Greg Daniels | |
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![]() Daniels in 2014 | |
Born | Gregory Martin Daniels June 13, 1963 New York City, U.S. |
Occupation |
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Alma mater | Harvard University |
Period | 1987–present |
Spouse | |
Children | 4 |
Relatives | Paul Lieberstein (brother-in-law) Warren Lieberstein (brother-in-law) |
Gregory Martin Daniels (born June 13, 1963) [1] [2] [3] is an American screenwriter, television producer, and director. He has worked on several television series, including writing for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons , adapting The Office for the United States, and co-creating Parks and Recreation and King of the Hill . Daniels attended Harvard University, where he befriended and began collaborating with Conan O'Brien. His first writing credit was for Not Necessarily the News , before he was laid off because of budget cuts.
He joined the writing staff of The Simpsons during its fifth season. He wrote several classic episodes, including "Lisa's Wedding", "Bart Sells His Soul", and "22 Short Films About Springfield". He left The Simpsons to co-create another long-running animated series, King of the Hill, with Mike Judge. The show ran thirteen years before its cancellation in 2009. During the run of King of the Hill, he worked on several other series, including the American version of The Office and Parks and Recreation. In 2016, he was an executive producer on the TBS series People of Earth . With The Office star Steve Carell, Daniels co-created the Netflix comedy series Space Force . He also created the Amazon science fiction comedy series Upload .
Daniels was born in New York City, [1] the son of Judy, who worked at the New York Public Library, and Aaron Daniels, who was president of ABC Radio Network. [2] Daniels' father is of Russian-Jewish descent. [4] He has stated that he became interested in comedy by watching Monty Python's Flying Circus as a child,[ citation needed ] as well as reading books by humorist S.J. Perelman at age 11. [5] His first joke was a Carnac the Magnificent joke for his father which was later used for The Office episode, "The Dundies". [6]
Daniels attended Phillips Exeter Academy and then Harvard University where he wrote for the Harvard Lampoon with Conan O'Brien. [7] After graduating in 1985, the two accepted jobs at Not Necessarily the News , but they were soon fired due to budget cuts. [7]
Daniels and O'Brien met Lorne Michaels in late 1987 and were given a three-week try-out in the Saturday Night Live writing staff. [7] While on the staff, Daniels won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program. [8] Daniels left the writing staff in 1990.
Daniels joined the writing staff of the Fox show The Simpsons in 1993. He was hired in the fifth season following the departures of many of the original team of writers. [9] His first day also coincided with O'Brien's last day on the series. [10]
When he initially joined the series, he believed the series had gone past the "glory years" and that he had "missed the boat". [11] In the fifth season, Daniels penned "Homer and Apu", "Secrets of a Successful Marriage", and "The Devil and Homer Simpson" segment of "Treehouse of Horror IV".
Daniels received an Emmy nomination in the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics" category for the song "Who Needs The Kwik-E-Mart?" from "Homer and Apu". [8] For season six, he wrote "Homer Badman", "Lisa's Wedding", and the "Time and Punishment" segment from "Treehouse of Horror V". The latter episode became the third of the series to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. [8] In the seventh season, Daniels wrote "Bart Sells His Soul", which was based on a childhood experience. [12] His final credit for the series was for "22 Short Films About Springfield", which he served as supervising writer alongside showrunner Josh Weinstein. They were given the responsibility of linking all the stories together. [13]
Daniels left The Simpsons to work on King of the Hill (another Fox show) alongside Mike Judge. [14] Daniels rewrote the pilot script and created several important characters that did not appear in Judge's first draft (including Luanne and Cotton), as well as some characterization ideas (e.g., making Dale Gribble a conspiracy theorist). [15]
Daniels also took the writers to Texas to do some research with reporter notebooks, a process he would use for The Office and Parks and Recreation. [16] Judge was ultimately so pleased with Daniels' contributions that he chose to credit him as a co-creator, rather than give him the "developer" credit usually reserved for individuals brought on to a pilot written by someone else. [15] During the fifth and sixth seasons, Judge and Daniels became less involved with the show. They eventually focused on the show again, although Daniels steadily became more involved with other projects. [15]
