
Matt was born on Febuary 15, 1954.
He grew up in Portland,Oregon.
Early on in his life he developed a knak for drawing and doodling, Especially from the encouragement from his father who was also a cartoonist.
He kept up with his grades throught high school, and eventually decided to attend Evergreen state college in Olympia WA.
This is where he met his fellow cartoonist Lynda Barry who inspired him further to pursue his drawing career.
Mat later mover to Los Angeles
,CA and got his first break writing a comic strip called "Life in Hell",
an irreverent portrayal of broken life that debuted in 1977 and currently appears
in more than 250 newspapers.
Matt's next big break came in 1985 when "film and television producer James
L. Brooks, asked Matt Groening to assist with an animated project for his comedy
series, 'The Tracey Ullman Show'" (Matt Groening 1954). Matt was given
roughly 15 minutes before his meeting to sketch an idea for Mr. Brooks.
With pencil in hand, Matt quickly
drew up a "quirky-looking family consisting of one father, one mother,
two girls and one boy" (Matt Groening 1954) and named each of them after
one of his family members: Homer and Marge (his mother and father) and Lisa
and Maggie (his two sisters). The little boy, Bart, ended up being an anagram
of "brat" (Matt Groening 1954). Mr. Brooks fell in love with the idea
and it quickly became a hit act on 'The Tracy Ullman Show.'
In December of 1989 Fox Network decided to air The Simpsons in its prime-time slot at 8pm, against 'The Cosby Show.' The Simpsons, in 1989, was the first animated prime-time series in over 20 years and is still going to this day. Throughout the course of its history, The Simpsons has accumulated 17 Emmy awards and has yet to bore its audience.
Matt also had many other accomplishments such as producing Bongo comics, and becoming a producer of Futurama.
Keep up the good work matt!