Stephen Hillenburg ✝

Stephen McDannell Hillenburg (August 21, 1961 – November 26, 2018) was an American animator, voice actor, and former marine science educator. He was best known as the creator of the iconic Nickelodeon animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants which he also directed, produced, and wrote. It has become the fifth-longest-running American animated series.\n', ' Born in Lawton, Oklahoma and raised in Anaheim, California, Hillenburg became fascinated with the ocean as a child and developed an interest 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 comic book about tide-pool animals, which he used to educate his students. In 1989, two years after leaving teaching, 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 (1993–1996) after his success with The Green Beret and Wormholes (both 1992), short films that he made while studying animation.\n', ' In 1994, Hillenburg began developing The Intertidal Zone characters and concepts for what became SpongeBob SquarePants. The show has aired continuously since its premiere in 1999. He also directed The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), which he originally intended to be the series finale. However, Nickelodeon wanted to produce more episodes, so Hillenburg resigned as the showrunner. He went back to making short films, with Hollywood Blvd., USA (2013). In 2015, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water was released; the second film adaptation of the series, it marked Hillenburg\'s return to the franchise, wherein he co-wrote the story and acted as an executive producer on the project.\n', '