insert between the show's comedy skits, he approached Groening about creating an animated version of his popular weekly cartoon. Groening agreed, but when he learned that FOX would own the rights to the finished product, he was reluctant to give up control of Binky and his friends. To solve the problem, Groening created a new set of characters, a family called the Simpsons, and named them after members of his own family.

The troublemaking young boy started out as Matt, after himself, but was soon changed to Bart, an anagram of "brat. Being the creator of two popular television cartoon shows has meant both reward and frustration for Matt Groening. He has received money and fame far beyond the dreams of the average comic artist, but in exchange he has had to struggle with network executives to keep the shows true to his original vision.

In May , The Simpsons became the longest-running situation comedy in the history of television. The show's popularity is largely due to its large cast of colorful characters, the sly humor of its satire, and the subtle cultural references. Each scene of The Simpsons is packed with sight gags and in-jokes that exercise the observation skills of audiences of all ages.

Though every character in The Simpsons bears the unmistakable imprint of Groening's artwork, he has not drawn or written an episode of the show since the early s. Co-creators James Brooks and Sam Simon, executive producer Mike Scully, and an army of writers and artists including George Meyer and John Schwartzwelder have been the driving forces behind the show.

Basically, it's just trying to keep the characters consistent and making sure the show has a soul. Groening's experience with Futurama was much more difficult. An avid science fiction fan since his youth, Groening had spent several years doing research to create Futurama , a story of a modern-day pizza delivery boy who finds himself transported to the year 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 Simpsons , when 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 Simpsons , those attempts have been unsuccessful.

In , Groening and other Simpsons producers pitched a live-action spin-off about Krusty the Clown with Dan Castellaneta playing the lead role , but were unsuccessful in getting it off the ground. In , Groening got into a major disagreement with Brooks and other Simpsons producers over " A Star Is Burns ", a crossover episode with The Critic , an 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 Movie , released 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 Futurama , an 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. 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 In , Groening 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 in , as well as previously donating to Kerry's Massachusetts senator campaign. In an interview with Wired from , he 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 Nixon , and 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 star 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, Oregon , U.

Deborah Caplan.

Facts about matt groening biography wikipedia

Agustina Picasso. Early life [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Early career [ edit ]. Life in Hell [ edit ]. Main article: Life in Hell. The Simpsons [ edit ]. Main article: The Simpsons. Creation [ edit ]. The Tracey Ullman Show [ edit ]. Half-hour [ edit ]. Futurama [ edit ]. Main article: Futurama. Disenchantment [ edit ]. Main article: Disenchantment TV series.

Other pursuits [ edit ]. Personal life [ edit ]. Politics [ edit ]. Filmography [ edit ]. Film [ edit ]. Television [ edit ]. Video games [ edit ]. Music video [ edit ]. Theme park [ edit ]. Awards [ edit ].