Michael Colton

History

Michael Colton (born 1975) is a an American screenwriter, producer, comedian, and former journalist. Colton was a staff writer for the Washington Post Style section and has also written for the New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.  While a senior at Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts, he co-wrote the SAT guide "Up Your Score." He graduated in 1997 from Harvard University, where he was an editor at both the Harvard Lampoon and the Harvard Crimson. Before moving to Los Angeles, Colton and Aboud founded and ran Modern Humorist (2000-2003), an award-winning online magazine and comedy collective based in Brooklyn. In addition to a daily magazine, Modern Humorist published three books with Crown Publishing, including the best-selling My First Presidentiary: A Scrapbook by George W. Bush. Modern Humorist also helped develop ad campaigns for Microsoft, Time Warner Cable and Amazon. For most of the ’00s, Colton and Aboud appeared regularly as panelists on Best Week Ever and other VH1 shows. They also appeared on I Love the 70s/80s/90s/00s etc. They have been panelists, separately and together, on CNN, Fox News, ABC News, CMT, NPR, The Today Show, and the DVD releases of Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. During the Writers Guild of America strike of 2007-8, Colton and Aboud created AMPTP.com, a parody of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers' official website, AMPTP.org. He is half of the writing and production team Colton & Aboud; their production cards are designed like record album covers and can also be seen on their website. They were executive producers on the HBO Max show Close Enough for seasons two and three. We wrote for Comedy Central’s The Fake News with Ted Nelms, which won a 2019 Writers Guild Award for Best Variety Special. Other credits include the DreamWorks Animation film Penguins of Madagascar; TNT’s Leverage; Adult Swim’s Childrens Hospital and Newsreaders; and Fox’s animated shows Allen Gregory and Sit Down Shut Up. Colton and Aboud wrote and produced A Futile and Stupid Gesture, a biopic about Doug Kenney and the origins of the National Lampoon. They wrote and produced an animated Zoolander series that’s streaming on Paramount+; co-wrote the film The Comebacks; and have written pilots and specials for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Comedy Central, TBS, VH1 and Adult Swim. Their writing has also appeared in Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Fortune, New York and Time. They are the creators and showrunners of ABC’s Home Economics which debuted in April 2021.

Movies

A Futile and Stupid Gesture
A Futile and Stupid Gesture
Executive Producer
The National Lampoon name became globally recognized after the monumental success of Animal House—but before the glory days, it was a scrappy yet divinely subversive magazine and radio show that introduced the world to comedic geniuses like Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Gilda Radner. The driving force behind National Lampoon was Doug Kenney, and his truly wild and crazy story unfolds in A Futile and Stupid Gesture from Harvard to Hollywood to Caddyshack and beyond.
A Futile and Stupid Gesture
A Futile and Stupid Gesture
Screenplay
The National Lampoon name became globally recognized after the monumental success of Animal House—but before the glory days, it was a scrappy yet divinely subversive magazine and radio show that introduced the world to comedic geniuses like Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Gilda Radner. The driving force behind National Lampoon was Doug Kenney, and his truly wild and crazy story unfolds in A Futile and Stupid Gesture from Harvard to Hollywood to Caddyshack and beyond.
Zoolander: Super Model
Zoolander: Super Model
Producer
Ridiculously good-looking superheroes Derek Zoolander and Hansel defend people from the dark forces of the fashion world.
Zoolander: Super Model
Zoolander: Super Model
Writer
Ridiculously good-looking superheroes Derek Zoolander and Hansel defend people from the dark forces of the fashion world.
Penguins of Madagascar
Penguins of Madagascar
Story
Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join forces with undercover organization The North Wind to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine from destroying the world as we know it.
Penguins of Madagascar
Penguins of Madagascar
Screenplay
Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join forces with undercover organization The North Wind to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine from destroying the world as we know it.
The Comebacks
The Comebacks
Author
A comedy that spoofs the inspirational sports movies, The Comebacks tells the story of an out-of-luck coach, Lambeau Fields, who takes a rag-tag bunch of college misfits and drives them towards the football championships. In the process, this life-long loser discovers that he is a winner after all by redeeming himself, saving his relationship with his family and friends, and finding that there is indeed, no "I" in "team"!