Overview (3)

Mini Bio (1)

Growing up in Portland, Oregon, Matt Groening did not particularly like school, which is what originally turned him towards drawing. In the mid-1980s, he moved to Los Angeles and started drawing a comic strip named "Life in Hell", which eventually became published in the newspaper where he worked. In 1988, James L. Brooks, looking for a filler in the television show, The Tracey Ullman Show (1987), turned towards a framed "Life in Hell" strip on his wall and contacted Groening. The animated shorts that Groening created were The Simpsons (1989).

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Kevin Newcombe <bnewcom@ibm.net>

Spouse (2)

Agustina Picasso (2011 - present) ( 1 child) Deborah Caplan (29 October 1987 - 1999) ( divorced) ( 2 children)

Trade Mark (6)

Cartoon characters with overbites



His characters' middle name often begins with the letter "J", e.g. Homer J(ay) Simpson, Bart J(ojo) Simpsons, Philip J. Fry



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



Slapstick humor



Episodes that suddenly change the story/topic after the first several minutes



Trivia (30)



Son of Homer Groening , animator and producer of surf movies.



The Comic Book Guy, a character in The Simpsons (1989) is a version of what Matt Groening considers himself to be like.

His parents were Homer and Margaret, and his sisters were Lisa and Maggie.



Graduated from the Evergreen State College, a small 4-year liberal arts college, where he was editor of the school paper his final year.



He said in a 1990 interview, that Bart Simpson was based partly on Dennis the Menace and himself as a child. Bart's original name was to be 'Matt' but he changed it because it sounded too closely-related. The name Bart is an anagram of 'brat'.



He says his last name rhymes with "complaining".





Said in an interview with L.A. Weekly that the band Sonic Youth's version of The Simpsons (1989) theme song is his favorite cover version of it.

Attended and graduated from Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon.



Has two sons with Deborah Caplan: Homer Groening (born 1991) and Abe Groening (born 1993).



Many members of the Simpson family are named for members of his own family: Homer, Marge, Maggie, Lisa and Patty. In order to avoid insulting another family member by making him the namesake of a Simpsons character, he left Homer's father unnamed. The writers of the series named him Abraham. Coincidentally, Groening's own middle name is Abram. In 1993, he named his second son Abe.





Is a huge fan of Godzilla. The monster even makes a cameo appearance on The Simpsons: Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo (1999) with fellow monsters Mothra, Rodan and Gamera.

Insists that his last name is properly pronounced "GRAY-ning" (rhymes with "raining"), as opposed to "GRO-ning" (rhymes with "moaning").



After his divorce in 1999, he lived together with dating expert Lauren Frances for six years.



An American citizen, born in Springfield, Oregon, he is half-Canadian.



1978: Sold his first cartoon strip to "Wet", a Los Angeles-based, avant-garde magazine.





Is a huge fan of The Residents . In 1979, he wrote "The True Story of The Residents".

In October 2008, Matt was named the third greatest living genius. The London Telegraph put together a panel of six experts in creativity and innovation from Creators Synectics, a global consultants firm. They compiled a list of the top 100 geniuses, and Matt came in No. 3 (he was four, but one of the guys tied for first died).



Was once subjected to a strip-search by airport security who considered him a suspicious character. As he was led away, a little boy said, "Ha, ha!" like Nelson on The Simpsons. Groening found the boy's mockery the most irritating thing about the incident.





Is a huge fan of the Three Stooges and has often made references to the comedy team on The Simpsons (1989) and Futurama (1999), the latter of which often features Dr. Zoidberg doing the "Curly" whoop.

Received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 15, 2012 (his 58th birthday).





Good friends with Seth MacFarlane

He decided to give the Simpsons characters yellow skin to attract and deter channel surfers.



His surname is pronounced "GRAY-ning", not "Groaning".



His son Homer now goes by the name Will.



Matt was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2016.



In one interview he threatened to do a series that "would do to Rock and Roll what the Simpsons did to the American Family.".



Personal Quotes (6)

I'm a writer who just happens to draw



[on the Simpsons bar Moe's Tavern and taverns in general] I was always frightened by taverns. They just seemed like very unpleasant places to go. And there is nothing nice about Moe's Tavern. It's just a creepy, dark place. And there are never any women in there.



[when asked "Is there a God?"] If there is, all evidence indicates that He hates me.



On the television series [The Simpsons], a joke has to pass muster about 100 times before it gets on the air. On the movie, it's probably 1,000 times. There are jokes that were funny the first 350 times, and then, the 351st time, we go, "Ah, I'm kinda tired of that", so we change it. And what stays in are the most obvious, dumb, visceral, knee jerk, mayhem gags. Any time a character falls down, gets kicked in the face, hit in the head... anything involving head injuries. We work so hard on the wittiest dialog, involving sophisticated references to books and movies, and then what gets a laugh is Homer belching after drinking beer. It keeps you humble.



The history of television has traditionally been not to do anything that would scandalize Grandma or upset Junior. Our solution on The Simpsons is to do jokes that people who have an education, or some frame of reference, can get. And for the ones who don't, it doesn't matter, because we have Homer banging his head and saying, "D'oh!".



Cartooning is for people who can't quite draw and can't quite write. You combine the two half-talents and come up with a career.

