List of SpongeBob SquarePants cast members

Voice actor Tom Kenny, shown here in 2008, provides the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, the show's main character.

SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg that debuted on Nickelodeon in the United States on May 1, 1999. The show employs six main voice actors, and numerous regular cast and recurring guest stars. The principal voice cast consists of Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, Mr. Lawrence and Carolyn Lawrence and . Supporting cast include Jill Talley, Mary Jo Catlett, Lori Alan, Dee Bradley Baker, Brian Doyle-Murray, Sirena Irwin, Bob Joles, Mark Fite and Thomas F. Wilson, while Ernest Borgnine, Tim Conway and Marion Ross have appeared as repeat guest cast members.

SpongeBob SquarePants chronicles the adventures and endeavors of the title character and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. Many of the ideas for the show originated in an unpublished, educational comic book titled The Intertidal Zone, which Hillenburg created in the mid-1980s. He began developing SpongeBob SquarePants into a television series in 1996 upon the cancellation of Rocko's Modern Life, another Nickelodeon animated series which Hillenburg directed. While creating the show, Hillenburg, with colleague Derek Drymon, was also conducting auditions to find voices for the show's characters. He turned to Kenny, who had worked with him on Rocko's Modern Life, to voice the title character. The voice of SpongeBob was originally used by Kenny for a very minor female alligator character named Al on that series.

Kenny and Catlett were the first cast members to receive award nominations for their performance on SpongeBob SquarePants. They each received Annie Award nominations in 2001, but did not win. In 2010, Kenny won the Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in a Television Production, making it the first time a cast member had won this type of award. Bumpass was the first cast member to be nominated for an Emmy Award, receiving a nomination in 2012, although he did not win.

Regular cast

Background

	Voice of SpongeBob SquarePants Audio sample of the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants from the episode "Secret Box" (2001).
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Voice acting veteran Clancy Brown provides the voice of Mr. Krabs.

Actress Carolyn Lawrence plays Sandy Cheeks.

Kenny's wife, Jill Talley, voices Karen, Plankton's computer wife.

Dee Bradley Baker has appeared in several minor roles.

Actor Ernest Borgnine was a recurring guest star on the show, voicing Mermaid Man from 1999 to his death in 2012.

SpongeBob SquarePants has six principal voice cast members: Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, Carolyn Lawrence, and Mr. Lawrence. Hillenburg began developing SpongeBob SquarePants into a television series in 1996 upon the cancellation of Rocko's Modern Life, which he directed. While creating the show and writing its pilot episode in 1997, Hillenburg and Derek Drymon, the show's then-creative director, were also conducting auditions to find voices for the show's characters.^[1]

For the voice of SpongeBob, the main character, Hillenburg approached Kenny, who previously worked with him on Rocko's Modern Life.^[2] Drymon said, "Steve [Hillenburg] wanted to find an original sounding voice [for SpongeBob]."^[1] Hillenburg utilized Kenny's and other people's personalities to help create the personality of SpongeBob.^[3] The voice of SpongeBob was originally used by Kenny for a very minor female alligator character named Al in Rocko's Modern Life. Kenny forgot the voice initially as he created it only for that single use. Hillenburg, however, remembered it when he was coming up with SpongeBob and used a video clip of the episode to remind Kenny of the voice.^[3] Kenny says that SpongeBob's high-pitched laugh was specifically created to be unique. They wanted an annoying laugh in the tradition of Popeye and Woody Woodpecker.^[4] Fagerbakke voices SpongeBob's best friend, a starfish named Patrick Star, and other miscellaneous characters. He auditioned for the role after Kenny had been cast as SpongeBob. Fagerbakke said, "Steve is such a lovely guy, and I had absolutely no feeling for the material whatsoever." He described his experience in the audition, saying "I was just going in for another audition, and I had no idea what was in store there in terms of the remarkable visual wit and really the kind of endearing child-like humanity in the show. I couldn't pick that up from the audition material at all. I was just kind of perfunctorially trying to give the guy what he wanted."^[5] Bumpass provides the voice of Squidward Tentacles, and other characters. Squidward was "a very nasally, monotone kind of guy", said Bumpass. He said that the character "became a very interesting character to do" because of "his sarcasm, and then his frustration, and then his apoplexy, and so he became a wide spectrum of emotions".^[6] Hillenburg originally had Mr. Lawrence in mind for the role of voicing Squidward.^[1] Lawrence worked with Hillenburg before on Rocko's Modern Life. When working on the pilot episode, Hillenburg invited him to audition for all the characters.^[7] He decided to give Lawrence the part of the series villain, Plankton, instead.^[1] Voice acting veteran Clancy Brown voices Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob's boss at the Krusty Krab, while Carolyn Lawrence provides Sandy Cheeks' voice. When Lawrence was on a sidewalk in Los Feliz, Los Angeles with a friend who knew SpongeBob SquarePants casting director Donna Grillo, her friend said to the director that Lawrence had "an interesting voice". Grillo made Lawrence to audition and she then got the role voicing Sandy.^[8][9]

The recurring characters of Karen, Mrs. Puff, Pearl and the Flying Dutchman are voiced by Kenny's wife Jill Talley,^[10] Mary Jo Catlett,^[11] Lori Alan^[12] and Brian Doyle-Murray,^[13] respectively.^[14] Mr. Krabs' mother, Mama Krabs, who debuted in the episode "Sailor Mouth", was voiced by staff writer Paul Tibbitt.^[15][16][17] However, voice actress Sirena Irwin overtook Tibbitt's role as the character reappeared in the fourth season episode "Enemy In-Law" in 2005.^[18] Irwin also provides the voices of other characters in the show, including Margaret SquarePants, SpongeBob's mother. In the Christmas special "Christmas Who?", the characters of Patchy the Pirate, the president of the fictional SpongeBob SquarePants fan club, and his pet called Potty the Parrot debuted. The former is portrayed by Kenny in live-action, while series creator Hillenburg voiced the latter.^[19] After Hillenburg's departure as the series' showrunner in 2004, Tibbitt was given the role voicing Potty the Parrot.^[20]

Voice recording sessions always include a full cast of actors, which Kenny describes as "getting more unusual".^[21] Kenny said, "That's another thing that's given SpongeBob its special feel. Everybody's in the same room, doing it old radio-show style. It's how the stuff we like was recorded".^[21] It takes about four hours to record an 11-minute episode.^[22] For the first three seasons, Hillenburg and Drymon sat in on recording sessions at Nickelodeon Studios, and they directed the actors.^[23] In the fourth season, Andrea Romano took over the role as the voice director.^[23] Wednesday is recording day, the same schedule followed by the crew since 1999.^[23] Casting supervisor Jennie Monica Hammond said, "I loved Wednesdays".^[23]

The cast members get residuals every time the episodes they appeared in are aired, which Carolyn Lawrence described as "a very complicated mathematical calculation."^[22] Lawrence said in 2008 that it was a "declining scale" and they were "still in negotiations... both sides are still talking." She further stated that "they're still trying to work it out."^[22]

Main cast

Other regular cast

Recurring guest voices

Former cast members

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

• Cast list at the Internet Movie Database