Rebecca Sugar

Rebecca Sugar
Sugar at the 2014 New York Comic Con
Born (1987-07-09) July 9, 1987
Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.
Alma mater School of Visual Arts
Occupation Animation, comics, songwriting
Years active 2009–present
Known for
Partner(s) Ian Jones-Quartey (2008–present)

Rebecca Sugar (born July 9, 1987) is an American animator, director, screenwriter, producer, and songwriter. She is known for creating the Cartoon Network series Steven Universe, which has made her the first woman to independently create a series for the network.[1] Sugar was formerly a writer and storyboard artist on the animated television series Adventure Time until 2013. Her work on the two series has earned her five Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

Early life

Sugar was raised in the Sligo Park Hills area of Silver Spring, Maryland. She simultaneously attended Montgomery Blair High School and the Visual Arts Center at Albert Einstein High School[2] (where she was an arts semifinalist in the Presidential Scholar competition[3], and won Montgomery County's prestigious Ida F. Haimovicz Visual Arts Award),[4] both of which are located in Maryland. While at Blair, she drew several comics (called "The Strip" for the school's newspaper, Silver Chips) which won first place for comics in the Newspaper Individual Writing and Editing Contest. "The Strip" ran a comic challenging MCPS's new grading policy from 2005.[5] She went on to attend the School of Visual Arts in New York.[6]

According to Sugar's father Rob, Rebecca Sugar and her younger brother Steven were raised with what he called "Jewish sensibilities". Both siblings observe the lighting of Hanukkah candles with their parents via Skype.[7] She is also a descendant of a Holocaust survivor.[8]

Career

Sugar first joined the crew of Adventure Time as a storyboard revisionist during the show's first season.[9] Due to the quality of her work, within a month of being hired she was promoted to a storyboard artist, making her debut during the production of the second season.[7] Her first episode was "It Came from the Nightosphere".[10]

Production for Steven Universe began while Sugar was still working on Adventure Time. She continued working on Adventure Time until the show's fifth season, whereupon she left in order to focus on Steven Universe. Her last episode for Adventure Time was "Simon & Marcy"; following that episode, working on both series simultaneously "became impossible to do". She had also previously encountered difficulty in the production of the Adventure Time episode "Bad Little Boy".[11] Sugar returned temporarily to write the song "Everything Stays" for the seventh season miniseries "Stakes".[12]

Sugar designed the album cover of True Romance for Estelle, the voice of Garnet on Steven Universe. In December 2016, comic book publisher Youth in Decline featured Sugar's sketches and story notes for her unpublished comic Margo in Bed as issue #14 of the art/comics anthology series Frontier.[13]

She is also known for her comic "Don't Cry for Me, I'm Already Dead", a story about two brothers whose shared love of The Simpsons takes a tragic turn.[14]

Accolades

Rebecca Sugar's work on Adventure Time gained Primetime Emmy Award for Short-format Animation nominations for the episode "It Came from the Nightosphere" in 2011 and for the episode "Simon & Marcy" in 2013, as well as a 2012 Annie Award nomination for Best Storyboarding in a Television Production.[15][16][17] In 2012, Forbes magazine included her on its "30 Under 30 in Entertainment" list, noting that she was responsible for "many of the best episodes" of Adventure Time.[1]

For her work on Steven Universe, Sugar was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards for Short-format Animation for the episodes "Lion 3: Straight to Video", "The Answer" and "Mr. Greg".[18]

Personal life

In February 2016, Ian Jones-Quartey confirmed via Twitter that he and Sugar were in a romantic relationship; at the time of the tweet, the two had been together for eight years.[19] He added that they met when Sugar was at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

In July 2016, Sugar said at a San Diego Comic-Con panel that the LGBT themes in Steven Universe are in large part based on her own experience as a bisexual woman.[20] In a July 2018 interview on NPR,[21] Sugar said that she created the series's Gems as "non-binary women" in order to express herself, as a non-binary woman, through them.[22]

