Karen Jean Hillenburg (née Umland; born November 10, 1962) is the widow of Stephen and mother of animator Clay Hillenburg. Karen Plankton was named after and based on her.
Like her husband, she used to be a teacher. She taught at the New School of Cooking in Culver City.
Significance[]
Stephen married Karen in 1998. He added the character of Karen Plankton shortly after their wedding. Stephen called Karen "the funniest person he knows"[1] and her sense of humor inspired the cartoon Karen's personality.
According to this podcast from Nickelodeon, Karen Hillenburg was originally planned to provide Karen's voice in the series.[2] However, on the day of the first recording session, she was so nervous that she couldn't record a single line.[2] Jill Talley (the wife of SpongeBob's voice actor, Tom Kenny) was later chosen as the new voice of Karen.
Mrs. Hillenburg is given "Special Thanks" in the credits of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. She is also mentioned as Karen Plankton's namesake in the audio commentary for "Plankton!" on The Complete 1st Season, The Complete First Season, The First & Second Seasons, and Movies & TV Collection DVDs.
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