Sam Simon is an American director, producer, writer, boxing manager and philanthropist. While at Stanford University, Simon worked as a newspaper cartoonist and after graduating became a storyboard artist at Filmation Studios. He submitted a spec script for the sitcom Taxi, which was produced, and later became the series’ showrunner. Over the next few years, Simon wrote and produced for Cheers, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and other programs, as well as writing the 1991 film The Super.
In 1989, he developed the animated sitcom The Simpsons with Matt Groening and James L. Brooks. Simon assembled the show’s first writing team, co-wrote eight episodes and has been credited with “developing [the show’s] sensibility.” The Simpsons premiered on the Fox network in 1989 and has remained on air ever since. The show is regarded as one of the greatest television shows of all time, with Time magazine naming it the 20th century’s best series.
Simon left the show in 1993. The following year he co-created The George Carlin Show, before later working as a director on shows such as The Drew Carey Show. Simon has won nine Primetime Emmy Awards for his television work.
Simon has since turned to fields outside television. He regularly appears on Howard Stern’s radio shows, managed boxer Lamon Brewster and helped guide him to the World Boxing Organization Heavyweight Championship in 2004 and was a regular poker player and six-time in the money finisher at the World Series of Poker. Simon runs the Sam Simon Foundation, which rescues and trains stray dogs and funded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel the MY Sam Simon, which was named after him.
