Matt Groening

Matthew Groening was born on February 15, 1954, in Portland, Oregon. He is best known as the creator of the long-running animated series *The Simpsons*, as well as *Futurama* and *Disenchantment*. His career in comics began with the alternative weekly strip *Life in Hell*, which he first sold to the avant-garde magazine *Wet* in 1978. At its peak, the strip appeared in 250 newspapers and caught the eye of producer James L. Brooks. In 1985, Brooks approached Groening about adapting *Life in Hell* for animated segments on *The Tracey Ullman Show*. Rather than risk losing ownership of his existing work, Groening invented a new family—the Simpsons—for the show. The shorts spun off into their own series, which became the longest-running American primetime scripted series. In 1997, Groening and former *Simpsons* writer David X. Cohen began developing *Futurama*, a comedy set in the year 3000 that premiered in 1999 and later revived on multiple networks. Groening also created the Netflix fantasy series *Disenchantment*, which debuted in 2018. His comic work includes writing and art for *Simpsons Comics* and related collections. He has won 14 Primetime Emmy Awards (12 for *The Simpsons*, 2 for *Futurama*), the National Cartoonist Society’s Reuben Award in 2002 for *Life in Hell*, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.