Filmography

Television and film works
Year Title Role Notes
2009–2012; 2015, 2017, 2018 Adventure Time Story writer, storyboard artist, songwriter, storyboard revisionist; also voice of Marceline's mother Television series
2012 Hotel Transylvania Storyboard artist[23] Film
2013–present Steven Universe Creator, developer, executive producer, storyline writer, storyboard artist, songwriter Television series
2017 OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Writer and performer (end titles) Television series

References

  1. 1 2 "Rebecca Sugar – 30 Under 30: Hollywood". Forbes. December 17, 2012. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
  2. ↑ Cavna, Michael (November 1, 2013). "'Steven Universe' creator Rebecca Sugar is a Cartoon Network trailblazer". The Washington Post.
  3. ↑ "Two Students are Named Presidential Scholars". montgomeryschoolsmd.org. May 10, 2005. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
  4. ↑ French, Esther (January 14, 2013). "Successful Animator Credits Einstein's Visual Arts Center". Patch Media. Retrieved April 25, 2017.
  5. ↑ Goldstein, Jordan; Sekaran, Adith (November 14, 2005). "Silver Chips, Silver Chips Online, Silver Quill win in journalism competitions". Silver Chips Online. Retrieved October 19, 2017.
  6. ↑ Amidi, Amid (October 5, 2012). "Rebecca Sugar Is Cartoon Network's First Solo Woman Show Creator". CartoonBrew. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  7. 1 2 Moskowitz, Dan (May–June 2014). "Rebecca Sugar takes Hollywood by storm with hit cartoon show 'Steven Universe'". Temple Micah. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Interview with Rebecca Sugar (MoCCa 2016)". Bubble Buddies. Tumblr. April 12, 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  9. ↑ Ward, Pendleton (2011). "Rainy Day Daydream" [Animatic commentary track], Adventure Time Season One [DVD], Los Angeles, CA: Cartoon Network.
  10. ↑ Seibert, Fred (October 11, 2010). "Rebecca Sugar's First Board (Nightosphere)". Frederator Studios. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
  11. ↑ Kohn, Eric (2013-11-01). "Adventure Time Writer Rebecca Sugar on Steven Universe, Being Cartoon Network's First Female Show Creator And Why Pop Art Is 'Offensive'". Indiewire. p. 1. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
  12. ↑ "[Olivia Olson confirms when 'Stakes' will air]". Instagram. July 10, 2015.
  13. ↑ "[Frontier #14: Rebecca Sugar]".
  14. ↑ "WATCH: The Weird, Heartbreaking Pre-Steven Universe Works Of Rebecca Sugar | Unicorn Booty". Unicorn Booty. 2016-02-20. Retrieved 2017-01-22.
  15. ↑ "Adventure Time". Emmys.com. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  16. ↑ "Emmys 2013: Complete List of Nominees". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. July 18, 2013. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
  17. ↑ Beck, Jerry (December 5, 2011). "Annie Award Nominations 2011". Cartoon Brew. Cartoon Brew LLC. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  18. ↑ "Steven Universe". Emmys.com. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
  19. ↑ "ian jq on Twitter: "@CreeperGuy1337 yeah! We've been together over 8 years now"". February 13, 2016.
  20. ↑ Mey (22 July 2016). "Rebecca Sugar is Bisexual: "Steven Universe" Creator Comes Out at Comic-Con | Autostraddle". Autostraddle. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  21. ↑ Johnson, Joshua. "The Mind Behind America's Most Empathetic Cartoon". 1A. NPR. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  22. ↑ Pulliam-Moore, Charles (16 July 2018). "Steven Universe's Rebecca Sugar Comes Out as Gender Nonbinary". io9. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  23. ↑ Sugar, Rebecca (November 25, 2012). "I did some storyboards for Hotel Transylvania!". Tumblr. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
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