The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom which was created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a satirical parody of the middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its titular family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional town of Springfield, and it lampoons many aspects of the human condition, as well as American culture, society as a whole, and television itself.
The family was conceived by Groening shortly before a pitch for a series of animated shorts with the producer James L. Brooks. Groening created a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family, substituting Bart for his own name. The shorts became a part of The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. After a three-season run, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show and was an early hit for Fox, becoming the first Fox series to land in the Top 30 ratings in a season (1992-1993).
Since its debut on December 17, 1989, the show has broadcast 423 episodes and the twentieth season commenced airing in on September 28, 2008.[1] The Simpsons Movie, a feature-length film, was released in theaters worldwide on July 26 and July 27, 2007, and has grossed approximately US$526.2 million worldwide to date.
The Simpsons has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 24 Emmy Awards, 26 Annie Awards and a Peabody Award. Time magazine's December 31, 1999 issue named it the 20th century's best television series, and on January 14, 2000 it was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Simpsons is the longest-running American sitcom and the longest-running American animated program. Homer's annoyed grunt "D'oh!" has been adopted into the English lexicon, while The Simpsons has influenced many adult-oriented animated sitcoms.

Yeardley Smith

Yeardley Smith is the voice of Lisa Simpson - the wise, thoughtful, intelligent, saxophone-playing, vegetarian member of the Simpson family.Smith was born in Paris, France, where her father was a correspondent with UPI. By the time she was two, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where she grew up.Smith began her career when she was 14 years old, at a local dinner theater outside of Washington, D.C., where she played Tinkerbell in an unauthorized musical adaptation of Peter Pan. Upon graduating from high school, she performed in a play at New Playwright’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. earning rave reviews for her part in a new musical comedy revue that paved the way to Arena Stage, where she appeared in Tom Stoppard’s On The Razzle and Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid.The following year, Smith moved to New York where she understudied the role of Debbie in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close. She took over the role two months into the Broadway run and played the part for eight months. During that time, she also did her first two movies: Heaven Help Us and The Legend of Billie Jean.In 1986 Smith moved to Los Angeles, “did a dreadful pilot and a good play,” and won the part of Lisa Simpson when THE SIMPSONS began on The Tracey Ullman Show.Other television credits include guest appearances on Dharma & Greg, Murphy Brown, Empty Nest, Tales from the Dark Side, Mama’s Family, Louie and three years as “Louise Fitzer” on FOX’s Herman’s Head. Other film credits include As Good As It Gets, Jingle All The Way, City Slickers, Maximum Overdrive and Silence Like Glass.

Nancy Cartwright

Emmy Award-winning actress Nancy Cartwright is best known as the voice of spike-headed underachiever Bart Simpson, but also gives voice to Ralph Wiggum, Nelson Muntz, Todd Flanders and various others in the town of Springfield. In addition to her work on The Simpsons, Cartwright portrays Chuckie in Nickelodeon's Rugrats, as well as Rufus the Naked Mole Rat in the Disney show Kim Possible. With over two decades at the mic, Cartwright has lent her voice to characters on various other animated series, including Richie Rich; Animaniacs; Pinky and the Brain; The Critic; God, The Devil and Bob; Mike, Lu & Og; as well as Chuck Jones' final work, Timberwolf. While rarely seen in the world of voice actor, Cartwright is not camera shy. She has portrayed memorable roles in numerous television series and movies, including Fame; Empty Nest; Cheers; The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air; Twilight Zone-The Movie; and Godzilla as well as the lead in the TV movie, Marian Rose White. Cartwright received an Emmy Award and Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in voice-over performance as Bart Simpson. They are displayed along side the multiple Simpsons Emmys; her Emmys for Animaniacs and Pinky, Elmyra and The Brain; a People's Choice Award; and the DramaLogue Award she received for her one-woman play, In Search of Fellini. Through the SportsBlast division of her animation production company, Cartwright Entertainment, Cartwright was recognized by the Houston Film Festival for her series The Kellys. In 2002 it received The Silver Award acknowledging the excellent work of Sports Blast and partner AOL/Time Warner in debuting The Kellys on Nascar.com Cartwright actively supports many non-profit organizations that help children including Famous Fone Friends, Make-a-Wish Foundation, The Way to Happiness Foundation and World Literacy Crusade. She is a member of Women in Film,ASIFA - The International Animation Society, Women in Animation and The Chouinard Foundation. Cartwright's best-selling autobiography "My Life as a Ten-Year-Old Boy" (Hyperion/Bloomsbury) takes a behind-the-scenes look at her unique life as it relates to the phenomenon of The Simpsons.

