From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jon Vitti is an American writer best known for his work on the television series The Simpsons. He has also written for the King of the Hill and The Critic series, and has served as a consultant for several animated movies, including Ice Age (2002) and Robots (2005). He is one of the eleven writers of The Simpsons Movie and also responsible for the film adaptation of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Vitti is a graduate of Harvard University, where he wrote for and was president with Mike Reiss of the Harvard Lampoon. He was also very close with Conan O'Brien while at Harvard. Prior to joining The Simpsons, he had a brief stint with Saturday Night Live. He described his experiences on a DVD commentary as "a very unhappy year". After leaving The Simpsons' writing staff in its fourth season, Vitti wrote for the HBO series The Larry Sanders Show. He is now working on The Office in the seventh season and has written the episode, Viewing Party. He is the second most prolific writer for The Simpsons; his 25 episodes place him after John Swartzwelder, who wrote 59 episodes. Vitti has also used the pseudonym Penny Wise. Vitti used the pseudonym for episodes "Another Simpsons Clip Show" and "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" because he did not want to be credited for writing a clip show as expressed on Simpsons DVD commentaries (though his name was credited for writing the first Simpsons clip show "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show"). On the season four Simpsons episode "The Front," Jon Vitti is caricatured as a Harvard graduate who gets fired from I&S Studios for penning mediocre episodes and gets hit on the head with a name plate by his boss, Roger Meyers. His wife, Ann, is the sister of fellow The Simpsons writer George Meyer (who was also a Saturday Night Live writer-turned-Simpsons writer who did not like working on SNL). He is a distant cousin of Los Angeles Lakers trainer Gary Vitti, award-winning author Jim Vitti, and actor Michael Dante (the stage name of Ralph Vitti). Description above from the Wikipedia article Jon Vitti, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Read moreShow less
Biography from TMDB.
- August 12, 1960 (66)
- USA
- Writer
- 16 on MovieCove · 21 credits in all
Known for
What are Jon Vitti's films like?
Across their 6 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Society and Bonds.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 6
Light 6 · Serious 0 · Dark 0
Grounded 0 · Stylized 5 · Heightened 1
Gentle 3 · Charged 3 · Intense 0
A split, not a type: Steady 3 · Shifting 2 · Whiplash 1
Straight-faced 0 · Some laughs 0 · Funny 6
Slow burn 1 · Even-paced 4 · Relentless 1
Casual 6 · Engaged 0 · Full focus 0
Easy watch 4 · Affecting 2 · Heavy 0
Resolved 6 · Open-ended 0 · Ambiguous 0
Moods and endings
- Happy5
- Bittersweet1
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Jon Vitti's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 15 of their 16 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Disney+ (9).
- The Office (2005) · writer
- The Simpsons (1989) · writer, producer
- Ice Age (2002) · writer
- The Simpsons Movie (2007) · writer
- Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) · writer
- Horton Hears a Who! (2008) · writer
- Robots (2005) · writer
- Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) · writer
- Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009) · writer
Subscription and free streaming for Jon Vitti's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
21 credits, 16 with a MovieCove page.
Ice Age: Boiling Point (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2027)
Fixed(2025)
Midcredits score: 23rd percentile of all films
The Angry Birds Movie(2016)
Midcredits score: 50th percentile of all films
Dinner for Schmucks(2010)
Midcredits score: 36th percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 16th percentile of all films
Surviving Sid(2008)
Midcredits score: 60th percentile of all films
Horton Hears a Who!(2008)
Midcredits score: 70th percentile of all films
Alvin and the Chipmunks(2007)
Midcredits score: 26th percentile of all films
The Simpsons Movie(2007)
Midcredits score: 89th percentile of all films
Ice Age: The Meltdown(2006)
Midcredits score: 74th percentile of all films
The Office(2005)
Midcredits score: 99th percentile of all shows
Robots(2005)
Midcredits score: 63rd percentile of all films
Cock-a-Doodle-Duel (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2004)
Ice Age(2002)
Midcredits score: 93rd percentile of all films
King of the Hill(1997)
Midcredits score: 76th percentile of all shows
The Naked Truth (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1995)
The Critic (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1994)
Phenom (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1993)
The Larry Sanders Show(1992)
Midcredits score: 93rd percentile of all shows
The Simpsons(1989)
Midcredits score: 96th percentile of all shows
Saturday Night Live(1975)
Midcredits score: 71st percentile of all shows
Career shape
A full career of 21 titles, 20 of them dated from 1975 to 2025.
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
Awards
a Primetime Emmy from 11 major nominations, 1987–2011.
- Writers Guild Award, nominated · Comedy Series
- Primetime Emmy, nominated · Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)
- Primetime Emmy, nominated · Outstanding Music and Lyrics
- Primetime Emmy, won · Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less)
- Producers Guild Award, nominated · Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television
- Primetime Emmy, nominated · Outstanding Comedy Series
- Primetime Emmy, nominated · Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series
- Primetime Emmy, nominated · Outstanding Comedy Series
- Primetime Emmy, nominated · Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series
- Primetime Emmy, nominated · Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less)
- Primetime Emmy, nominated · Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program
Major bodies only: the Oscars, Primetime Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards are named; Cannes, Venice, the Berlinale, Sundance, the directors', writers' and producers' guilds, the Grammys, Critics Choice and the Independent Spirit Awards count as other major bodies. Festival and regional prizes are not counted. Source: IMDb.
How do Jon Vitti's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 60th percentile, the median of all 11; across their 6 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 40th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up6
- 50th to 74th6
- 25th to 49th2
- Below 25th2
Shape of the crowd
8 of their 16 titles are Crowd Pleasers.
- Universally Loved4
- Crowd Pleaser8
- Broadly Agreed1
- Mixed3
Reviewers score the dialogue 44/100 and the plot and story 37/100 in their films, across 6 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a writer.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Is Jon Vitti's work okay for kids?
Across up to 5 MovieCove titles with content scores, alcohol & drugs runs heavier than most films.
Severity 0–100 from the Content Guide. Categories with under 10 votes on a title are not counted. The band's colour is the severity of their median, named beside it.
Who does Jon Vitti work with?
People who share at least 2 of Jon Vitti's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Ross Bagdasarian shares the most, 2.
Writers
- Ross BagdasarianShared titles: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)See all 2 shared titles with Ross Bagdasarian
- Mike ReissShared titles: Surviving Sid (2008), The Simpsons Movie (2007)See all 2 shared titles with Mike Reiss
Actors
- David CrossShared titles: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)See all 2 shared titles with David Cross
- Jason LeeShared titles: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)See all 2 shared titles with Jason Lee
- Jesse McCartneyShared titles: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)See all 2 shared titles with Jesse McCartney
- Justin LongShared titles: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)See all 2 shared titles with Justin Long
Producers
- Arnon MilchanShared titles: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)See all 2 shared titles with Arnon Milchan
- Janice KarmanShared titles: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)See all 2 shared titles with Janice Karman
- Karen RosenfeltShared titles: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)See all 2 shared titles with Karen Rosenfelt
- Michele ImperatoShared titles: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)See all 2 shared titles with Michele Imperato