Billy Kimball
Encyclopedia
Personal life
He was born in New York City and graduated from Harvard CollegeHarvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
where he was an editor of the Harvard Lampoon
Harvard Lampoon
The Harvard Lampoon is an undergraduate humor publication founded in 1876 at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.-Overview:Published since 1876, The Harvard Lampoon is the world's longest continually published humor magazine. It is also the second longest-running English-language humor...
. He is currently married to the former Alexandra Manuela Vargas Hamilton and has two daughters.
Career
Kimball began his career writing for the HBO series Not Necessarily the NewsNot Necessarily the News
Not Necessarily the News was a satirical sketch comedy series that ran on HBO from 1983 to 1990. It featured sketches, parody news items, commercial parodies, and humorous bits made from overdubbing or editing actual news footage. It was based on the British series, Not the Nine O'Clock News...
. He was the host and executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
of the satiric game show Clash!
Clash!
Clash! is a comedy game show which aired on Ha! from May 1, 1990 to March 31, 1991 and on Comedy Central from April 1 to December 28. The show was produced and hosted by Billy Kimball, and the theme song was composed by Carter Burwell....
and the co-host (with Denis Leary
Denis Leary
Denis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...
) of the talk show Afterdrive
Afterdrive
Afterdrive was a comedy talk show hosted by Denis Leary and Billy Kimball. It was originally broadcast on Ha! and later, after the merger with The Comedy Channel, continued on Comedy Central....
both on the Ha! Network, a predecessor of Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
.
As a writer, Kimball has worked on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, Cedric the Entertainer Presents
Cedric the Entertainer Presents
Cedric the Entertainer Presents was an American sketch comedy television series starring Cedric the Entertainer. The series premiered September 18, 2002 on Fox and after the first season, Fox renewed the show for a second season but right before the show aired its second season, Fox canceled the...
, and Lateline
Lateline
Lateline is an Australian television news and current affairs program produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, airing weeknights at on ABC1. The program has developed a reputation for head-to-head debates on current issues and political interviews. Lateline is followed by its sister...
. He has written the Independent Spirit Awards
Independent Spirit Awards
The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...
since 2002 and been a producer on the show since 2005. He has written five episodes of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, and co-wrote four with Ian Maxtone-Graham
Ian Maxtone-Graham
Ian Maxtone-Graham is an American television writer and producer. He has written for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons , and has also served as a co-executive producer and consulting producer for The Simpsons...
.
Kimball was the original executive producer of The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn from 1999 to 2001.
He has been nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for writing and won the CableAce Award
CableACE Award
The CableACE Award was an award that was given from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in American cable television programming...
for Best Documentary. His Simpsons' episode "24 Minutes
24 Minutes
"24 Minutes" is the twenty-first episode of The Simpsons eighteenth season and was broadcast on May 20, 2007 as part of the one hour season finale, alongside the episode "You Kent Always Say What You Want". It was originally promoted as being the 400th episode, but was broadcast as the 399th. It...
" received an Annie Award
Annie Award
The Annie Awards have been presented by the Los Angeles, California branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972...
in 2007 for Best Writing in an Animated Television Production. He won the Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Script for Comedy/Variety Special for the 2008 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
In 1994, he served as a senior manager
Senior management
Senior management, executive management, or management team is generally a team of individuals at the highest level of organizational management who have the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a company or corporation, they hold specific executive powers conferred onto them with and by...
for the United States Agency for International Development's Market Reform Project in Kiev, Ukraine.
Kimball has a long association with Al Franken
Al Franken
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....
. He was the executive producer of "InDecision '92," Comedy Central's coverage of the 1992 United States Presidential Election, which was anchored by Franken. From 2005 to 2007, he was the executive producer of The Al Franken Show
The Al Franken Show
The Al Franken Show was the flagship talk show of the former talk radio network, Air America Radio. Hosted by Al Franken, it featured commentary and interviews arguing for left-wing positions on the issues of the day, and comically poking fun at the George W. Bush Administration. The show began as...
on Air America Radio
Air America Radio
Air America was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk programming...
and Sundance Channel.
In 2009, Kimball began to appear as a commentator on TruTV Presents: World's Dumbest... He is currently the editor-in-chief of the on-line humor magazine The Old Yorker.
Kimball co-wrote the 2010 documentary Waiting for Superman
Waiting for Superman
Waiting for "Superman" is a 2010 documentary film from director Davis Guggenheim and producer Lesley Chilcott. The film analyzes the failures of American public education by following several students through the educational system, hoping to be selected in a lottery for acceptance into charter...
, about the failures of American public education
Education in the United States
Education in the United States is mainly provided by the public sector, with control and funding coming from three levels: federal, state, and local. Child education is compulsory.Public education is universally available...
, with filmmaker Davis Guggenheim
Davis Guggenheim
Philip Davis Guggenheim is an Academy Award-winning American film director and producer. His credits as a producer and director include Training Day, The Shield, Alias, 24, NYPD Blue, ER, Deadwood, and Party of Five and the documentaries An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for 'Superman...
. The film received the Audience Award for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
.
The Simpsons episodes
- "24 Minutes24 Minutes"24 Minutes" is the twenty-first episode of The Simpsons eighteenth season and was broadcast on May 20, 2007 as part of the one hour season finale, alongside the episode "You Kent Always Say What You Want". It was originally promoted as being the 400th episode, but was broadcast as the 399th. It...
" (co-written with Ian Maxtone-GrahamIan Maxtone-GrahamIan Maxtone-Graham is an American television writer and producer. He has written for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons , and has also served as a co-executive producer and consulting producer for The Simpsons...
) - "Smoke on the DaughterSmoke on the Daughter"Smoke on the Daughter" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons nineteenth season. It was broadcast on March 30, 2008, and was written by Billy Kimball , and directed by Lance Kramer. Lisa becomes a ballerina at an academy and discovers her natural talent is enhanced by second hand cigarette smoke...
" - "Dangerous CurvesDangerous Curves (The Simpsons)"Dangerous Curves" is the fifth episode of the twentieth season of The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 9, 2008. The episode received mixed reviews from television critics.-Plot:...
" (co-written with Ian Maxtone-Graham) - "Gone Maggie GoneGone Maggie Gone"Gone Maggie Gone" is the thirteenth episode of The Simpsons twentieth season. It originally aired on FOX in the United States on March 15, 2009. The episode was written by both Billy Kimball and longtime Simpsons writer Ian Maxtone-Graham, and directed by Chris Clements...
" (co-written with Ian Maxtone-Graham) - "The Color YellowThe Color Yellow"The Color Yellow" is the thirteenth episode of The Simpsons twenty-first season. It aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 21, 2010...
" (co-written with Ian Maxtone-Graham)
External links
- Kimball's blog at The Huffington PostThe Huffington PostThe Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...