Patric Verrone

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Patric Verrone

Born September 29, 1959
Glendale, Queens, New York
Occupation President of Writers Guild of America, west
Television writer
Nationality American

Patric Verrone (born Patric Miller Verrone on September 29, 1959 in Glendale, Queens, New York) is an American television writer. He served as a writer and producer for several animated television shows, most notably Futurama.

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[edit] Schooling and pre-television career

Verrone graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1981 where he was an editor of the Harvard Lampoon. He graduated from Boston College Law School in 1984 after serving as editor of the Boston College Law Review. He practiced law in Florida and California before becoming a television writer.

[edit] Career in television

Patric Verrone began his career as a variety show writer including a late 1980s job as monologue writer for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.[1] Shortly after his work on The Tonight Show, Patric went to write on the popular animated program Rugrats in 1991. From there, Verrone would work for the entirety of The Critic's run on television, before then moving on to write for Muppets Tonight (with which he won an Emmy[2]) and Pinky and the Brain. Eventually, Patric, would become a major contributor for Futurama. Following his work on the Futurama series, Verrone has written an episode of The Simpsons (Milhouse of Sand and Fog (2005)), developed the Cartoon Network series Class of 3000 (including writing the pilot episode Home (2006)), and wrote and produced four Futurama direct-to-DVD movies starting with Bender's Big Score (2007).

[edit] The Critic

While editor of The Harvard Lampoon, Verrone had met two writers by the name of Al Jean and Mike Reiss. Jean and Reiss, who had just served as co-show runners for The Simpsons, were creating a new animated show called The Critic. They asked Verrone to work on it and, as he says, "[He] could hardly refuse."[3]

While working on two seasons of The Critic Verrone would serve as co-producer and writer of three episodes.

Writing credits on The Critic:

  1. A Pig Boy and His Dog
  2. All the Duke's Men
  3. I Can't Believe It's a Clip Show

[edit] Futurama

Verrone's work on Futurama would last five years and garner him perhaps his highest recognition in the form of two award nominations. He would serve as producer on 59 episodes while writing 8. He returned to write and co-executive produce four direct-to-DVD Futurama movies, released between 2007 and 2009. The first, Bender's Big Score won an Annie Award for Best Home Entertainment Production.

Writing credits on Futurama episodes:

  1. "A Fishful of Dollars"
  2. "I Second That Emotion"
  3. "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"
  4. "A Clone of My Own"
  5. "The Problem with Popplers"
  6. "That's Lobstertainment!"
  7. "A Leela of Her Own"
  8. "The Sting" (for which Verrone was nominated for both an Annie Award for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Television Production and a WGA award for Television Animation Screenplay)[4]

[edit] Writers Guild of America, west

On October 23, 2002, The Animation Writers Caucus (AWC) of the Writers Guild of America, West awarded Patric Verrone a Lifetime Achievement honor of the Animation Writing Award.[5]

In 2005, Verrone was elected President of the Writers Guild of America, West with an overwhelming 68% of the vote, after pledging to devote up to 30% of the Guild's budget to organizing writers in reality television, animation, cable, and independent film. He had previously served as secretary-treasurer for the organization.[6]

Reelected WGAW President with over 90% of the vote in September of 2007, Verrone then led the Writers Guilds through a 100-day strike. The WGA abandoned its pursuit of increased DVD residuals, jurisdiction over reality programming, and jurisdiction over animated programming over the course of the strike. Unable to come to terms with the WGA, the studios (AMPTP) quickly made a deal with the Directors Guild (DGA), who did not strike. That deal was ratified by the DGA membership on February 11, 2008. The next day, the WGA ended up taking fundamentally the same deal as the DGA, leading many in the WGA to question why the strike was necessary. [7]

[edit] Personal life

In 1989, Verrone married television writer and novelist Maiya Williams. They have 3 children.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Patric Verrone interview with Shannon Muir for digitalmediaFX.com (2nd paragraph) Accessed January 31st, 2007
  2. ^ Awards for Muppets Tonight on IMDB.com Accessed on February 1st, 2007
  3. ^ Patric Verrone interview with Shannon Muir for digitalmediaFX.com (2nd paragraph) Accessed January 31st, 2007
  4. ^ Awards for Futurama on IMDB.com Accessed January 31st, 2007
  5. ^ Animation Writers Honor Patric Verrone With Lifetime Achievement Award Accessed January 31st, 2007
  6. ^ 2005 WGAw Officer and Board Election Results Accessed January 31st, 2007
  7. ^ uhunionblog: Harlan Ellison Reacts to the Proposed WGA Contract
  8. ^ Patric Verrone Bio on IMDB.com Accessed January 31st, 2007

[edit] External links

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