Noelle Stevenson

Nate Diana Stevenson or simply ND "Indy" Stevenson (formerly Noelle Diana Stevenson; born December 31, 1991) is an American cartoonist and animation producer. He is the creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the animated television series ''She-Ra and the Princesses of Power'', which ran from 2018 to 2020. He is also known for the fantasy webcomic ''Nimona'', as co-writer of the comic series ''Lumberjanes'', and ''The Fire Never Goes Out'', his autobiographical collection.

Stevenson's work has won multiple Eisner Awards as well as a Daytime Emmy Award and a GLAAD Media Award. Stevenson is non-binary and transmasculine and has written about being transgender in his webcomic ''I'm Fine I'm Fine Just Understand''.

Early life

ND Stevenson was born on December 31, 1991, in Columbia, South Carolina, to Diana and Hal Stevenson. He is the third of five siblings.

Stevenson was homeschooled before attending A.C. Flora High School. During his senior year, he created picture books and won a local award in the Visual Literacy Book Production category.

Career

Education and ''Nimona''

Stevenson attended the Maryland Institute College of Art, graduating in 2013. While there, Stevenson gained fame as a fan artist under the name "gingerhaze" for his "hipster ''Lord of the Rings''" characters. He also created cover art for Rainbow Rowell's novel ''Fangirl'', which was published in 2013.

During his junior year, he created his soon-to-be popular character Nimona as part of an assignment in one of his classes. In mid-2012, Stevenson began creating a webcomic around the character, also called ''Nimona'', and soon signed with a literary agent who found the webcomic online. The agent helped him sign with HarperCollins to publish ''Nimona'' as a graphic novel. ''Nimona'' would double as Stevenson's senior thesis in 2012. For his work on ''Nimona'', Stevenson won Slate Magazine's 2012 Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Web Comic of the Year and the 2016 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: Reprint. Stevenson was also named a 2015 National Book Award Finalist for the graphic novel version of ''Nimona''. Stevenson said that the ability to create comics on his own and create ''Nimona'' was what got him a "writing job in animation," bringing him into the animation world.

In the summer of 2012, Stevenson interned at BOOM! Studios, a comic publishing house in Los Angeles.

''Lumberjanes'' and Marvel Comics

After his graduation in 2013, Stevenson returned to BOOM! Studios to help develop, and eventually write, ''Lumberjanes''. ''Lumberjanes'' won Eisner Awards for Best New Series and Best Publication for Teens in 2015.

In 2015, Stevenson wrote for Marvel Comics on the comics ''Thor Annual'' and ''Runaways''.

''She-Ra'' and other animation

Stevenson was part of the writing team of Disney's animated series ''Wander Over Yonder'', beginning with the second season in 2015.

Stevenson was the creator and executive producer of DreamWorks Animation's rebooted ''She-Ra and the Princesses of Power'' animated television series on Netflix, which ran for five seasons from 2018 to 2020 ''She-Ra'' received critical acclaim, with particular praise for its diverse cast and the complex relationship between She-Ra and her best friend-turned-archenemy Catra. In 2019, the show was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids & Family Programming, as well as a Daytime Emmy Award at the 46th Daytime Emmy Awards. In 2021, the series was tied with First Day when it won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids and Family Programming.

Other work

Stevenson did freelance illustration for Random House, St. Martin's Press, and Label Magazine. He also worked with Ryan North on his book ''To Be or Not to Be'' (2013), a choose-your-own-adventure-book based on Shakespeare's ''Hamlet''.

In 2017, Stevenson appeared in two episodes of ''Critical Role'''s first campaign as Tova. He has subsequently appeared in three ''Critical Role'' one-shot episodes between 2017 and 2022 as himself, Tova, and Peter Pan. His character Tova will be featured in an upcoming line of ''Critical Role'' miniatures by WizKids.

His autobiographical collection of drawings and journals, ''The Fire Never Goes Out'', was published in March 2020. ''The New Yorker'''s review described it as "a memoir of sorts ... , a coming-out story, a love story, a tale of disorientingly rapid professional triumph, and a story about mental health and illness, showing the young artist figuring out what emust do-first to make art and then to get well."

In October 2021, Stevenson started a Substack titled "I'm Fine I'm Fine Just Understand" which will explore topics such as mental health, gender identity, and more, with premium subscribers given access to comics which "reflect more personal/sensitive topics." In August 2022, the Substack was nominated for a Digital Book of the Year Harvey Award.

On February 4, 2022, Stevenson posted a fan comic of ''The Book of Boba Fett'' entitled "This Place Was Home" on Twitter.

Personal life

Stevenson married fellow cartoonist Molly Knox Ostertag in September 2019. He began working on ''She-Ra and the Princesses of Power'' at the same time that he began dating Ostertag, who was influential on the show "from the very beginning", coming up with a major plot twist in the show's final season.

In July 2020, Stevenson announced that he was "nonbinary, or something like it", and uses any personal pronouns. In November 2020, Stevenson published a comic about his top surgery. On March 31, 2021, the International Transgender Day of Visibility, Stevenson stated that he is transmasculine and bigender.

On October 11, 2020, National Coming Out Day, Stevenson wrote and illustrated his coming out story for ''Oprah Magazine''. He described his journey to self-acceptance, his "battle against the gender essentialism of isEvangelical upbringing", and stated that he had become an atheist by age 23.

In an August 2020 interview, Stevenson stated that he is bipolar. See 47:06-47:13 in this video. In February 2021, he mentioned having ADHD in an interview and its impact on his work and life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In August 2021, Stevenson changed his first name to ND, as noted by CBR, Out Magazine, ComicsBeat, Xtra Magazine, and Bleeding Cool. In October 2021, Stevenson said that he was "becoming increasingly aware of the practical need for a new, less gendered ame
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