Stephen Hillenburg

Stephen McDannell Hillenburg (August 21, 1961 – November 26, 2018) was an American animator, writer, producer, and marine science educator. Hillenburg created the Nickelodeon energetic television series SpongeBob SquarePants, on which he served as the showrunner for the first three seasons of the show, and has become the fifth-longest-running American animated series.

Born in Lawton, Oklahoma, and raised in Anaheim, California, Hillenburg became fascinated subsequent to the ocean as a child and developed an amalgamation in art. He started his professional career in 1984, instructing marine biology, at the Orange County Marine Institute, where he wrote The Intertidal Zone, an informative portray book not quite tide-pool animals, which he used to educate his students. In 1989, two years after desertion teaching, Hillenburg enrolled at the California Institute of the Arts to pursue a career in animation. He was innovative offered a job on the Nickelodeon booming television series Rocko's Modern Life (1993–1996) after his skill with The Green Beret and Wormholes (both 1992), short films that he made even if studying animation.

In 1994, Hillenburg began developing The Intertidal Zone characters and concepts for what became SpongeBob SquarePants. The behave has aired continuously in the past its premiere in 1999. He afterward directed The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), which he originally designed to be the series finale. Hillenburg resigned as showrunner, but Nickelodeon continued to develop more episodes after he departed the series. He resumed making rude films, with Hollywood Blvd., USA in 2013, but continued to be approved as an organization producer for SpongeBob SquarePants. Hillenburg co-wrote the checking account for the second film adaptation of the series, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, which was released in 2015.

Besides his two Emmy Awards and six Annie Awards for SpongeBob SquarePants, Hillenburg also normal other recognition, such as an accolade from Heal the Bay for his efforts upon elevating marine cartoon awareness, and the Television Animation Award from the National Cartoonists Society. Hillenburg announced he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2017, but confirmed he would continue to proceed on SpongeBob SquarePants as long as possible. He died upon November 26, 2018, at the age of 57.