Al Jean Biography
Al Jean (Alfred Ernest Jean III) is an American screenwriter and producer best known for his work on The Simpsons.
Jean was born and raised in Farmington Hills, Michigan being of Irish ancestry. He graduated from Harvard University in 1981 earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.
Al Jean Age
Alfred Ernest Jean III was born on 9 January 1961 in Farmington Hills, Michigan, U.S. He is 58 years old as of 2019.
Al Jean Wife
Jean is married to television writer Stephanie Gillis. The couple got married in 2002 in Enniskerry, Ireland. They have two daughters
Al Jean Mike Reiss
Together with fellow Harvard alum Mike Reiss, Jean began his writing career in the 1980s. The duo worked as writers and producers on television shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, ALF, and also It’s Garry Shandling’s Show.
Al Jean Simpsons
Alongside Reiss, he was offered a job as a writer on the animated sitcom The Simpsons in 1989, and together they became the first members of the original writing staff of the show. The duo served as showrunners during the show’s third (1991) and fourth (1992) seasons, though they then left The Simpsons after season four to create The Critic, an animated show about film critic Jay Sherman.
During the tenth season (1998) of The Simpsons, Jean returned full-time. He also became showrunner again with the start of the thirteenth season in 2001, without Reiss, and he has held that position since. Simpsons was also one of the writers and producers who worked on The Simpsons Movie, a feature-length film based on the series, released in 2007.
He frequently appears on the Simpsons DVD audio commentaries for episodes that he has collaborated on. Jean told IGN that he enjoys doing them because he has not seen some of the episodes in ten to fifteen years, and “it’s kind of like a reunion to see some of the people that I worked with before, so it’s a really pleasant experience.”
Al Jean Disney
Reiss and Jean signed a three-year contract with The Walt Disney Company in 1994 to produce other television shows for ABC, they created and executive-produced Teen Angel, which was later canceled in its first season.
Mike said “It was so compromised and overworked. I had 11 executives full-time telling me how to do my job.” They periodically worked on The Simpsons, and they were allowed to write and produce four episodes of the show, including season eight’s “Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious” (1997) while still under Disney contract.
Al Jean The Critic
Jean and Reiss created The Critic, an animated show about film critic Jay Sherman (voiced by Jon Lovitz); the show was executive produced by Brooks. The Critic was the first broadcast on ABC in January 1994 and was well received by critics but however, did not catch on with viewers and was put on hiatus after six weeks.
It later returned in June 1994 and completed airing its initial production run. The show was moved to the Fox network for its second season airing on the same network as The Simpsons. Due to that, Brook was able to create a crossover between it and The Critic which occurred through the Simpsons episode “A Star Is Burns” (1995).
The show was again short-lived, broadcasting ten episodes before its cancellation on Fox. A total of only 23 episodes were then produced and returned in 2000 with a series of ten Internet broadcast webisodes. It has developed a cult following thanks to reruns on Comedy Central and also its complete series release on DVD.
Al Jean Simpsons Net Worth
The American writer has an estimated net worth of $200 million.
