John Altschuler

John Altschuler (born 1963) is an American screenwriter and television and film producer. He is known for his collaborative projects with Mike Judge and Dave Krinsky, most notably co-creating the HBO series Silicon Valley His mother was a homemaker and his father was a merchant seaman who became an anthropologist. In his early teens, his family moved to Greenville, N.C., followed by a move to Cary, N.C. He graduated from Cary High School in 1981.

Altschuler attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he majored in economics and anthropology. He also co-created and performed in the Half-Hour Comedy Show, the first comedy show produced by UNC Student Television, with fellow student Dave Krinsky.

King of the Hill In 1997, the duo became writers for Fox’s King of the Hill, working there for thirteen years and serving as executive producer for its final seven seasons. Of the animated show, Altschuler said, "You can't find an issue that is bedeviling our society that we haven't dealt with." Altschuler said, "It used to be very frustrating, until we realized we do a show with great writers and great actors about really interesting subject matter, so let's just keep doing it and hope for the best."

The Goode Family In 2008, Altschuler, Krinsky, and Judge formed Ternion Productions, a film and television production company. In 2009, Ternion created The Goode Family, an animated show about left-wing vegans, for ABC. Altschuler said, "It's not about knocking it [the Green Movement] down. The idea for the show came from us all having these similar experiences where we're trying so hard to be good, and they keep changing the playing field. One of the epiphanies was the paper-or-plastic debate. Then I got a reusable bag, and I looked at it. It was made in China." Altschuler indicated that Comedy Central was a better fit for the show than the more mainstream ABC because "The censorship standards at ABC are very tight…The Goode Family would have been a much better show if we didn't have to pussyfoot around neo-Nazi sensibilities." This show was generally disliked by critics from the Hollywood Reporter, New York Times, NPR, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Gina Bellefonte of the New York Times said it was, "aggressively off-kilter with the current mood." A critic noted, the show was "still a rowdy, guilty hot" and that it "once again might be the best thing on the network." One reviewer called Silicon Valley "one of the most acclaimed and celebrated comedy shows in Peak Television. Through its smart writing, a keen understanding of Silicon Valley's weird tech bubble, and witty performances from our talented ensemble, this [is a] foul-mouthed, confidently lewd, but unsuspectingly clever program."

History of the World In 2016, Altschuler and Krinsky co-created and co-produced a docu-comedy for National Geographic called History of the World: Now We Know. The mini-series used "sketch comedy, animation, puppetry, documentary and archival footage to explore weighty questions," including sports, religion, money, evolution and more. It was NatGeo's first comedy series. Lopez was filmed with a single camera. It premiered on TV Land on March 30, 2016, and was renewed for a second and final season. Although Lopez was fiction, one critic noted it features a "scarily realistic, take on Lopez's life… [depicting] his disconnect with the Hispanic community because of his Hollywood success and wealth accumulation." In 2019, Altschuler and Krinsky were hired to adapt the novel,The Players Ball: A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet’s Rise by David Kushner, for television. TBS has ordered a pilot for this which is about the beginnings of Match.com, an early dating website. Both Alschuler and Krinsky co-produced the film Extract (2009) starring Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig, and Ben Affleck, and was also written directed by Judge. Altschuler and Krinsky also wrote a script for the unproduced Illumination's CGI animated Woody Woodpecker feature. Through Ternion Productions, Altschuler and his writing partner Krinksy also wrote scripts together for the unproduced CGI animated Casper the Friendly Ghost feature for DreamWorks Animation from director Simon Wells, and the unproduced CGI animated Popeye the Sailor Man feature for Sony Pictures Animation from director Genndy Tartakovsky.

Awards Altschuler received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations for producing and writing, including Outstanding Comedy Series in 2014 and 2015 for Silicon Valley, and Outstanding Animated Program (less than one hour) in 2001, 2006 and 2008 for King of the Hill.

Personal life In 1996, Altschuler married Leah Harris, of Wollaston, MA. They live in Studio City, California.