Bill Oakley

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

Oakley and Josh Weinstein became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans School; Oakley then attended Harvard University and was Vice President of the Harvard Lampoon.

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

Oakley and Weinstein eventually penned a spec script for Seinfeld, after which they wrote "Marge Gets a Job", an episode of The Simpsons.

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

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

He attended St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., where he met and became best friends with Josh Weinstein in the eighth grade.

The two created the school humor magazine The Alban Antic in 1983.

Such would be the length of their partnership; the two often finish each other's sentences.

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.

He graduated in 1988 after studying American history.

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.

There, he worked in publicity, doing promotion for America's Most Wanted.

In their free time, Oakley and Weinstein wrote for local comedy groups, such as Gross National Product.

In 1989, they moved to New York City after being hired to write for a game show on Ha!, before writing for a variety show on the network featuring Denis Leary.

The two also wrote for the National Lampoon and Spy.

An editor of Spy was hired by NBC to run the variety show Sunday Best, and took Oakley and Weinstein to Los Angeles with him in 1991.

When the show was canceled after three episodes, they were unemployed for a lengthy period, and Oakley lived on unemployment benefits.

He later considered applying to join the United States Foreign Service.

After changing their agent, they wrote a spec script for Seinfeld, which was well received.

Amongst those who liked it were Al Jean and Mike Reiss, showrunners of The Simpsons.

There were no openings on the staff at the time, but Oakley and Weinstein were hired to write the episode "Marge Gets a Job", based on an idea by Conan O'Brien.

The episode aired as part of season four.

Their Seinfeld script and The Simpsons episode caught the attention of Diane English, and they were offered a job on a sitcom.

Subsequently, the two were hired to write for the show on a permanent basis in 1992.

After they wrote episodes such as "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)", "Bart vs. Australia" and "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", the two were appointed executive producers and showrunners for the seventh and eighth seasons of the show.

They attempted to include several emotional episodes focusing on the Simpson family, as well as several high-concept episodes such as "Homer's Enemy", "Two Bad Neighbors" and "The Principal and the Pauper", winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for their work.

After they left The Simpsons, Oakley and Weinstein created Mission Hill.

The show was plagued by promotional issues and was swiftly canceled.

Before they accepted this job, they were told that Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky were leaving The Simpsons, and then joined the writing staff on a permanent basis in 1992, in the third season of that show.

They began as story editors.

They were initially quiet and felt "intimidated", being in the same room as "10 of the greatest minds in comedy", but eventually started pitching jokes with confidence.

They wrote their scripts together, working side by side at a computer.

They worked as consulting producers on Futurama, then created The Mullets in 2003.

The two wrote several unsuccessful TV pilots, and were due to serve as showrunners on Sit Down, Shut Up in 2009.

Oakley left the project over a contract dispute.

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

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

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

Oakley is married to fellow writer Rachel Pulido.