Jay Kogen
Writer/Producer/Director
Jay Kogen, son of award-winning comedy writer Arnie Kogen, was born in Brooklyn and raised in Los Angeles. He began as a stand-up comic and an actor. While studying philosophy at UCLA, he joined The Groundlings, an improv comedy troupe in Hollywood. Then he and partner Wallace Wolodarsky, started writing critically acclaimed “The Tracey Ullman Show.” with their mentor James L. Brooks. They worked their way up to become Producers there then jumped to the spin-off, “The Simpsons” where they wrote and produced the first 5 seasons then quit thinking, “how long can this go on?”
On his own, Jay has spent the last few decades writing, producing, and directing shows such as “The Single Guy”; “Ned & Stacey”; “Frasier”; “Malcolm In The Middle”; “Everybody Loves Raymond”; “The George Lopez Show”; “Wanda At Large”; “The Class”; “The Troop”; “Happily Divorced”; “Kirstie”; “See Dad Run”; “Henry Danger”; & most recently the new reboot of “Frasier”. He also wrote pilots over the years and made several such as: “Monkey World”; “World on a String”; “What’s Up Peter Fuddy?”; “Courtship of Eddie’s Father”; “Cooked”; and “Pack Of Wolves”.
Jay has been showrunner for several series including “Wendell & Vinnie” for Nick@Nite and “School of Rock” which has been nominated for 2 Emmy Awards. Over the years, he’s been nominated for many awards including “People’s Choice” “Producers Guild Award”, “the American Comedy Award”, “The Humanitas” and “The Golden Rose of Montrose” whatever that is. Jay has 15 Emmy Nominations and has won the award 4 times. He was also voted “most likely to drop his pants on a dare” in high school.
As for movies, Jay co-wrote the movie “The Wrong Guy” with Dave Foley and Dave Higgins, which became a cult hit and won The Best Writing Award in the 1997 HBO/Aspen Comedy Arts Film Festival. The movie has become a cult hit which means people love it but Jay made no money for it. In addition, Jay has written many films that have never been made as well as re-writing “The Nutty Professor”; “The Cat In The Hat”; “The Spy Who Shagged Me“; “Madagascar”; “Goldmember”; “Bad Company”; “Shrek II”; “Shark Tales”; “Shrek III”; “Super Hero!”; “Starship Dave”; “The Love Guru”; “Walter Mitty”; “Sluts”; “My Bad Self”; “Paranorman”; “Kubo And The Two Strings”; “We Be Monsters”; “Home”; “The Hunt for Jaden Hayes”; “Zombieland 2”; “The Wildwood Chronicles” for Laika; and two new movies he can’t talk about.
Jay served on the board of the Writer’s Guild Foundation and continues to work on the advisory board of the Humanitas organization. He has mentored many writers through the WGA and Humanitas mentorship programs as well as the Veteran’s Writing Workshop with the WGAF.
Jay is currently peddling a few new pilots including the animated “Broken America” and the Alzheimer’s disease themed comedy, “I Forget”.
For the last four years, Jay has been proudly teaching his future employers at USC and starting a podcast empire with his LAWebFest nominated show, “Don’t Be Alone” with Jay Kogen.” Future projects include creating an army of robots to rule the world and trying to eat more fish instead of meat.