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Rebecca Sugar (born July 9, 1987) is an American animator, screenwriter, producer, director, and musician. A pioneer of LGBTQ representation in children's television, she is best known for being the creator of the Cartoon Network series Steven Universe, making her the first non-binary person to independently create a series for the network; prior to coming out as non-binary, Sugar was described as the first woman to do so.
Before Steven Universe in 2013, Sugar was a writer and storyboard artist on the animated television series Adventure Time. Her work on the two series has earned her seven Primetime Emmy Award nominations in total.
Sugar is bisexual, non-binary, and genderqueer, using both she/her and they/them pronouns. Sugar's queerness has served as an inspiration for her to stress the importance of LGBT representation in the arts, especially in children's entertainment.
According to Sugar's father Rob, Rebecca and her younger brother Steven were raised with what he called "Jewish sensibilities", and both siblings observe the lighting of Hanukkah candles with their parents via Skype.
During her time at the School of Visual Arts, Sugar directed short animated films, including Johnny Noodleneck (2008). In 2009, she wrote and animated Singles, in which frequent collaborator Ian Jones-Quartey acted as an assistant animator, assistant inker and voice actor on the project, while Sugar's brother Steven Sugar acted as an assistant colorist. She completed this film as her thesis and later officially released in August 22, 2025, on YouTube under her account.
In 2010, Sugar published her first graphic novel, Pug Davis, featuring an astronaut dog and his gay sidekick Blouse. 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.
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". Sugar returned temporarily to write the song "Everything Stays" for the seventh season miniseries Stakes, and the song "Time Adventure" for the series finale, Come Along with Me. Sugar returned for the Adventure Time spin off to write the songs "Part of the Madness" and "Cake on the Loose".
She was an executive producer for Steven Universe for its entire run, and a storyboard artist for several of its episodes; the series premiered on November 4, 2013 and concluded on January 21, 2019. She directed the full-length television movie taking place after the fifth season of Steven Universe, called , which premiered on September 2, 2019 on Cartoon Network. The movie was followed by an epilogue limited series titled Steven Universe Future, also with Sugar as executive producer, which premiered on December 7, 2019 and concluded on March 27, 2020.
Between October 2020 and April 2021, the anti-racism PSAs "Don't Deny It, Defy It", "Tell the Whole Story", "See Color", and "Be An Ally", that she worked on with Ian Jones-Quartey, featuring characters from Steven Universe, were released on the Cartoon Network YouTube channel.
In June 2024, it was announced that Sugar would write a new Adventure Time movie alongside fellow franchise alums Adam Muto and Patrick McHale, marking her return to the franchise.
On June 11, 2025, at an Annecy International Animation Film Festival event, it was announced that a sequel series to Steven Universe, entitled Steven Universe: Lars of the Stars, was in development with Prime Video, with Cartoon Network Studios producing it, while Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey will be executive producers. During the event, Sugar said she missed her world and characters, and said she couldn't wait to share the series and thanked everyone for their support. Sugar also told The Wrap that the Steven Universe characters and world are important to her, said she was "thrilled" to do the series, and said the biggest part for her was that she is "co-creating it with Ian Jones-Quartey," and noted that all she wants to do is "make cartoons with him."
In December 2023, it was announced that Sony Pictures Animation was developing a fantasy-adventure film directed by Matt Braly, with the script written by Sugar and Braly.
On June 12, 2025, Adult Swim announced that Sugar alongside Ian Jones-Quartey, Patrick McHale, and Pendleton Ward were developing an animated special under the title "The Elephant" slated for a 2026 release.
On October 06, 2025, it was announced that Sugar was writing and directing an animated movie based on the Moomins franchise with Annapurna Pictures and Julia Pistor as producer.
On June 4, 2025, Sugar announced her second album, Lonely Magic, with posts on social media featuring a short teaser animation detailing the album's release date, August 29. She said that the album would have "true songs about magic."
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.
In 2018, Sugar was featured in R&B singer Gallant's 2018 song "TOOGOODTOBETRUE", along with Sufjan Stevens.
On February 24, 2025, Keita Takahashi, creator of the Katamari series of games, announced his new game To a T to be released on May 28. The game's trailer featured a new song performed by Sugar titled "Giraffe Song".
As for influences, Sugar has cited Whisper of the Heart as her "absolute favorite" film and as a major influence on her work, even providing an introduction for screenings in July 2019. She also cited the anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena as an "epiphany" for her, by playing with "the semiotics of gender" and called it beautiful, funny, and extreme, having a huge influence on her, and noted the "huge Takarazuka Theater influence" in Steven Universe. Additionally, she described Neon Genesis Evangelion as a major influence, while her series Steven Universe has references to Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Captain Harlock, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Initial D.