In 2005, Daniels adapted the popular BBC mockumentary series The Office for American audiences. The series premiered to mixed reviews, [17] [18] So the writers worked to make it more "optimistic" and make the lead character, Michael Scott, more likable. [19] The second season was significantly better received and it was named the second best TV series of 2006 by James Poniewozik, writing that "Producer Greg Daniels created not a copy but an interpretation that sends up distinctly American work conventions ... with a tone that's more satiric and less mordant. ... The new boss is different from the old boss, and that's fine by me." [20] He gave the acceptance speech at the 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards when the American version of The Office won the award for Outstanding Comedy Series, and he received an award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series at the 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. [21] [22]
Following the success of The Office, Ben Silverman asked Daniels to create a spin-off for the series. [23] After considering several ideas, Daniels and co-creator Michael Schur eventually decided that the series would not get a spin-off because Daniels and Schur "couldn't find the right fit". [23] [24] After Amy Poehler agreed to play the lead, they decided their new series would revolve around an optimistic female bureaucrat in small-town government. [24] The premise of Parks and Recreation was partly inspired by the portrayal of local politics on the HBO drama series The Wire , as well as the renewed interest in and optimism about politics stemming from the 2008 United States presidential election. [25] The series initially received mixed reviews, much like The Office in the first season, but after a re-approach to its format and tone, the later seasons received critical acclaim. [26] [27] For four years, he split his time between The Office and Parks and Recreation, [28] before eventually returning as full-time showrunner for The Office for its ninth and final season. [29] [30]
In 2011, Daniels made a deal with NBC to produce several series for Universal Television. [31] He also developed the British series Friday Night Dinner for American audiences. [31] The remake was picked up for a pilot, which was written by Daniels and directed by Ken Kwapis, [32] and featured Allison Janney and Tony Shalhoub as the mother and father. [33] The pilot was eventually not picked up for series. [34] He also teamed with Mindy Kaling and Alan Yang to work on two different animated series for NBC [31] and made a deal to executive produce a new pilot written by The Office writer Owen Ellickson and starring The Office cast member Craig Robinson. [35] He served as director and executive producer on the TBS series People of Earth . In January 2019, Netflix announced that he would write and produce a new series called Space Force starring Steve Carell, who was the lead in Daniels' previous sitcom The Office. He created the Amazon original sci-fi series Upload which started streaming in May 2020. [36]
In 2021, it was announced that Daniels and King of the Hill co-creator Mike Judge had reunited to form an animation company called Bandera Entertainment, [37] to "expand the format to include as many subgenres as live-action fare." Their first produced series was Anna Drezen's Praise Petey [38] starring Annie Murphy, John Cho, and frequent Judge collaborator Stephen Root among others. The series premiered on July 21, 2023, on Freeform and Hulu, and received mostly positive reviews, [39] [40] [41] [42] with Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 80% Fresh from critics, and 90% Fresh from audiences. [43]
Other series in development from Daniels and Judge include an adaptation of Exploding Kittens for Netflix, [44] a reboot of King of the Hill for Hulu, [45] Zach Woods and Brandon Gardner's In the Know , [46] and Caitie Delaney and Caleb Hearon's Best Buds [47] for Peacock, Chelm: The Smartest Place on Earth with Sacha Baron Cohen for Cartoon Network and Max, [48] and Common Side Effects for Adult Swim. [49] They were also producing Nicole Silverberg's Bad Crimes, starring Nicole Byer and Lauren Lapkus for Netflix, but it was canceled mid-production. [50]
Daniels met Susanne Dari Lieberstein while she was Lorne Michaels' assistant at Saturday Night Live [51] and they eventually married. [51] She is the sister of Paul Lieberstein, writer for King of the Hill and the replacement showrunner of The Office for Daniels. [52] Daniels was also the brother-in-law to The Office cast member Angela Kinsey until her divorce from The Office writer Warren Lieberstein in 2010.
Daniel's work has received mainly positive reception. Out of the six TV series that Daniels has worked on, four of them— Saturday Night Live , The Simpsons , King of the Hill and The Office —were named among Time reviewer James Poniewozik's All Time 100 TV Shows. [53] His work on The Simpsons has received acclaim from critics and fans. Two of his episodes, "Bart Sells His Soul" and "22 Short Films About Springfield", were listed among the show's creative team's top five favorite episodes in 2003. [54] [55] Series creator Matt Groening and executive producer James L. Brooks have named his episodes among their favorites. [56] [57] Other staff members and several critics have praised his work. [58] [59] [60] His other animated series and his first credit as a creator, King of the Hill , has received positive reviews as well. IGN named it the 27th best-animated television series and the site mainly complimented the series for its subtle character humor. [61]
No one seems to nail these characters like Daniels does. It was a daunting challenge to write off Michael in a way that was emotionally satisfying, true to the spirit of the show, but also funny. Daniels expertly walked that tightrope and threw in some treats for longtime fans as well.
