Joe Keenan (born July 14, 1958) is an American screenwriter,

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

Early life

Keenan was born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

into an Irish American

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

family. He has a twin brother, John, and two other siblings, Ronald and Geraldine. He grew up in the

blue collar A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involving manufacturing, warehousing, mining, excavation, electricity generation and power ...

neighborhood of Cambridgeport. Keenan attended

Boston College High School , motto_translation = ''So they may know You.'' , address = 150 Morrissey Boulevard , city = Boston , state = Massachusetts , zipcode = 02125 , country ...

and Columbia College.

Early career

In 1991 '' Cheers'' creators James Burrows and Glen and Les Charles, having read Keenan's novel ''Blue Heaven,'' invited Keenan to create a new sitcom for their production company. The resulting pilot, ''Gloria Vane'', starring

JoBeth Williams Margaret JoBeth Williams (born December 6, 1948) is an American actress and television director. Her directorial debut with the 1994 short film ''On Hope'' earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film. In 2009 she began ...

, was not picked up by a network, but it led to a writing post on ''

Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons. It premiered on September 16, 1993, and ended on May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee (as Grub ...

''. In 1992, his first play, ''The Times'', a musical that charts the course of a seventeen-year marriage between Liz, an actress, and Ted, a writer, won the

Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater The Richard Rodgers Award is an annual award presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was created and endowed by Richard Rodgers in 1978 for the development of new works in musical theatre. These awards provide financial support ...

, awarded by the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

. In 1993, the lyrics for ''The Times'' won the Edward Kleban Award.

''Frasier''

He joined the staff of the

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

'' as an executive story editor in 1994 for the series' second year. His first produced script for the series, "

The Matchmaker ''The Matchmaker'' is a 1954 play by Thornton Wilder, a rewritten version of his 1938 play ''The Merchant of Yonkers''. History The play has a long and colorful history. John Oxenford's 1835 one-act farce ''A Day Well Spent'' had been exte ...

", received an Emmy Award nomination, a

GLAAD Media Award The GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by GLAAD to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their liv ...

, and the 1995

Writers Guild Award The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. Eligibility T ...

for Episodic Comedy. He won a writing Emmy Award in 1996 for being one of eight writers of the classic Season 3 episode, "Moon Dance", and also received Emmy Award nominations for "The Ski Lodge" episode in 1998 and, with Christopher Lloyd, "Something Borrowed, Someone Blue," in 2000, which won the 2001 WGA award for Episodic Comedy. During his six-season tenure on ''Frasier'' he rose through the ranks from executive story editor to co-producer, supervising producer, co-executive producer, and finally, executive producer. He was executive producer when the series ended in 2004. He also co-wrote the series finale, "

Goodnight, Seattle "Goodnight, Seattle", by Christopher Lloyd and Joe Keenan, is the series finale of the American sitcom ''Frasier''. It aired on NBC on May 13, 2004, in the 11th year of the series. In syndication, it is a two-part episode. Plot Frasier (Kelsey ...

." Keenan won five Emmy Awards during his tenure on the show. He was nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series five times, and won once. He won the Outstanding Comedy Series award four times for his work as the show's producer. He also won two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the series.

''Desperate Housewives'' and beyond

In 2006, Keenan joined '' Desperate Housewives'' as a writer and executive producer for the third season of the television show. Although his work received good critical response, and one of his episodes," Bang", was named the best of the season by many critics, he left the series after one year. Keenan also created two short-lived comedy series with fellow ''Frasier'' producer and writer

Christopher Lloyd Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and on television since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown in the ''Back to the Future'' tril ...

: '' Bram & Alice'' in 2002 and ''

Out of Practice ''Out of Practice'' is an American sitcom television series that was produced by Paramount Television and originally broadcast on sister company CBS from September 19, 2005, to March 29, 2006. With producers Joe Keenan and Christopher Lloyd ...

'' in 2005. He also co-wrote the 1994 film ''

Sleep with Me ''Sleep with Me'' is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Rory Kelly and starring Meg Tilly, Eric Stoltz and Craig Sheffer, who play good friends that become involved in a love triangle, a relationship complicated by the marriage of Tilly ...

'' as well as the screenplay for the 2007 Annie Award-winning

animated feature These lists of animated feature films compiles animated feature films from around the world and is organized alphabetically under the year of release (the year the completed film was first released to the public). Theatrical releases as well as ...

Flushed Away ''Flushed Away'' is a 2006 computer-animated adventure comedy film directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell, produced by Cecil Kramer, David Sproxton, and Peter Lord, and written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Chris Lloyd, Joe Keenan a ...

''.

Fiction

Keenan is also a published author, and is commonly referred to as a "gay P.G. Wodehouse". As of 2007, he has written three novels: * '' Blue Heaven'' (1988), * '' Putting On the Ritz'' (1991), and *'' My Lucky Star'' (2006). ''Putting on the Ritz'' won the Lambda Literary Award for Humor in 1991, and ''My Lucky Star'' won the

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

for Humor in 2006. In October 2007, the novel also won the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

Personal life

Keenan lives in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, but does not drive a car. He has been with his husband, Gerry Bernardi, since 1982.

Filmography

References

External links

*
Joe Keenan profile
- GLBTQ Encyclopedia; accessed November 20, 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Keenan, Joe 1958 births 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American male screenwriters American people of Irish descent Television producers from Massachusetts American gay writers Lambda Literary Award winners LGBT screenwriters Living people Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts Writers Guild of America Award winners LGBT dramatists and playwrights American LGBT novelists LGBT people from Massachusetts 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male dramatists and playwrights Annie Award winners 20th-century American male writers Boston College High School alumni Columbia College (New York) alumni 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Massachusetts Screenwriters from Massachusetts