Stephen Hillenburg
Birthday: 21 August 1961, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, USA
Birth Name: Stephen McDannell Hillenburg
Height: 168 cm
Stephen Hillenburg was born on August 21, 1961 in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, USA as Stephen McDannell Hillenburg. He is a writer and producer, known for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), SpongeBob Squ ...Show More
At first I drew a few natural sponges -- amorphous shapes, blobs -- which was the correct thing to d Show more
At first I drew a few natural sponges -- amorphous shapes, blobs -- which was the correct thing to do biologically as a marine science teacher. Then I drew a square sponge and it looked so funny. I think as far as cartoon language goes he was easier to recognize. He seemed to fit the character type I was looking for. [Washington Post, Oct. 15, 2001] Hide
Working as a marine science educator, I had the chance to see how enamored kids are with undersea li Show more
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. Hide
Our characters act silly, even totally ridiculous at times, and most of our jokes don't come out of Show more
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. Hide
I think the connection to SpongeBob is that sponges are the most elastic, changing, plastic creature Show more
I think the connection to SpongeBob is that sponges are the most elastic, changing, plastic creatures . . . and I wanted him to be able to do things that were really magical. So [SpongeBob] has these really creative moments when he can re-form himself. But most sponges in the ocean are sedentary: They attach themselves to a rock and sit and filter-feed the rest of their lives, and reproduce, and that's about it. Not that they are not interesting, but they are not . . . mobile. They don't cook Krabbie Patties! [Washington Post, Oct. 15, 2001] Hide
We want the show to be really funny. But I think in the end the message is: Treat people the way you Show more
We want the show to be really funny. But I think in the end the message is: Treat people the way you expect to be treated. And another connection to any sort of message is that a lot of the stories come out of the personal experience I and the other writers had as kids--the harsh lessons in life which are usually very funny in retrospect, like maybe what happens when you learn your first curse word and you don't know what it means. [Washington Post, Oct. 15, 2001] Hide
When you set out to do a show about a sponge, you don't expect the kind of appeal that he's had. [De Show more
When you set out to do a show about a sponge, you don't expect the kind of appeal that he's had. [Detroit News, August 8, 2002] Hide
[when asked why the octopus has six tentacles instead of eight:] "Technically I just thought he'd be Show more
[when asked why the octopus has six tentacles instead of eight:] "Technically I just thought he'd be a little too cumbersome as a character to have too many legs visible. Maybe that's why he's so angry!" Hide
Even the villainous Plankton, he's still flawed and you still root for him in a way, and the style o Show more
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. Hide
"There is something kind of unique about [SpongeBob]. It seems to be a refreshing breath from the pr Show more
"There is something kind of unique about [SpongeBob]. It seems to be a refreshing breath from the pre-irony era. There's no sense of the elbow-in-rib, tongue-in-cheek aesthetic that so permeates the rest of American culture -- including kids' shows like the Rugrats. I think what's subversive about it is it's so incredibly naive -- deliberately. Because there's nothing in it that's trying to be hip or cool or anything else, hipness can be grafted onto it." -- Robert Thompson, professor at the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, in the New York Times, July 21, 2002. Hide
Stephen Hillenburg's FILMOGRAPHY
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as Actor (18)
as Director (1)
as Creator (11)
Stephen Hillenburg'S roles
