Rebecca Rea Sugar is the creator of Steven Universe.
She is an artist, composer, and director who is most recognized for her work on the show, Adventure Time, another Cartoon Network original series, as well as her award-winning animated short "Singles." She has also created a graphic novel, Pug Davis, as well as assisting with characters and backgrounds for Ian Jones-Quartey and Jim Gisriel's web series nockFORCE prior to her career.[1]
In 2012, Cartoon Network green-lit Steven Universe, making her the first solo female cartoon creator in the network's twenty-one-year history. Rebecca was one of the main storyboard artists on Adventure Time until the fifth season, where she left to create Steven Universe, although she later returned again in 2015 for the Stakes miniseries to compose the song "Everything Stays" and voicing Marceline's mother.[2]
Sugar has also contributed storyboards for the Sony Pictures Animation film, Hotel Transylvania.[3]
Career
Rebecca was born in Silver Spring, Maryland and attended the Visual Arts Center at Einstein High School and Montgomery Blair High School simultaneously. Later, she would attend the School of Visual Arts in New York.[4] One of her early works, a comic strip entitled "Don't Cry for Me, I'm Already Dead"[5] about brothers who bond over references to The Simpsons, was a viral success.[6] The strip was originally published on Sugar's now-defunct website, SugarBoukas.com, itself a reference to one of her early animated shorts.[7]
Sugar speaking at 2016 San Diego Comic Con.
She was hired as a storyboard revisionist during the first season of Adventure Time, and was later promoted to storyboard artist from that season on.
Rebecca would eventually leave Adventure Time in early 2013 to launch her new cartoon, Steven Universe. The final episode she worked on for Adventure Time, entitled "Simon and Marcy", was difficult for her, due to her working on the episode alongside launching her new show.[8]
She has achieved numerous awards in her career in television, such as earning nominations for Primetime Emmy Awards and Annie Awards while working for Adventure Time, and being featured in Forbes magazine's "30 Under 30 in Entertainment" list in 2012, noting that she was responsible for some of the best episodes of Adventure Time.[9]
She returned to Adventure Time in 2015 for the Stakes miniseries, voicing Marceline's mother and writing the song "Everything Stays".
Episodes Written and Storyboarded
Rebecca Sugar and the Steven Crewniverse.
- "Pilot"
Season 1
- "Laser Light Cannon"
- "Cheeseburger Backpack"
- "Together Breakfast"
- "Cat Fingers"
- "Lion 3: Straight to Video"
- "Alone Together"
- "Maximum Capacity"
- "Rose's Scabbard"
- "Jail Break"
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Other
- Steven Universe The Movie
Gallery
Trivia
- Rebecca Sugar's birthstone is a ruby.
- Rebecca Sugar said if she were a Gem, she would be a Ruby.[10]
- Ruby and Sapphire's relationship is based on the relationship between her and Ian Jones-Quartey.
- Rebecca Sugar is proficient in the ukulele, which she often uses for song demos.
- She also has a banjolele which she played at New York Comic Con, and plays the Omnichord/QChord, a chorded synthesizer, similar to the one Marceline plays in "I Remember You".
- Rebecca Sugar is the first non-binary animated cartoon creator at Cartoon Network.
- Rebecca Sugar illustrated the cover of Estelle's music album True Romance.
- She is a member of WIA (Women in Animation).[11]
- Rebecca Sugar has a pet cat named Lion.
- During SDCC 2016, when asked why she included so many LGBT themes in the show, Rebecca Sugar came out, citing her experiences as a bisexual woman and her desire for LGBT youth to grow up where these themes are normalized.
- During NYCC 2016, she mentioned that "Mr. Greg" was her favorite episode, because she had always dreamed about working on a musical.[12]
- She also revealed that she does have plans for the ending of the series.[13]
- When Rebecca was born, her parents had considered naming her "Nora", which she later used as Steven's female name in the episode "Lion 4: Alternate Ending".[14]
- During SDCC 2017, Rebecca stated that out of all the Off Colors, she relates to Rhodonite the most.
- Rebecca sings the closing credits song for the Cartoon Network show OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes.
- In the Ultimate Crossover Fundraiser, she sang “We’ll Meet Again” while playing the ukulele, she states that Mabel, Dipper and Grunkle Stan’s gems would be “Cherry Tugtupite”, “Larimar” and “Pyrite”, respectively, she sang with Ian JQ "It’s Only Magic” and then she sang “Everything Stays”.
- In an interview with WAMU 88.5 on July 9, 2018, Rebecca revealed that she is non-binary, and spoke of how she uses gender themes in the show to express her identity. [15]
- Her preferred pronouns are she/her or they/them according to her updated Twitter bio.
External Links
References
- ↑ https://twitter.com/ianjq/status/636312476930314244
- ↑ Rebecca Sugar Filmography
- ↑ http://rebeccasugar.tumblr.com/post/36567783012
- ↑ http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commentary/rebecca-sugar-is-cartoon-networks-first-solo-woman-show-creator-71157.html
- ↑ https://dawolfey.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/dont-cry-for-me-im-already-dead-by-rebecca-sugar/
- ↑ https://unicornbooty.com/watch-the-weird-heartbreaking-pre-steven-universe-works-of-rebecca-sugar/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHqgv7hFVPo
- ↑ http://www.indiewire.com/article/television/adventure-time-writer-rebecca-sugar-on-steven-universe
- ↑ http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mfl45edfge/rebecca-sugar/
- ↑ http://www.newsarama.com/24809-steven-universe-creator-talks-jailbreak-future.html
- ↑ http://stevencrewniverse.tumblr.com/post/78905222172
- ↑ http://fandom.wikia.com/articles/nycc-steven-universe-gem-harvest
- ↑ http://fandom.wikia.com/articles/nycc-steven-universe-gem-harvest
- ↑ Rebecca Sugar gives us an inside look at the #StevenUniverse Spring Break arc. Maybe her nickname should be Nora from now on 😄 #CNSide - @cartoonnetwork on Twitter
- ↑ https://the1a.org/audio/#/shows/2018-07-09/the-mind-behind-americas-most-empathetic-cartoon/114886/@00:00