Eric Kaplan

Eric Kaplan
Eric Kaplan at the 2009 Comic Con in San Diego.
Born	(1971-09-10) September 10, 1971 (age 45) Brooklyn, New York
Occupation	Television writer, producer, story editor
Nationality	American

Eric Kaplan (born September 10, 1971) is an American television writer, producer, and story editor. His work has included shows such as Late Show with David Letterman, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Malcolm in the Middle, Futurama and The Simpsons. He currently works on The Big Bang Theory.

Kaplan was raised in Flatbush, Brooklyn where his father was a "storefront lawyer" and his mother taught high school biology at Erasmus Hall. Kaplan graduated from Hunter College High School and Harvard College (where he wrote for the Harvard Lampoon) in 1989. Prior to committing to a career in professional writing, Kaplan had been an English teacher in Thailand. After that he took five years of philosophy graduate school at Columbia and UC Berkeley.

Starting in 1986, Kaplan interned for Spy magazine, where his duties included mopping the floors and writing blurb-length film reviews.

Eric Kaplan's first television writing job was with Late Show with David Letterman which he worked on for a year and a half before quitting and moving to Hollywood to look for a job in "half-hour" work. It was at this time that Kaplan learned of Matt Groening doing a show set in the year 3000. This show would turn out to be Futurama. After applying for work on the show using some writing samples, Eric would have to, as he says, "sweat it out", for over a month before getting the job. Upon Futurama's cancellation, Kaplan went to work for the short-lived comedy series Andy Richter Controls the Universe, writing just one episode. After Fox dropped Andy Richter, Eric Kaplan then began work on the hit show Malcolm in the Middle, Eric also wrote the "Girlfriends" episode of the popular HBO series, Flight of the Conchords.