James L. Brooks is an Academy Award, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning American television and movie director, producer and screenwriter.
Brooks wrote for several shows before creating the series Room 222.
Grant Tinker hired Brooks and producer Allan Burns at MTM Productions to create The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970. The show was critically acclaimed and won Brooks several Primetime Emmy Awards. Brooks left MTM Productions in 1978 to co-create the sitcom Taxi.
Brooks moved into feature film work when he wrote and co-produced the 1979 film Starting Over. His other films include Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, I'll Do Anything, As Good as It Gets, Spanglish, and How Do You Know.
Brooks returned to television in 1987 as the producer of The Tracey Ullman Show. He hired cartoonist Matt Groening to create a series of shorts for the show, which eventually led to The Simpsons in 1989.
James L. Brooks was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1997.
