Jordan Young (producer)

Jordan Young is an American film and television producer and writer best known for BoJack Horseman, Drawn Together, Raising Hope, and Life in Pieces.

Jordan Young
Occupation(s)Producer, writer
Years active2000–present
TelevisionBoJack Horseman
Drawn Together
Raising Hope
Life in Pieces

Early life and education

edit

Young was born and raised in Syosset, New York; he attended Syosset High School. He went to School of Visual Arts in New York City, and left after receiving a job offer in animation on The Simpsons.

Career

edit

Young began his career in animation as a character layout artist on the animated sitcom The Simpsons from 2000 until 2004,[1] in addition to the animated series The Oblongs in 2001. He began his writing career on the adult animated sitcom Drawn Together in 2004[2] after developing the series for Comedy Central along with Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein. Young was responsible for the original character designs and for helping the development team bring a visual element to the pitch to help executives understand the show's concept.[3] He later served as a consultant on the 2010 film The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! which followed the series finale. In 2008, he wrote an episode for the popular sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The following year he produced an episode of the MTV animated series DJ & the Fro and wrote multiple episodes of the satirical sitcom series Better Off Ted.[4]

He wrote and produced the popular sitcom Raising Hope from 2010 to 2014, followed by multiple episodes for the animated series Golan the Insatiable in 2015 and Son of Zorn in 2016 and 2017.

In 2015, Young co-wrote and co-executive produced the hit adult animated black comedy-drama series BoJack Horseman in collaboration with Elijah Aron.[5] The series follows BoJack Horseman, who is described as "the most beloved sitcom horse of the '90s, 20 years later. He's a curmudgeon with a heart of... not quite gold... but something like gold. Copper?" It stars Will Arnett, Aaron Paul, and Amy Sedaris.[6] Young is cited as saying of BoJack Horseman, "If he could talk, he would have pawned that burden off as quickly as possible."[7] The show's writing has received rave reviews from multiple media outlets, including The Ringer who said: "The really striking thing is the way writers Jordan Young and Elijah Aron fold a one-off adventure into the broader themes of the show."[8]

In 2017, Young and Aron were nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Animation for the BoJack Horseman episode "Fish Out of Water". The episode received rave reviews from multiple critics, including The A.V. Club, which called it "a tour de force episode", "nothing short of a masterpiece", and "a bold, tremendous, and beautiful achievement in both animation and storytelling".[9] Paste Magazine said, "...in its playful, ingenious, sensitive portrait of a stranger in a strange land, 'Fish Out of Water' is likely to leave you as it left me: speechless,"[10] The show's creator, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, also praised Young and Aron saying: "They took this thing that none of us knew how to write, and did a really good job writing a full script without the dialogue, describing everything meticulously: 'BoJack walks from the doorway to his bed. He sits down. Looks at his cigarette. How's he gonna light that?"[11] The episode also won an Award in Annecy for Special Distinction for a TV Series in the same year.[12]

In June 2017, Young was a speaker on the Film2Future Panel, a nonprofit organization serving high schoolers in Los Angeles.[13]

He has been a co-executive producer on the CBS sitcom Life in Pieces since 2017; he is also a writer for the show.

Filmography

edit

Film

edit
Year Title Role Notes
2010 The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! Consultant Direct-to-Video

Television

edit
Year Title Role Notes
2000–04 The Simpsons Character Layout Artist 20 episodes
2001 The Oblongs Character Layout Artist 2 episodes
2004–07 Drawn Together Writer (developed by), Supervising Producer, Writer 36 episodes
2008 It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Writer Episode: "Mac and Dennis: Manhunters"
2009 DJ & the Fro Consulting Producer Episode: "101"
2009–10 Better Off Ted Story Editor, Writer 13 episodes
2010–14 Raising Hope Producer, Co-Producer, Executive Story Editor, Co-Executive Producer, Writer 87 episodes
2015 Golan the Insatiable Co-Executive Producer, Writer 6 episodes
2016–17 Son of Zorn Writer, Co-Executive Producer 4 episodes
2015–17 BoJack Horseman Consulting Producer, Co-Executive Producer, Writer 36 episodes
2017–18 Life in Pieces Co-Executive Producer, Writer, Consulting Producer 15 episodes
2022 Close Enough Co-Executive Producer, Writer Episode: "Robots with Benefits"

[14][15]

Awards and nominations

edit
Year Nominee / work Award Result
2017 BoJack Horseman (Episode: "Fish Out of Water") Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Animation [16]

References

edit
  1. ^ Adalian, Denise Martin, Josef (2003-10-03). "Reality fever hits cartoons". Variety. Retrieved 2018-06-24.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Perlmutter, David (2018-05-04). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781538103746.
  3. ^ "Comedy Central's Animated Drawn Together Spoofs Reality Shows". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2018-06-24.
  4. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (2013-09-27). "Fox Buys Autobiographical Comedies From Jordan Young & Elijah Aron, Tim McAuliffe". Deadline. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  5. ^ "ABC Buys 'White Sheep' Family Comedy (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  6. ^ "BoJack Horseman | Netflix Official Site". www.netflix.com. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  7. ^ "How 'BoJack Horseman' Created the Boldest Cartoon Episode in Decades". Esquire. 2016-07-27. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  8. ^ "Office Argument: Is 'BoJack Horseman' Great or Terrible?". The Ringer. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  9. ^ Chappell, Les. "BoJack Horseman goes underwater and hits its high-water mark in a tour de force episode". TV Club. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  10. ^ "The Best Music, Movies, TV, Books, Games, Beer & More | Paste". pastemagazine.com. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  11. ^ "This BoJack Horseman Episode Is a Must-Watch, Even If You've Never Seen the Show". Vulture. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  12. ^ "Home > Festival > Awards > Film index Award winner". www.annecy.org. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  13. ^ "Kristen Schaal Talks Mentorship, Voiceover at Film2Future Panel". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  14. ^ "Jordan Young". IMDb. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  15. ^ "Jordan Young". IMDb. Retrieved 2018-06-24.
  16. ^ "Previous Nominees & Winners". awards.wga.org. Archived from the original on 2017-12-08. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
edit