Harry Shearer

The voice of many of FOX's Emmy Award-winning series THE SIMPSONS, Harry Shearer gives life to some of Springfield’s more colorful characters: Mr. Burns, Flanders, Principal Skinner, Reverend Lovejoy and Otto. To date, Shearer’s unique talent has produced an inimitable and irreverent body of work in every major entertainment genre. Most recently he wrote and directed the feature Teddy Bears’ Picnic. In addition, he is co-creator and co-star of the legendary “rockdocumentary,” This Is Spinal Tap, as well as a former writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live and the late-night talk show spoof Fernwood 2 Night. He has been a commentator on ABC’s World News Tonight, a writer for the e-zine Slate and a columnist for Los Angeles Times Magazine. His critically acclaimed radio program Le Show, a Sheareresque mix of news, parody, poignancy, trenchant sketches and music, is in its 17th year.Shearer’s acting credits include guest star appearances on ER, Chicago Hope, Miami Vice, Friends, and Murphy Brown. Feature film work includes Godzilla, The Truman Show and EdTV. In addition, Shearer reunited with Spinal Tap actors Michael McKean and Christopher Guest to lend their voice talents to DreamWorks Small Soldiers.His early television and film credits include The Jack Benny Program, Abbott and Costello Go To Mars, and the biblical drama, The Robe. In addition, he appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the coveted role of Eddie Haskell in the pilot episode of Leave It To Beaver.Other media avenues of Shearer include his recorded two-CD compilation entitled O.J. On Trial, and a multi-media exhibit of public figures captured on satellite entitled, Wall of Silence. His foray into the book publishing world produced a collection of essays, Man Bites Town, Shearer’s observations on a broad spectrum of subjects including presidential libraries, network news anchors, nationwide polls, and celebrities. Last year he released the book-length essay on the Clintons, “It’s The Stupidity, Stupid.”

Hank Azaria

Emmy Award-winner Hank Azaria provides multiple voices on FOX's animated hit series THE SIMPSONS, including Moe the bartender, Apu the Kwik-E-Mart owner, Police Chief Wiggum, Professor Frink, Dr. Nick Riviera and Comic Book Guy.Azaria most recently starred in the NBC World War II miniseries Uprising. In 2001, he starred in America’s Sweethearts, opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones, Julia Roberts and Billy Crystal. In 1999, Azaria co-starred in Cradle Will Rock, written and directed by Tim Robbins, Disney’s Mystery Alaska, a comedy written by David E. Kelley, and in Universal’s Mystery Men. He also starred with Jack Lemmon in the ABC telefilm Tuesdays With Morrie, earning him an Emmy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a TV Movie/Miniseries, as well as a 1999 SAG Award nomination for Best Actor in a TV Movie/Miniseries. In addition, he was seen as Professor Groteschele in the CBS live television broadcast Fail-Safe.In 1998 Azaria starred in Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin’s Godzilla for Twentieth Century Fox and in TriStar’s Homegrown. He also portrayed Gwyneth Paltrow’s fiance in Fox’s modern-day adaptation of Great Expectations, and appeared in Woody Allen’s Celebrity.Azaria won a Screen Actors Guild award nomination for his memorable role as Agador Spartacus, the Guatemalan houseboy, in Mike Nichols’ The Birdcage, and garnered critical praise for his portrayal of television producer Al Freedman in Robert Redford’s Academy-Award nominated Quiz Show. Other feature credits include Heat, Grosse Point Blank, Now and Then and Pretty Woman.Azaria trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and played Hamlet in a production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at Columbia University. He continued his theater studies at Tufts University, appearing in such plays as Uncle Vanya, The Merchant of Venice and The Ballad of the Sad Café.A native of Forest Hills, New York, Azaria resides in Los Angeles.

Julie Kavner

Julie Kavner won an Emmy Award in 1992 for her voice-over work as Marge Simpson and her sisters, Patty and Selma Bouvier, on FOX's historic, multi-Emmy Award-winning series THE SIMPSONS.For her performances on The Tracey Ullman Show (1987-90 on FOX), Kavner received four Emmy nominations, as well as four previous nominations for her supporting role as ‘Brenda Morgenstern’ in the situation comedy Rhoda, winning the coveted Emmy Award in 1987. In 1975 she also received a nomination for her starring role in the daytime special, The Girl Who Couldn’t Lose. Additional television credits include co-starring roles in the telefilms No Other Love with Richard Thomas, Katherine with Sissy Spacek and Revenge of the Stepford Wives with Sharon Gless.Kavner has appeared in numerous Woody Allen movies including New York Stories: Oedipus Wrecks, Radio Days, Hannah and Her Sisters, Alice and Shadows and Fog, as well as the features Surrender, National Lampoon Goes To The Movies and Bad Medicine. In 1992 Kavner starred in Nora Ephron’s feature film This is Your Life, and in 1990 co-starred with Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams in Awakenings.On stage she has played under Burt Reynolds’ direction in Two for the Seesaw with Martin Sheen at Reynolds’ Dinner Theatre in Jupiter, Florida. In Canada she starred in It Had To Be You, written by Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna.A native of Los Angeles, Kavner studied Theatre Arts and graduated with honors from San Diego State University.

Dan Castellaneta

Emmy Award-winner Dan Castellaneta is the voice of Homer Simpson…as well as Krusty the Clown, Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble, Mayor Quimby, Groundskeeper Willie and a multitude of others on the historic FOX series THE SIMPSONS.A former cast member of The Tracey Ullman Show and Sibs, Castellaneta has also made numerous guest appearances on television shows including Mad About You, LA Law, NYPD Blue, Wings, Murphy Brown, Friends, Cybill, The Drew Carey Show, Alf, Love & War, The George Carlin Show, and Married With Children. His telelvision films include the Emmy Award-winning Hand in the Glove.His feature film work includes My Giant, Space Jam, Forget Paris, The Client, War of the Roses, K9, Say Anything, Nothing in Common, and Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor for Showtime. Voice-over work includes the voices of Genie in the successful animated television series Aladdin and the sequel Return of Jaffar.Most recently, Castellaneta performed off-Broadway in The Alchemist with The Classic Stage Company. He also performed his one-man show Where Did Vincent Van Gogh? in Los Angeles and the Aspen Comedy Festival. Early in his career he performed with the famous Chicago improvisation/comedy group Second City.A native of Chicago, Castellaneta resides in Los Angeles