Stephen Hillenburg

Stephen Hillenburg
Hillenburg, holding the SpongeBob SquarePants bible, in 2011
Born	Stephen McDannell Hillenburg (1961-08-21) August 21, 1961 (age 55) Lawton, Oklahoma, U.S.
Alma mater	Humboldt State University California Institute of the Arts
Occupation	Marine biologist cartoonist animator director producer writer
Years active	1984–present
Notable work	SpongeBob SquarePants
Spouse(s)	Karen Hillenburg
Children	1
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Stephen McDannell "Steve" Hillenburg (born August 21, 1961) is an American marine biologist, cartoonist, animator, director, producer, and writer. He is the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants (1999–), which has gone on to become one of the longest-running U.S. television series as well as the highest-rated show ever to air on Nickelodeon.

Born in Lawton, Oklahoma and raised in Anaheim, California, Hillenburg became fascinated with the ocean as a child and also developed an interest in art. He started his professional career in 1984, teaching marine biology, at the Orange County Marine Institute, where he wrote The Intertidal Zone, an educational comic book about tide-pool animals, which he used to instruct his students. In 1989, Hillenburg enrolled at the California Institute of the Arts to pursue a career in animation. He was later offered a job on the Nickelodeon animated television series Rocko's Modern Life (1993–96) after his success with animated short films The Green Beret and Wormholes (both 1992), which he made while studying animation.

In 1994, Hillenburg began developing The Intertidal Zone characters and concepts for what became SpongeBob SquarePants. The show premiered in 1999 and has since aired 205 episodes. He also directed The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), for which he received a nomination for an Annie Award for Directing in a Feature Production. Once the film was completed, Hillenburg resigned from the television series as its showrunner. He returned to making animated short films, with Hollywood Blvd., USA (2013).