Matt Groening

Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening

Matt Groening in the promotional episode of My Big Fat Geek Wedding

Character Information

Gender:	Male
Status:	Unknown
Age:	55
Hair:	Gray
Occupation:	He is the creator of the Simpsons
First appearance:	Simpsons Game
Voiced by:	HimSelf

Matt Groening is the creator of The Simpsons and the show "Futurama". He appears on The Simpsons twice, and voiced himself. There is a version of him featured on the 138th Episode Spectacular, wearing an eyepatch and being voiced by one of the usual actors. He also appears in The Simpsons Video Game. Matt also mentions in the Simpsons Game that Futurama made him rich and will make Bart and Homer toast. When any Simpsons characters are kicked in the 'privates', they will say something like 'Ow, my Groen'. A reference to his name. On the Simpsons game, his worker called him Groen instead of Groening and he says that he is called Groeing. She replies 'are you sure' and he says 'no'.

Other Work

As well as The Simpsons, he has created Futurama, wrote Life in Hell,

Futurama

Main article: Futurama After spending a few years researching science fiction, Groening got together with Simpsons writer/producer David X. Cohen (still known as David S. Cohen at the time) in 1997 and developed Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000.[13][45] By the time they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and storylines; Groening claimed they had gone "overboard" in their discussions.[45] Groening described trying to get the show on the air as "by far the worst experience of [his] grown-up life."[13] The show premiered on March 28, 1999. Groening's sole writing credit for the show was the premiere episode, "Space Pilot 3000", co-written with Cohen.

After four years on the air, the show was cancelled by Fox. In a similar situation as Family Guy, however, strong DVD sales and very stable ratings on Cartoon Network brought Futurama back to life. When Comedy Central began negotiating for the rights to air Futurama reruns, Fox suggested that there was a possibility of also creating new episodes. When Comedy Central committed to sixteen new episodes, it was decided that four straight-to-DVD films—Bender's Big Score (2007), The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008), Bender's Game (2008) and Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009)—would be produced. 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. In an interview with CNN, Groening said that "we have a great relationship with Comedy Central and we would love to do more episodes for them, but I don't know...We're having discussions and there is some enthusiasm but I can't tell if it's just me."

On June 9 2009, it was confirmed that Comedy Central had picked up the show for 26 new episodes that will begin airing in 2010.[50]

Awards

Groening has been nominated for 25 Emmy awards and has won eleven: ten for The Simpsons and one for Futurama in the "Outstanding Animated Program (for programming one hour or less)" category.

[58] Groening received the 2002 National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award, and had been nominated for the same award in 2000.[59] He received a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy" in 2004