His next television series, The Office, ranked as NBC's highest rated show for a majority of its run, according to the Nielsen ratings. [63] The series has also been put on several top series lists by many publications including Time, [64] [20] [65] BuddyTV, [66] Metacritic, [67] The Washington Post , [68] and Paste . [69] His writing credits for the series are often considered the best of the series. [62] [70] [71] [72] Despite its early acclaim, later seasons have received criticism for a dip in quality, notably after Daniels was less involved. [73] [74] [75] Daniels' next series, Parks and Recreation, has been called "the smartest comedy on TV" by Entertainment Weekly . [76]
Daniels has been nominated for twenty-one Emmys and has won five. [77] Those wins are for:
Daniels was also awarded Austin Film Festival's Outstanding Television Writer Award in 2008. [80]
Year | Title | Creator | Director | Showrunner | Writer | Executive Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1985–1987 | Not Necessarily the News | No | No | No | Yes (8) | No | Sketches Show |
1987–1988 | The Wilton North Report | No | No | No | Yes (21) | No | Live Show |
1987–1990 | Saturday Night Live | No | No | No | Yes (53) | No | |
1992 | Seinfeld | No | No | No | Yes (1) | No | |
1993–1998 | The Simpsons | No | No | No | Yes (8) | Co-executive producer (29) | Also produced 25 episodes and co-produced 22 episodes |
1997–2010, TBA | King of the Hill | Yes | No | Yes (85) | Yes (2) | Yes | Co-created with Mike Judge |
2000 | Life's Too Short | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | |
Monsignor Martínez | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | TV Pilot | |
2003 | A.U.S.A | No | No | No | No | Consulting producer | |
2005–2013 | The Office | Developer | Yes (13) | Yes (151) | Yes (13) | Yes | Also produced 29 episodes; Based on the show The Office by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant |
2009–2015 | Parks and Recreation | Yes | Yes (3) | Yes (30) | Yes (1) | Yes | Co-created with Michael Schur |
2012 | Friday Night Dinner | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | TV Pilot; Co-created with Robert Popper |
2013 | The Mindy Project | No | Yes (1) | No | No | No | |
Hello Ladies | No | Yes (1) | No | No | No | ||
2016–2017 | People of Earth | No | Yes (2) | No | No | Yes | |
2020 | A Parks and Recreation Special | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Co-created with Michael Schur |
2020–present | Upload | Yes | Yes (2) | Yes (17) | Yes (4) | Yes | |
2020–2022 | Space Force | Yes | No | Yes (17) | Yes (3) | Yes | Co-created with Steve Carell |
2023 | Praise Petey | No | No | No | No | Yes | Executive producer with Mike Judge |
2024 | In the Know | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
Michael Craig Judge is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director, and musician. He is the creator of the animated television series Beavis and Butt-Head, and the co-creator of the television series King of the Hill (1997–2010), The Goode Family (2009), Silicon Valley (2014–2019), and Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus (2017–2018). He wrote and directed the films Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996), Office Space (1999), Idiocracy (2006), and Extract (2009), and co-wrote the screenplay to Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (2022).
The Office is an American mockumentary sitcom television series based on the 2001–2003 BBC series of the same name created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Adapted for American television by Greg Daniels, a veteran writer for Saturday Night Live, King of the Hill, and The Simpsons, the show depicts the everyday work lives of office employees at the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, and aired on NBC from March 24, 2005, to May 16, 2013, with a total of nine seasons consisting of 201 episodes. The show was co-produced by Daniels' Deedle-Dee Productions and Reveille Productions, in association with Universal Television. The original executive producers were Daniels, Gervais, Merchant, Howard Klein and Ben Silverman, with numerous others being promoted in later seasons.
