{"id":52049,"date":"2026-07-13T12:59:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemoviesnight.com\/?movie_engine_person=stephen-hillenburg"},"modified":"2026-07-13T12:59:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:59:41","slug":"stephen-hillenburg","status":"publish","type":"movie_engine_person","link":"https:\/\/lovemoviesnight.com\/?movie_engine_person=stephen-hillenburg","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Hillenburg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen McDannell Hillenburg (August 21, 1961 \u2013 November 26, 2018) was an American animator, cartoonist, and marine-biology teacher. He was the creator of the Nickelodeon animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants (1999\u2013), which he also directed, produced, and wrote. It has gone on to become the fifth longest-running American animated series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen McDannell Hillenburg (August 21, 1961 \u2013 November 26, 2018) was an American animator, cartoonist, and marine-biology teacher. He was the creator of the Nickelodeon animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants (1999\u2013), which he also directed, produced, and wrote. It has gone on to become the fifth longest-running American animated series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-52049","movie_engine_person","type-movie_engine_person","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nStephen Hillenburg - lovemoviesnight.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lovemoviesnight.com\/?movie_engine_person=stephen-hillenburg\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stephen Hillenburg - lovemoviesnight.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stephen McDannell Hillenburg (August 21, 1961 \u2013 November 26, 2018) was an American animator, cartoonist, and marine-biology teacher. 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