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. In a July 2018 interview on NPR, Sugar said that she created the series' Gems as non-binary women to express herself, as a non-binary woman, through them. In August 2020, she said she "didn't identify as a woman" but had felt pressure to conceal that fact due to being known as the first woman to create a Cartoon Network series. In October 2020, in the final art book for Steven Universe, Sugar said that she loved being able to place her experiences in a different context "through a nonbinary lens" when writing characters for the show. As of 2022, Sugar goes by both she/her and they/them pronouns.
In March 2020, Sugar expressed support for Senator Bernie Sanders's second presidential bid. In April 2020, Sugar narrated a video titled Let My People Go, a video created by the organization Never Again Action. The video talks about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees and the poor living conditions they were experiencing in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Variety included Sugar in "Hollywood's New Leaders 2016: The Creatives", a list celebrating upcoming filmmakers, show-runners and creators in both old media and digital media.
In 2025, a South American flower of the genus Commelina was named Commelina sugariae in honour of Sugar's artistic achievements. The same authors named another species C. almandina, a name referring to the garnet colour of the "gem-like" fruits, in honour of the character Garnet from Steven Universe, "because it brings much-needed attention to BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ researchers in STEM."
| 2009 | Singles | rowspan="2" | Short film; also animator | ||||
| 2012 | Hotel Transylvania | Storyboard artist | |||||
| TBA | Untitled Sony Pictures Animation film | rowspan="2" | rowspan="2" | rowspan="2" | Co-written with director Matt Braly | ||
| Untitled Moomins film |
| 2010–13 | Adventure Time | Story writer, storyboard artist, songwriter, storyboard revisionist | 34 episodes |
| 2015 | Voice role: Marceline's mother | Episode: "Stakes Part 2: Everything Stays" | |
| 2013–19 | Steven Universe | Creator, executive producer, storyline writer, storyboard artist, songwriter | Television series |
| 2017–19 | OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes | Writer and performer of end titles | Television series |
| 2019 | Creator, director, executive producer, writer, storyboard artist, composer, songwriter | Television film | |
| 2019–20 | Steven Universe Future | Creator, executive producer | Limited television series |
| 2021 | Amphibia | Songwriter ("Our Special Time of Year", uncredited) (2025). 9781427871527, Disney Manga. ISBN 9781427871527 | Episode: "Froggy Little Christmas" |
| Voice role: street performer "Becka Salt" (uncredited) | |||
| 2023 | Songwriter | Episodes: "Simon Petrikov" and "Cake the Cat" | |
| 2026 | The Elephant | Creator, screenwriter, animator | Animated special |
| TBA | Steven Universe: Lars of the Stars | Co-creator, executive producer | Television series |
| +Solo work !Year !Title !Details !Role | ||
| 2023 | Spiral Bound |
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| 2025 | Lonely Magic |
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| +Featuring songs Sugar wrote !Year !Title !Details !Role | ||
| 2017 | Steven Universe/Soundtrack: Volume 1 |
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| 2018 | Adventure Time: Come Along With Me (Original Soundtrack) |
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| 2018 | We Deserve To Shine |
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| 2019 | Steven Universe//Soundtrack: Volume 2 |
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| 2019 | Steven Universe//Karaoke |
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| 2019 | Adventure Time, Vol. 1 (Original Soundtrack) |
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| 2019 | Adventure Time, Vol. 2 (Original Soundtrack) |
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| 2019 | Adventure Time, Vol. 3 (Original Soundtrack) |
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| 2019 | Steven Universe: The Movie (Original Soundtrack) |
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| 2019 | Marceline Canta: Timeless Songs |
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| 2020 | Steven Universe Future (Original Soundtrack) |
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| 2020 | BMO's Mixtape (Gilligan Moss Mix) |
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| 2020 | Steven Universe Future (VGR Remix) |
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| 2021 | Cartoon Network Theme Songs (Holiday Remix) |
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| 2023 | Season 1 - Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake (Soundtrack from the animated series) |
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| +Featuring Sugar !Year !Title !Details !Role | ||
| 2018 | TOOGOODTOBETRUE |
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| 2018 | This Song Does Not Fit |
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| 2025 | Giraffe Song (Game Edit) |
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| 2025 | To a T (Original Videogame Soundtrack) |
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