King of the Hill is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels that initially aired on Fox from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, with four more episodes airing syndicated from May 3 to 6, 2010. The series centers on the Hills, an American family in the fictional city of Arlen, Texas, as well as their neighbors, co-workers, relatives, classmates, friends, and acquaintances. Series protagonist, patriarch, and everyman Hank Hill works as assistant manager at Strickland Propane. He lives in a ranch-style house with his wife Peggy, his son Bobby, his niece Luanne, and his pet bloodhound Ladybird. Hank's neighbors are his longtime friends Bill Dauterive, a divorced, bald, overweight military barber and former high school football star; Dale Gribble, a paranoid, pro-gun, anti-government pest exterminator; and Jeff Boomhauer, a charismatic, soft-spoken, often unintelligible bachelor whose occupation is revealed in the final episode of the series. The show's realistic approach seeks humor in the conventional and mundane aspects of everyday life, such as blue-collar workers, substitute teachers, and the trials of puberty.
Michael Herbert Schur is an American television producer, writer, director, and actor. He was a producer and writer for the comedy series The Office, and co-created Parks and Recreation with Office producer Greg Daniels. He created The Good Place, co-created the comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and was a producer on the series Master of None. He also played Mose Schrute on The Office. In 2021, he was one of three co-creators of the Peacock comedy series Rutherford Falls.
Paul Bevan Lieberstein is an American actor, screenwriter, television director and television producer. A Primetime Emmy Award winner, he is best known as a writer, executive producer, and supporting cast member Toby Flenderson on the NBC sitcom The Office. He served as the series' showrunner from seasons five to eight.
Jennifer Ann Celotta is an American television producer, writer, and director. Among her credits are The Office,Cobra Kai, Abbott Elementary, Malcolm in the Middle, The Newsroom, Greg the Bunny, Andy Richter Controls the Universe and Home Improvement. She has directed three episodes of The Office: "Crime Aid", "The Promotion" and " Promos". By the fifth season, Celotta was serving as an Office executive producer and one of the series show runners, along with fellow writer Paul Lieberstein. Celotta and Lieberstein wrote the fifth season finale "Company Picnic", which ended with character Pam Beesly learning she is pregnant.
Brent Forrester is an American writer and producer, who has written for 6 Emmy Award-winning television comedies. He wrote several episodes of the animated television sitcom The Simpsons between 1993 and 1997. He has worked as a writer on The Ben Stiller Show, Mr. Show with Bob and David, Undeclared, Super Fun Night and The Office. He served as head writer and executive producer on King of the Hill, Love, The Office and Space Force. Forrester has also written feature films.
"The Job" is the third-season finale of the American version of The Office and the show's 52nd and 53rd episodes overall. In this episode, Michael prepares for his interview for the corporate job and names Dwight as his successor, whose managing methods are unpopular. Jan arrives at the office to see Michael and everyone is shocked when it appears she has undergone breast augmentation. Jim and Karen also interview for the corporate position, and Pam deals with the consequences of her earlier outburst.
The fourth season of the American television comedy The Office premiered in the United States on NBC on September 27, 2007, and concluded on May 15, 2008. The season consisted of 9 half-hour episodes, and 5 hour-long episodes to comprise the 19 total episodes of material created. The Office is an American adaptation of the British TV series of the same name, and is presented in a mockumentary format, portraying the daily lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictitious Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The season was originally set to include 30 episodes, but due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, production was called to a halt, in result, the season was shortened to 19 episodes. It stars Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, and B. J. Novak, with supporting performances from Melora Hardin, Ed Helms, Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Creed Bratton, Kate Flannery, Mindy Kaling, Angela Kinsey, Paul Lieberstein, Oscar Nunez, Craig Robinson, and Phyllis Smith.
The fifth season of the American television comedy The Office premiered in the United States in the 2008–2009 television season on NBC on September 25, 2008 and concluded on May 14, 2009. The fifth season consisted of 28 half-hours of material, divided into 24 half-hour episodes and two hour-long episodes. The Office is an American adaptation of the British TV series, and is presented in a mockumentary format, portraying the daily lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictitious Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The season stars Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, and B. J. Novak, with supporting performances from Ed Helms, Melora Hardin, Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Creed Bratton, Kate Flannery, Mindy Kaling, Angela Kinsey, Paul Lieberstein, Oscar Nunez, Craig Robinson, and Phyllis Smith.
"Stress Relief" is a two-part episode of the American comedy television series The Office. It constitutes the fourteenth and fifteenth episodes of the fifth season and the 86th and 87th overall episodes of the series. Both episodes were directed by Jeffrey Blitz and written by Paul Lieberstein, who also plays Toby Flenderson on the show.
