Comprehensive information and links about Matt Groening

Matt Groening president. He graduated from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

Before his work in television, Groening created the syndicated comic strip , which is still carried in many weekly newspapers and has been anthologized in a series of books.

comic strip caught the attention of Hollywood writer-producer and Gracie Films founder James L. Brooks, and asked Groening to develop a series of short animation skits to be featured on the FOX variety show . He currently serves as creative consultant. Contrary to popular belief, he has only written one episode of the series (see

Groening named the main Simpson characters after members of his own family: his parents, Homer and Margaret (Marge), and his younger sisters, Lisa and Maggie. As for himself, he decided it was a bit too obvious to name a character after himself and therefore chose the name "Bart" (an anagram of brat). However, he stresses that aside from some of the sibling rivalry, his family is nothing like The Simpsons.

Groening also has an older brother and sister, Mark and Patty, but these siblings were left out of the main Simpson family. It is questionable whether Marge’s sister Patty’s name comes from Matt’s sister or if it is a coincidence. In a 1995 interview, he divulged that Mark "is the actual inspiration for Bart". Groening says he refused to name Homer's dad after his father's real dad, leaving it to other writers to name that character. They gave him the name of Abraham, which by coincidence turned out to be the name of Groening's grandfather. Groening grew up in Portland, Oregon, and seems to have found names for some characters from major Portland street names such as Flanders, Lovejoy, Powell (as in Homer's half-brother Herb Powell), Quimby, Kearney (the bully), and Terwilliger (Sideshow Bob's last name).

, an animated series about life in the year 3000.

The show was a mild success but languished in the ratings. After four years on the air, the show was cancelled by 20th Century Fox.

His father, a descendant of Russian Mennonites in Canada, spoke Plautdietsch as a child in Saskatchewan in the 1920s, but Matt never learned the language. span He is also a descendant of the Krimmer Mennonite Brethern in Hillsboro, Kansas, where his great-grandfather's family settled when they immigrated.He is a member of the rock and roll band The Rock Bottom Remainders, whose 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.Both Groening and his character Bart Simpson are left-handed. Other left-handed characters on The Simpsons include Ned Flanders, Mr. Burns, and Moe Szyslak, the bartender. The Simpsons. He appeared in Futurama as a head in a jar, and in The Simpsons as the creator of Futurama.Originally, Homer Simpson's inner ear was shaped like a "G", and the hair above in the shape of an "M", spelling Groening's initials. This was changed to normal when Matt realised that if word got out of this, everyone would mention it. When drawing autographed pictures of Homer, he puts in the "M G".Several of his characters have the middle initial 'J' eg: Homer J Simpson, Bart 'J' Simpson and Phillip 'J' Fry. Groening has said that this is a reference to Bullwinkle J. Moose.

Awards

He has received the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for 2003, and was nominated for the same award in 2000.