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Matt Groening (born February 15, 1954) (name rhymes with "raining", SAMPA ) is an American cartoon artist and the creator (and now creative consultant) of The Simpsons and Life in Hell. In high school, he was the student body president, with his title stripped when he tried to amend the constitution to make him an all-powerful president for life. Post-secondary school, he graduated from The Evergreen State College.
Before his work in television, he created the syndicated cartoon Life in Hell, which is still carried in many weekly newspapers and has been anthologized in a series of books, such as:
- School is Hell
- Love is Hell
- Work is Hell
- The Big Book of Hell
His most notable works include animated TV shows The Simpsons and Futurama. The Bart Simpson character derives from the earlier comic strip.
He grew up in Portland, Oregon, and seems to have found names for some characters from major Portland street names such as Flanders, Lovejoy, Powell, Quimby, and Terwilliger.
He named the main family Simpson characters after his own family (he was not feeling very creative that day).
- Lisa Groening - Lisa
- Margaret Groening - Marge
- Homer Groening - Homer
- Maggie Groening - Maggie
As for Matt himself, he decided it was a bit too obvious and therefore called him "Bart" (an anagram of "brat").