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Matthew Abram Groening (born February 15, 1954)
(name rhymes with raining, International Phonetic
Alphabet for English|IPA
IPA|'greɪnɪŋ) is an American
cartoonist and the creator of the television
series The Simpsons and
Futurama_(TV_series)|Futurama. He currently serves
at the former as creative consultant.

==Early life==
While at Lincoln High School (Portland)|Lincoln
High School, he was the student body president. He
graduated from The Evergreen State College in
Olympia, Washington.

Before his work in television, Groening created
the syndicated comic strip Life in Hell, which is
still carried in many weekly newspapers and has
been anthology|anthologized in a series of books,
such as School is Hell, Love is Hell, Work is
Hell, and The Big Book of Hell.

==The Simpsons==
Matt Groening's Life in Hell comic strip caught
the attention of Hollywood writer-producer and
Gracie Films founder James L. Brooks, and asked
Groening to developed a series of short animation
skits to be featured on the FOX variety show The
Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. The animation skits
would later be known as The
Simpsons.ref|the-simpsons

===The Simpson family character names===
He quickly named the main family Simpson
characters after his own family (reportedly he was
not feeling very creative in those fifteen
minutes), his parents, Homer and Margaret (Marge),
and his younger sisters, Lisa and Maggie. Groening
also has an older brother and sister, Mark and
Patty, but these siblings were left out of the
main Simpson family. As for Groening 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).  Not wishing to
curse another member of his family by lending
their name to a cartoon character, Groening says
he refused to name Homer's dad, instead choosing
to leave the room. When he returned, the writers
had given him the name of Abraham, which
coincidentally turned out to be the name of
Groening's grandfather. Groening has also named
his own sons Homer (who goes by Will) and Abe
(which is the name of Grandpa Simpson).  Other
names, like other elements of the cartoon, are
rife with obscure and not-so-obscure references to
pop-culture for alert viewers to discover on their
own.

===Other character names===
Groening grew up in Portland, Oregon, and seems to
have found names for some Characters (The
Simpsons)|characters from major Portland street
names such as Flanders family|Flanders, Reverend
Timothy Lovejoy|Lovejoy, Herb Powell|Powell, Joe
Quimby|Quimby, and Sideshow Bob|Terwilliger.

==Facts==
* His father Homer, a descendant from Russian
Mennonites in Canada, spoke Plautdietsch as a
child in Saskatchewan in the 1920s but Matt never
learned the language.

* The name Groening may be derived from Groningen
(city) (or Grun'n in the local dialect) in the
north of the Netherlands.

* Groening was influenced as a youngster by the
dark humor of England|English cartoon|cartoonist
Ronald Searle.

* He is part of the rock and roll band Rock Bottom
Remainders|The Rock Bottom Remainders whose
members include Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott
Turow, Amy Tan, James McBride (musician)|James
McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Stephen
King, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, and Greg Iles.

* Groening currently serves as creative consultant
on The Simpsons. In the past he has served as
executive producer on The Simpsons and Futurama.

* 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.

* In college, Groening sometimes took notes in
class in the form of comic strips.

==Myths==
A popular legend in the U.S. Navy's nuclear
navy|nuclear program is that Groening is a former
Navy nuclear operator.  The story also claims that
the character of Mr. Burns is based on Hyman G.
Rickover|Admiral Rickover, and that the
inspiration for the Ned Flanders character came
from a former commander of a moored training ship
prototype unit in Charleston, South Carolina.

It was said that while being student body
president Groening was stripped of this title when
he tried to amend the constitution to make him an
all-powerful president for life. But when asked at
a party for his publishing company, Groening said
he liked the myth better, but he did finish his
term and was not stripped of his title.

==References==
# note|the-simpsonsWeb reference | title=THE
SIMPSONS  | work=Museum of Broadcast
Communications |
URL=http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/simp
sonsthe/simpsonsthe.htm | date=June 23 | year=2005