Stephen McDannell Hillenburg
8 min read
Reading time
1,464
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Published
5
Film credits
33
Books
4
Awards
Stephen Hillenburg created the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants in 1999, which became Nickelodeon’s highest-rated cartoon. Before animation, he taught marine biology and created a comic called The Intertidal Zone for his students. He won Daytime Emmy Awards for his work and died in 2018 from ALS at age 57.
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Stephen Hillenburg — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Stephen Hillenburg, born August 21, 1961, at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to Nancy Dufour and Kelly Neugent Hillenburg Jr., grew up in Anaheim, California, where Jacques Cousteau films sparked his fascination with marine biology. He earned a degree in natural-resource planning from Humboldt State University in 1984 and taught marine biology at the Orange County Marine Institute for three years.
Hillenburg left teaching in 1989 to study experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts. His student short films The Green Beret and Wormholes from 1992 led to a job on Nickelodeon’s Rocko’s Modern Life. In 1994, he began developing SpongeBob SquarePants, which premiered in 1999 and became a massive hit. He directed The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in 2004 and later returned for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water in 2015. His work earned him Daytime Emmy Awards and other honors.
Hillenburg married Karen Hillenburg in 1998, and they had one son, Clay, born around 1998. He was diagnosed with ALS in 2017 and died in San Marino, California, on November 26, 2018. His ashes were scattered off the coast of Los Angeles County.
SpongeBob SquarePants has aired continuously since 1999, making Hillenburg a key figure in popular culture. He received posthumous honors including the Winsor McCay Award. The show’s marine biology roots earned him an award from Heal the Bay.
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Our Characters Act Silly, Even Totally Ridiculous at Times, and Most of Our Jokes Don’t Come Out of Pop Cultural References. It Seems Like We’re Aiming at a Child Audience, Everyone Can Laugh at the Basic Human Traits That Are Funny. It’s Playful, the Humor Is Playful, the World Is Playful.
Even the Villainous Plankton, He’s Still Flawed and You Still Root for Him in a Way, and the Style of Humor Is Simple and It’s About Human Behavior, and Everybody Can Identify with That.
Working as a Marine Science Educator, I Had the Chance to See How Enamored Kids Are with Undersea Life, Especially Tide Pool Creatures. by Combining This Knowledge with My Love for Animation, I Came up with SpongeBob SquarePants.
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Hillenburg’s childhood love for Jacques Cousteau films led him to earn a degree in natural-resource planning with a marine emphasis from Humboldt State University in 1984. He taught marine biology at the Orange County Marine Institute for three years and later pursued a master’s in experimental animation at CalArts.
In March 2017, Hillenburg disclosed to Variety magazine that he had been diagnosed with ALS. He stated he would continue working on SpongeBob SquarePants for as long as possible. He died on November 26, 2018, from complications of ALS.
Before becoming an animator, Hillenburg worked as a fry cook, just like SpongeBob.
His remains were cremated and his ashes were sprinkled off the coast of Los Angeles County, California.
Hillenburg owned a production company called United Plankton Pictures.
Hillenburg had one son, Clay, born circa 1998, with his wife Karen Hillenburg.
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