Mathew Abram Groening known as Matt Groening is an American cartoonist, novelist, television producer, and animator. The popular program “The Simpsons,” which has been on primetime television for the longest time in history, was made by him, and this is how most people know him. The Simpsons made its formal premiere as a stand-alone, half-hour primetime program in December 1989 and it is still active. The Simpsons have given rise to an empire with countless license agreements and theme park attractions, comparable to other IPs like Lego and Star Wars.
Matt Groening Biography and Net Worth
| Net Worth $600 M |
| Full Name Matthew Abram Groening |
| Birth Date 15 February 1954 |
| Age 68 years |
| Birthplace Portland, Oregon |
| Profession Cartoonist, Animator, Producer, Writer |
| Wife Agustina Picasso |
Matt Groening Early Life
On February 15, 1954, Matthew Abraham Groening was born in Portland, Oregon. He is the middle of five children born to Homer Philip, a filmmaker, advertising writer, and cartoonist, and Margaret Ruth, a former teacher. Matt has four siblings Mark, Patty, Lisa, and Maggie. After graduating from Lincoln High School, he studied in Olympia, Washington’s The Evergreen State College from 1972 to 1977. He served as an editor of the college newspaper “The Cooper Point Journal” during this time. Lynda Barry, a well-known cartoonist who he became friends with while in college considered to be his major inspiration. He credits Robert Crumb, Ernie Bushmiller, Ronald Searle, Monty Python, and Charles M. Schulze as his inspirations and claims that viewing the Disney animated film “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” sparked his interest in cartoons.
Matt Groening Early Career
Groening relocated to Los Angeles in 1977 at the age of 23 to pursue a career as a writer. He worked odd jobs in restaurants, nursing homes, record shops, sewage treatment facilities, and other places throughout this time. In order to describe life in Los Angeles for his friends, he started creating the independently produced comic book “Life in Hell.” In 1978, the experimental Wet Magazine purchased his first professionally produced cartoon. He subsequently began working at the Los Angeles Reader, first as a newspaper deliverer, typesetter, and editor, before switching to become a cartoonist for the publication. On April 25, 1980, the famous comic book “Life in Hell” made its official premiere as a comic strip.
Matt Groening Career Success
The comic strip “Life in Hell” became almost instantly popular, and soon Groening and his then-girlfriend Deborah Caplan started publishing collections of the cartoons with titles like “Love is Hell” and “Work is Hell.” To manage the merchandise for “Life in Hell,” Caplan and Groening founded the business Life in Hell Co. “Life in Hell” was published in 250 weekly newspapers at its peak and the last strip of it was released on June 16, 2012.
James L. Brooks, a writer, and producer in Hollywood was drawn to “Life in Hell,” and he approached Groening to collaborate on an unspecified project. Matt came up with the idea of Simpson and the characters in “The Simpsons,” are named after members of his own family. The Tracey Ullman Show broadcast a number of “Simpsons” shorts, and due to their success, a half-hour “Simpsons” spin-off was produced in 1989. The 30-minute show debuted on December 17, 1989. Sam Simon, Groening, and Brooks all contributed to the creation of “The Simpsons” for Fox Broadcasting Company. However, Simon and Groening frequently disagreed, and Simon ultimately departed the project in 1993 due to these issues. Currently, Groening is the show’s executive producer and creative consultant.
In addition to “The Simpsons,” Groening has developed a number of other shows and projects “Disenchantment,” created by Groening in collaboration with Netflix, is a different television series. In August 2018, the first 10 episodes were made available on Netflix. The following ten episodes followed in September 2019.
Matt Groening Awards and Achievements
In the category of “Outstanding Animated Program,” Groening has been nominated for 41 Emmy Awards and has won thirteen of them. Groening won the Reuben Award in 2002 from the National Cartoonist Society after being nominated in 2000. In 2004, he was honored with a British Humor Award for his “great contribution to comedy.” Matt Groening came at number four on the list of top 100 living geniuses that was compiled by “The Daily Telegraph” in 2007. On February 14, 2012, he was awarded the 2,459th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Matt Groening Wife
Deborah Caplan and Groening were married from 1986 to 1999 and Homer and Abe are the names of their two boys. After dating for four years, Groening then married Argentinian artist Agustina Picasso in 2011. Groening and Picasso have five kids, including two different sets of twins.
Matt Groening Net Worth
The estimated net worth of Matt Groening is $600 million as of 2022. Groening spent $11.65 million in 2011 for a spacious house designed by Robert D. Farquhar and constructed in Santa Monica, California. Groening owns an $8.5 million beachfront house in Malibu that he purchased in 2000. Today, that home can probably fetch at least $20 million on the market.
