Childhood & Early Life
Mike Judge was born to librarian Margaret Blue and archaeologist Jim Judge on 17th October 1962 at Guayaquil, Ecuador. He was the second of the couple’s three children.
He grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico and completed his school education from the St. Pius X High School. In 1986, Mike Judge graduated from the University of California in San Diego with a degree in Physics.
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Career
After completing his graduation, Mike Judge pursued his first occupation as a programmer for the F/A-18 Hornet fighter at Support Systems Inc. In 1987, he shifted to Texas to work with a video graphics startup named Parallax Graphics, based in Santa Clara. However, he felt uncomfortable with the office setup and quit within a short period.
Thereafter he went on to pursue music and became a bass player with a ‘Blues’ band. He was associated with the team for two years. However, he realised that his passion lies in animation. In 1989, Mike Judge began making short animation cartoons that were then sent to several channels.
In 1991 he got the opportunity to visit the Dallas Animation Festival. Post the event his short film titled ‘Office Space’ was picked up by television channel Comedy Central.
The next year his short film ‘Frog Baseball’ featuring two characters named Beavis and Butt-head. This short was the base to an animated series titled ‘Beavis and Butt-head series’, which was eventually showed on MTV in 1993 around these characters. This is regarded as the first major break in his animation career.
The series ran for four years till 1997 and went on air for a year in 2011 once again. In 1996, a feature film based on the ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’ animation series was created with the title ‘Beavis and Butt-Head Do America’.
In 1997, he created the adult animated sitcom ‘King of the Hill’ for Fox Broadcasting Company. Other than being the production executive and writer for the series, he also lent his voice to two characters. This series ran for thirteen seasons and aired 259 episodes until 2010. It went on to be the third longest running prime-time animation series.
He did a voice cameo for the feature film ‘South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut’, based on popular television series named ‘South Park’ in 1999. He also wrote and directed the film adaptation of television series ‘Office Space’ that year. The movie bore the same name, and Mike Judge also made a guest appearance.
In 2001, he acted the role of ‘Donnagon Giggles’ in the science fantasy adventure film ‘Spy Kids’. He replayed his role in 2002 for ‘Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams’ and in 2003 for ‘Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over’.
In 2003, he along with animation artist Don Hertzfeldt conducted a nation- wide tour to run an animation festival ‘The Animation Show’. The duo travelled throughout the country to screen animated short films. Since then the tour has been conducted thrice - 2005, 2007 and 2008. Don Hertzfeldt parted ways after the third season.
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He wrote, directed and co-produced the satirical science fiction comedy movie ‘Idiocracy’ in 2006. He has also made cameo appearances in the film ‘Jackass Number Two’ and voice acted in animation series ‘Aqua Teen Hunger Force’ the same year.
In 2009, he wrote and directed the comedy film ‘Extract’. He also played a cameo role in the movie. The same year he created the animated cartoon series ‘The Goode family’ for American Broadcast Company. However, the show was cancelled after one season.
In 2012, he directed the video for the American country music band Zac Brown Band’s song ‘The Wind’. In 2014, Mike Judge along with John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky created TV comedy series ‘Silicon Valley’. The first season was aired in April 2014 and received much appreciation. The show has completed two seasons and is set to air its third season in April 2016.
In his career, Mike Judge has played several cameo roles like the role of Hank Hill on ‘The Cleveland Show’ (2010-2012), Beavis and Butt- Head on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2011) and ‘Family Guy’ (2013).
Awards & Achievements
In 1999, Mike Judge won the Primetime Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Animated Program’ for the episode titled ‘And They Call It Bobby Love’ in the sitcom King of the Hill.
In 2004, he was the recipient of the Certificate of Merit (Annie Awards).
He received the Outstanding Television Writer Award at the Austin Film Festival.
In 2009 he received the Prism Award for Best Comedy Episode for the episode ‘Dia-BILL-ic Shock’ in King of the Hill. The same year Mike Judge also won the Winsor Mc Cay Award.
He won the AFI Award for TV Program of the year for Silicon Valley in 2014.
In 2015, he won the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Comedy Series for Silicon Valley.
He has been nominated for several prestigious awards like the Writers Guild of America Award, Golden Globe Award, Satellite Award, Primetime Emmy Awards, Annie Awards and so on.
Personal Life & Legacy
In 1989, Mike Judge married Francesca Morocco and they had two children, Julia Judge and Lily Judge. The couple later parted ways.
In 2007, he had a son, Charles Judge, with actress Katrina Holden Bronson.
