Derek Drymon (born November 19, 1968) is an American animator, writer, storyboard artist, director, comedian, and producer. He has worked on numerous animated cartoon productions of the 1990s and 2000s, best known for his work on '' Rocko's Modern Life'', ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American Animated series, animated Television comedy, comedy Television show, television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It ...

'' and ''

Adventure Time ''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...

''.

Early life

Derek Drymon was born in New Jersey. t=movies "Derek Drymon"

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. Retrieved October 29, 2017. He attended Jefferson Township and Dover public schools as a child and enjoyed drawing and making comic books. Drymon graduated from Jefferson Township High School in 1987. Drymon attended the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, where he majored in Illustration, sharpening his drawing skills and moving from still images to animation. He graduated from SVA in 1992.Halm, Dan (Winter 2002). "Soaking in Talent" '' Visual Arts Journal'', School of Visual Arts (New York City). pp. 24 – 25.

Career

Drymon obtained an internship with Disney on the strength of his life drawings. Drymon was discovered by

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

in 1993. He moved to California to work as an animator for Nickelodeon. In 1993, Drymon also began working as a storyboard artist and writer for '' Rocko's Modern Life''. It was here he met two of his future employers, Tim Hill and Stephen Hillenburg; Hill was a writer, Hillenburg a co-producer and storyboard artist. In 1997, Hillenburg created ''

''. Drymon performed many duties on ''SpongeBob'', including being a writer on all episodes, the creative director, and, on his last season with the show, supervising producer. Drymon also worked on the

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...

animated series ''

Camp Lazlo ''Camp Lazlo'' is an American animated television series created by Joe Murray for Cartoon Network. The series follows Lazlo, an anthropomorphic spider monkey that goes to a camp called "Camp Kidney", a Boy Scout-like summer camp in Pimpleback M ...

''. Drymon worked on Tim Hill's side project, the popular '' KaBlam!'' skit '' Action League Now!'', as a storyboard artist. He also wrote the Emmy Award-nominated episode of '' CatDog'' "Doggone". Drymon met Stephen Hillenburg on the Nickelodeon cartoon '' Rocko's Modern Life''. Hillenburg recalled Drymon as "one of the main people in the genesis of SpongeBob". Drymon teamed up with Hillenburg, Hill, and Nick Jennings who was also a companion from Nickelodeon. Drymon was the creative director for the first three seasons and became Supervising Producer in season 3 until being replaced by Paul Tibbitt starting in season 4. Along with Stephen Hillenburg, Drymon approved the writers' ideas and outlines for episodes and controlled the creative and production process on SpongeBob. Drymon was eventually promoted to Executive producer on television show ''

'', and become a lead writer for DreamWorks Pictures, and a director at Illumination Entertainment. During the first three seasons of SpongeBob, Drymon being creative director allowed him to work with executive story editor

Merriwether Williams Merriwether St. John Williams (born March 28, 1968) is an American television writer, former Nickelodeon executive and actress, who has worked on television shows such as ''Happy Tree Friends'', ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', '' My Little Pony: Friend ...

and the rest of the writing team. Staff writer Kent Osborne responded to the writing process with Drymon and other writers by saying "By the third season we had done 26 half-hours. I came up with millions of ideas". Despite the issues with writing new episodes, Drymon collaborated with the writers to create episode ideas like the half-hour specials and episodes that focused on other characters, for example the season three episodes "The Algae Always Greener" and "Plankton's Army" focused on

Sheldon Plankton Sheldon J. Plankton and Karen Plankton are the main antagonists in '' SpongeBob SquarePants'', the Nickelodeon animated television series. They are respectively voiced by Mr. Lawrence and Jill Talley. Their first appearance was in the episode ...

and "Doing Time" focused on

Mrs. Puff Mrs. Puff is a fictional character in the Nickelodeon animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and all three films based on the franchise. Voiced by Mary Jo Catlett, Mrs. Puff debuted in the season one episode "Boating School" on Au ...

. Drymon said in an interview "Coming up with episode ideas was always tough". The writers were influenced for the episode "The Secret Box", which was influenced by Drymon because he told them when he was younger he kept a "secret box", the writers thought it was hilarious and weird and used Drymon's idea to create the story of the episode. Drymon co-wrote the pilot episode "Help Wanted". Drymon earned two Emmy nominations and along with the crew of SpongeBob won the "Best Animated Television Production" Annie award in 2005 for season 3 of SpongeBob. Drymon hired a large amount of the staff writers, including Sam Henderson, a friend and fellow alumnus of SVA, along with Kent Osborne and

Walt Dohrn Walter Dohrn (born December 5, 1970) is an American writer, director, animator, musician, and actor. He performed the voice of Rumpelstiltskin in ''Shrek Forever After'', as well as various characters in ''Shrek the Third''. Dohrn has also worke ...

. From 2008 to 2017, Drymon work as a Storyboard Artist for DreamWorks Animation, working on films such as the '' Kung Fu Panda'' trilogy, '' Monsters vs. Aliens'', '' Shrek Forever After'', '' Puss in Boots'', ''

Turbo In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pr ...

'', '' Penguins of Madagascar'', and '' Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie''. Drymon was an executive producer (with Fred Seibert) on the

series ''

'', created by

Pendleton Ward Ward Taylor Pendleton Johnston (born September 23, 1982), known professionally as Pendleton Ward or simply Pen Ward, is an American animator, screenwriter, producer, director, and voice actor who has worked for Cartoon Network Studios, Frederat ...

for the show's first season. He was no longer credited on episodes starting with the second season. On September 17, 2020, Drymon was set to co-direct '' Hotel Transylvania: Transformania'' with story artist

Jennifer Kluska Jennifer Kluska is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter, and storyboard artist best known for her work on ''DC Super Hero Girls'' (2018) and '' Hotel Transylvania: Transformania'' (2022). Career In 2015, Kluska began her career by s ...

Filmography

Television

Film

Bibliography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Drymon, Derek 1968 births Living people American cartoonists People from Jefferson Township, New Jersey People from Morristown, New Jersey Animators from New Jersey American storyboard artists American television writers American male screenwriters American animated film directors American animated film producers American male television writers American male comedians 21st-century American comedians Screenwriters from New Jersey Nickelodeon people Cartoon Network Studios people DreamWorks Animation people School of Visual Arts alumni