Josh Weinstein

Josh Weinstein (born May 5, 1966) is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons.

Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the Stanford Chaparral.

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

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

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

He later attended Stanford University, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Stanford Chaparral.

Weinstein is an honorary member of the Harvard Lampoon as he worked on some of Lampoon ' s parody publications with Oakley over the summers between course years.

Weinstein did not land a job on a major comedy series, despite writing numerous spec scripts for shows such as Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman; he moved back home to Washington, D.C. There, he worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency, writing print adverts for such clients as IKEA.

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.

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.

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.

Their first episode as staff writers was "Marge in Chains", an existing idea that they were assigned.

The first draft of the script was based on research about women in prison conducted by Oakley and Weinstein, making it "slightly more realistic" than the final version of the episode, in which many realistic elements were replaced.

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, but Weinstein remained until it was canceled.

He co-produced and wrote for Futurama again during its Comedy Central revival, winning an Emmy in 2011.

Since 2013, Weinstein has served as showrunner for the CBBC series Strange Hill High, and in 2015, Danger Mouse.

He has also served as a writer for season two of Gravity Falls, co-writing nine of the season's episodes.

In 2018, Weinstein co-developed the Netflix animated series Disenchantment with creator Matt Groening, of which he and Groening served as co-showrunners.

Weinstein is married to journalist Lisa Simmons.

Weinstein was born and raised in Washington, D.C. to Rosa and Harris Weinstein.

His mother is the director of the Himmelfarb Mobile University which provides education for the elderly, while his father is a lawyer for Covington & Burling.

He has a brother, Jacob, and a sister, Teme.

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