Matt Groening

Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening (rhymes with "Complaining") is a cartoonist, screenwriter and producer most famous for being the creator of The Simpsons and Futurama (the latter together with David X. Cohen).

Early career (1977 - 1985)
Groening got his start writing a comic strip called Life in Hell in 1977. In 1980, the strip was picked up by The Los Angeles Reader, where Matt worked delivering papers and doing minor editing. In 1982, the editor gave Matt his own column, supposedly rock and roll themed, but rarely actually about rock and roll. In an attempt to add more music news to the column, Matt often wrote reviews of bands he made up, only to apologize the next week, admitting the lie. Although each time, he swore he'd never do it again, he usually did. Finally, he was asked to write a humour column instead.

The Simpsons
In 1985, contacted Matt about adapting Life in Hell for television, creating "bumpers" for . Matt has stated that while he was waiting in Brooks' office, he realized that he didn't want to sign over the rights to his characters, and thus created a family called the in mere fifteen minutes.

The Simpsons premiered on Tracey Ullman in 1987, and became popular enough to create its own spin-off series in 1989. The Simpsons has survived much longer than Tracey Ullman and has become the longest running prime-time entertainment series ever in the United States. He now serves as the Creative Consultant on the show.

Futurama
After researching science-fiction for a few years, Matt got together with Simpsons writer David S. Cohen to develop Futurama, a sci-fi sitcom set in the 31st century. The show was a mild success, but ratings were poor thanks entirely to Fox's poor scheduling of the program when it was shown on the channel. While Futurama was never officially cancelled, Fox decided not to buy the fifth season and the program fell apart soon after.

Because of strong DVD sales, and consistent ratings for reruns on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, Comedy Central announced on 22 June, 2006 that they would order four new direct-to-DVD Futurama films, to air on Comedy Central in sixteen 22-minute episodes at the beginning of 2008 as Season 5. After the success of viewership and DVD sales, Comedy Central announced that Futurama was to return with a second run in 2010.

Trivia

 * He is also in a rock band, called the Rock Bottom Remainders. Members include Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Stephen King, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, and Greg Iles.
 * Matt is left-handed, as are many of the characters he designs.
 * He and David X. Cohen were show runners for the entire series.
 * Matt is on almost every DVD episode commentary. In the commentary of "A Leela of Her Own", he gets a phone call in the intro and doesn't return.
 * In the Futurama universe, he appears as his own head in a jar multiple times. He has a speaking role in "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences" as the creator of Futurella.
 * He is a self-proclaimed fan of . He uses the middle initial J. for many of his characters, as a tribute to Rocky & Bullwinkle producer.

Episodes written

 * (story credit)
 * (story credit)
 * (story credit)