Stephen Hillenburg

Person Score

 
9.5 Superb
48 votes

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Biography

Recent Role:
on SpongeBob SquarePants
Gender:
Male
Born:
8-21-1962
Birthplace:
Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Stephen Hillenburg grew up with the interest in marine life. He would watch films of the famous oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. At the age of 15, after a snorkeling trip, he began his study in the sea (oceanography).

Stephen studied at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California in 1984. After graduating, he went on into teaching marine life in Orange County Marine Institute (now known as the Orange County Ocean Institute) for 3 years in Dana Point, California. As he was following his favorite subject, he had another passion: art.





More "Initially I think I assumed that if I went to school for art, I would never have any way of making a living. So, I thought it might be smarter to keep art my passion and hobby and study something else. But by the time I got to the end of my undergrad work, I realized I should be in art." -Under the Sea and On Top of the World.

Later on, he studied experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. After graduation, he got a job in Nickelodean Studios working in Joe Murray's cartoon Rocko's Modern Life. As he worked there, he had the idea of making a cartoon of his own. As he planned, he was mixing his idea for the cartoon with his studies of marine life. He taught about the times learning at the Ocean Institutes. Therefore, he mixed both things together got the setting of an underwater world, he needed to think of the characters.

He choose a sponge to be the main character because for him, it was the least obvious underwater creature that anyone would imagine. The difference from this sponge and real sponges are that this sponge looks like a yellow kitchen sponge instead of a dull, rock-attaching sea sponges. Later on, he added ideas of other undersea characters. He made them into an undersea civilization. The last object he had to go through to get the his cartoon into television, he needed Nick's approval.

In a presentation, he brought sculptures, sketches, an aquarium and a theme song to explain his cartoon. It was such a success that it guaranteed an approval from them. Later on, it got into the air! In reality, Stephen never had the idea that it would be a huge success on the audience that it was even able to be a movie!

He resigned from the show in 2004.

Several nominations he got were an Annie Award for Directing in an Animated Feature Production for "The Spongebob Squarepants Movie", several Emmy awards nominations for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour) for the Spongebob Squarepants series, and other misc. awards by the cartoon like Walk the Talk Award from "Heal the Bay Organization" in 2001 for promoting marine life awareness through the show. Other awards were the Princess Grace Award in Film in 1992 and a Princess Grace Statue Award in 2002.

In his success in his cartoon, he has his own personal life living with his wife and son, playing music with his pals and enjoys the beach, where he goes snorkeling, scuba diving, and surfing.

From the Forums

More Topics
  • Him

    He is great!  What's he been up to lately?  I've heard that he doesn't work on Spongebob, but then heard some say that he still does (he just executive producer)... so anyway.  Either way, he is awesome and should not just stop in animation... he has too much talent that would go to waste if heMore did.  *note that, I have not heard that he is quiting animation all together, I was just saying for instance. He rocks!

    6 comments, last one Apr 26, 2009
  • Welcome to the TV.com Forums for Stephen Hillenburg

    Welcome to the TV.com Forums for Stephen Hillenburg. Here is your area to discuss, dissect and debate all things about this person.

    1 comments, last one Sep 30, 2006
More Topics
  •  
    10 Perfect
    Worked on Rocko and invented Spongebob Squarepants, both all-time favs of mine hide show

    This dude is awesome. He worked on the fourth season of Rocko's Modern Life, and he, as everybody knows, created Spongebob Squarepants and the town of Bikini Bottom. I have to give him credit for pretty much every good Spongebob episode from s1, s2, and s3 (and of course that awesome movie.) Spongebob has really gone down since he left since there have been too many episodes like "The Splinter" and "Penny Foolish" since he was cut off the team. I hope he's making another cartoon, or he's making a possible comeback to Spongebob, cause while it is coming back from mediocrity, I still haven't seen an amazing episode since he left. Anyways, he's inventive an d awesoem, so I give him a 10/10 A+

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  •  
    10 Perfect
    Incredibly creative, I love this guy. hide show

    Oh Stephen, he's such a cartoon genius! I can't explain how much I admire this man for having such a brilliant imagination. I mean, SpongeBob SquarePants is without a doubt one of the most original concepts for a cartoon show, ever, and all of this came out of Steve's mind. This is so awesome. But as much as I love him for being one of the most creative cartoonists, I have to be honest and say that I'm kind of mad at him for leaving the show, I really don't see the perfect reason for why he had to step back, ok, maybe he wanted a brake, that's understandable, but for so long? The show needs him back on the writing staff, he has such a brilliant mind that it can't be wasted, sure he's working on the executive part of the show, but no, that's not the way SpongeBob needs him right now. But since I admire him so much, I can't help but making him one of my favorite personalities ever, thanks so much Steve, for bringing laughter to our hearts for 10 years now with SpongeBob!

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  •  
    9.5 Superb
    He worked on one of my favorite shows. He created one of my shows. hide show

    Stephen Hillenburg is a funny guy. Nobody else has the kind of genius that he does that would enable them to create a show as creative as SpongeBob SquarePants. It (when he was in the Producer role) was the best thing on Nickelodeon.

    He also worked on Rocko's Modern Life for the 3rd and 4th seasons of the show. Those seasons are my favorite seasons overall, and it's all thanks to him. He even worked on my favorite episode, Wacky Delly. There are so many things that I probably would hate, had he not been involved in them. His genius should be known by all.

    He's a great guy.

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  •  
    9.5 Superb
    OMG this guy is too funny!!! hide show

    Stephen Hillenburg...is god. I know two shows he's been on: SpongeBob SquarePants and Rocko's Modern Life. He only worked on the first three seasons of SpongeBob, and at least 99.9% of people consider them the best seasons of this show or possibly any other. The mention of him and SpongeBob absolutly amazes me. He also worked on Rocko's Modern Life, and though I've only seen a couple of it, I'm already addicted to it. I heard he's doing a new show, and am counting the seconds until I can see it because I'm sure I'm sure that I'll love it.

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  •  
    10 Perfect
    empty hide show

    Thank Goodness He made SpongeBob Squarepants!!!! And THANK GOODNESS HE IS STILL ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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