Matt Groening

Matt Groening is the creator of The Simpsons, Futurama, and his long-running comic strips, Akbar and Jeff' and Life in Hell.

Groening's long running comic strip Life in Hell is being cut out of the LA Weekly where the weekly strip had been for the past 22 years.CNN.com: Matt Groening looks to the future (February 26, 2009)

Growing up in Portland Oregon, Groening took to cartooning as an escape from the drudgery of school. Life in Hell was first published in 1978 and quickly gained a cult following, but Groening didn't enter mainstream media until 1985, when he was commissioned to make animated shorts for the FOX comedy series The Tracey Ullman Show.

One of the shorts featured was The Simpsons, which was spun off into its own program in 1989 and became enormously successful, broadly merchandised and, eventually, a feature length film. Futurama, Groening's other major TV endeavor, ran for four years (1999 to 2003) and was revived by Comedy Central in 2008, for a run of four direct-to-DVD movies, aired in half-hour episodes.

1. Groening's habit of giving his characters the middle initial "J" ("Philip J. Fry," "Homer J. Simpson") is a tribute to Jay Ward, creator of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show ("Bullwinkle. J. Moose" and "Rocket. J. Squirrel").
2. Simpsons named after Groening's family: his parents (Homer and Marge) and sisters (Maggie and Lisa).

• Note: Some of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.

• February 15, 1954: Born in Portland, Oregon

• 1977: Created Life in Hell

• April 19, 1987: First The Simpsons short premieres on The Tracy Ullman Show

• 1989: The Simpsons

• 1999: Futurama

• 2007: The Simpsons Movie