James L. Brooks has 34 credits at Criticker, including: The Simpsons Movie, As Good As It Gets and Spanglish

Growing up in Portland, Oregon, Matt Groening did not particularly like school, which is what originally turned him towards drawing. In the mid-1980s, he moved to Los Angeles and started drawing a comic strip named "Life in Hell" which eventually became published in the newspaper where he worked. In 1988, James Brooks, looking for a filler in the television show "The Tracy Ullman show", turned towards a framed "Life in Hell" strip on his wall and contacted Groening. The animated shorts that Groening created were "The Simpsons".