Parks and Recreation is an American political satire mockumentary television sitcom created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur. The series aired on NBC from April 9, 2009, to February 24, 2015, for 125 episodes, over seven seasons. A special reunion episode aired on April 30, 2020. The series stars Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, a perky, mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks Department of the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. The ensemble and supporting cast features Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins, Aziz Ansari as Tom Haverford, Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson, Aubrey Plaza as April Ludgate, Chris Pratt as Andy Dwyer, Adam Scott as Ben Wyatt, Paul Schneider as Mark Brendanawicz, Rob Lowe as Chris Traeger, Jim O'Heir as Garry "Jerry" Gergich, Retta as Donna Meagle, and Billy Eichner as Craig Middlebrooks.
The sixth season of the American television comedy The Office premiered in the United States on NBC on September 17, 2009, and concluded on May 20, 2010. The season consisted of 22 half-hour episodes, and 2 hour-long episodes to comprise the 26 total episodes of material created. The Office is an American adaptation of the British TV series, and is presented in a mockumentary format, portraying the daily lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictitious Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The season stars Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, B. J. Novak, and Ed Helms, with supporting performances from Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Creed Bratton, Kate Flannery, Mindy Kaling, Ellie Kemper, Angela Kinsey, Paul Lieberstein, Oscar Nunez, Craig Robinson, and Phyllis Smith.
The second season of Parks and Recreation originally aired in the United States on the NBC television network starting September 17, 2009, and ended on May 20, 2010. The season was produced by Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios, and series co-creators Greg Daniels and Michael Schur served as executive producers. Like the first season, it focuses on Leslie Knope and her staff on the parks and recreation department of the fictional Indiana town of Pawnee. The episodes were approximately 22 minutes long each, all of which aired at 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays. The season stars Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Paul Schneider, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, and Chris Pratt.
The seventh season of the American television comedy The Office premiered on September 23, 2010 and concluded on May 19, 2011 on NBC. The season consisted of 26 half-hours of material, divided into 22 half-hour episodes and two hour-long episodes. The seventh season aired on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. (ET) as part of Comedy Night Done Right. It stars Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, B. J. Novak, and Ed Helms, with supporting performances from Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Creed Bratton, Kate Flannery, Mindy Kaling, Ellie Kemper, Angela Kinsey, Paul Lieberstein, Oscar Nunez, Craig Robinson, Phyllis Smith, Zach Woods, and Amy Ryan. This was the last season to feature Michael Scott, played by Carell, as the lead character. The seventh season was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on September 6, 2011.
"Goodbye, Michael" is the twenty-second episode of the seventh season of the American comedy series The Office and the show's 148th episode overall. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on April 28, 2011. In the episode, Michael prepares to leave for Colorado with Holly and spends his last day in the office saying goodbye to everyone individually, wanting no drama to ensue. Meanwhile, new manager Deangelo and Andy try to keep Michael's biggest clients.
The eighth season of the American television comedy The Office commenced airing on NBC in the United States on September 22, 2011, and concluded on May 10, 2012, consisting of 24 episodes. The series is an American adaptation of the British comedy series, and is presented in a mockumentary format, portraying the daily lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictitious Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The eighth season of The Office aired on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. (Eastern) in the United States as part of the "Comedy Night Done Right" television block. It stars Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, B. J. Novak, Ed Helms, and James Spader, with supporting performances from Catherine Tate, Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Creed Bratton, Kate Flannery, Mindy Kaling, Ellie Kemper, Angela Kinsey, Paul Lieberstein, Oscar Nunez, Craig Robinson, Phyllis Smith, and Zach Woods. This was the first season without Steve Carell as Michael Scott in the lead role and the only one to not feature the character in any onscreen capacity, although he is occasionally mentioned.
"Finale" is the series finale of the American comedy television series The Office. It serves as the 24th and 25th episodes of the ninth season, and the 200th and 201st episodes of the series overall. The episode was written by series developer and executive producer Greg Daniels and directed by Ken Kwapis, who directed the series' pilot episode. It originally aired on NBC on May 16, 2013, preceded by an hour-long series retrospective.
Anna Drezen is an American writer, actress, and comedian who has written for television comedies like Miracle Workers, Girls5eva, Murderville, and Saturday Night Live, where she served as Head Writer during seasons 46 and 47. She is the creator of the Freeform series Praise Petey.
Gregory Martin [Daniels]...I was born in New York City in 1963.
Daniels' father, AARON, 87, the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant...
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