28 Facts About Bill Oakley

William Lloyd Oakley was born on February 27,1966 and is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons.

Bill Oakley worked on several short-term media projects, including writing for the variety show Sunday Best, but was then unemployed for a long period.

Bill Oakley has since written for The Cleveland Show and Portlandia, without Weinstein.

Bill Oakley served as co-executive producer and writer on Portlandia, sharing a Writers Guild of America Award with his fellow writers in 2013.

In 2018, Bill Oakley reunited with Weinstein as co-executive producer on Disenchantment, Matt Groening's animated series for Netflix.

William Lloyd Bill Oakley was born on February 27,1966, in Westminster, Maryland, and raised on a farm in Union Bridge, Maryland.

Bill Oakley was a fan of Mad magazine from an early age, which helped shape his comic sensibility.

Bill Oakley attended St Albans School in Washington, DC, where he met and became best friends with Josh Weinstein in the eighth grade.

Bill Oakley later attended Harvard University, where he wrote for and served as Vice President of the Harvard Lampoon, working on the famous 1986 USA Today parody issue.

Bill Oakley did not land a job on a major comedy series, as previous Harvard graduates who wrote for the Lampoon had done, despite writing numerous spec scripts for shows such as Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman; he thus moved back home.

Bill Oakley later considered applying to join the United States Foreign Service.

Bill Oakley wrote the scene in one afternoon and the finished product resembles almost exactly its first draft.

Bill Oakley considered season three to be the single greatest comedic season of television ever produced and so attempted to recreate the feel of that season for the two he ran, focusing on stories with real emotions and situations, as well as some off-the-wall episodes.

Bill Oakley described the episode as a companion piece to "Homer's Enemy", in that a character is juxtaposed alongside Homer and does not get along with him.

Bill Oakley considered working on the show to be similar to working in a bubble due to the lack of interference from the Fox network's executives, as is commonplace on other shows.

Bill Oakley calls the episode "[one of] the weakest episodes in Simpsons history".

Bill Oakley won three Emmys for his work on The Simpsons, and shared them with the other producers.

When Bill Oakley was the showrunner and executive producer, "Homer's Phobia" won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program in 1997.

Bill Oakley later expressed regret about not submitting an episode with a more emotionally driven plot, such as "Mother Simpson".

Bill Oakley shared the awards for "Lisa's Wedding" and "Trash of the Titans" in 1995 and 1998 respectively.

Bill Oakley ended his involvement with the show due to a contract dispute between the staff and Sony Pictures.

Bill Oakley began writing for the sketch comedy show Portlandia in its second season.

Bill Oakley became a co-executive producer from the show's third season, co-writing every episode with Fred Armisen, Carrie Brownstein and Jonathan Krisel.

Bill Oakley subsequently worked on as a co-executive producer on the Matt Groening-created series Disenchantment.

Since 2018, Bill Oakley has regularly produced short reviews of various fast food items from restaurants across the US, uploading them to his Instagram channel.

Bill Oakley created the annual Steamie Awards to credit what he felt were the best items he reviewed each year in various categories.

Bill Oakley wrote for The Simpsons and Mission Hill and was the only Hispanic staff writer in the twenty-year history of The Simpsons.

Episodes listed are those Bill Oakley has been credited as writing or co-writing.