Steven Universe

Steven Universe is an American animated television series created by Rebecca Sugar for Cartoon Network. It is Cartoon Network's first animated series to be created solely by a woman. It is the coming-of-age story of a young boy, Steven Universe (Zach Callison), who lives with the Crystal Gems—magical, humanoid aliens named Garnet (Estelle), Amethyst (Michaela Dietz), and Pearl (Deedee Magno Hall)—in the fictional town of Beach City. Steven, who is half-Gem, has adventures with his friends and helps the Gems protect the world from their own kind. Its pilot was first shown on May 21, 2013, and the series premiered on November 4, 2013. Its fifth and final season concluded in January 2019. The TV film Steven Universe: The Movie was released on September 2, 2019, and an epilogue limited series, Steven Universe Future, premiered on December 7, 2019 and ended on March 27, 2020.

The themes of the series include love, family, and the importance of healthy interpersonal relationships. Sugar based the lead character on her younger brother Steven, who is an artist for the series. She developed Steven Universe while she was a writer and storyboard artist on Adventure Time, which she left when Cartoon Network commissioned her series for full production. The series is storyboard-driven; when episodes are being produced the show's storyboard artists are responsible for writing the dialogue and creating the action. Books, comics and video games based on the series have been released.

The series has developed a broad fanbase and has been critically acclaimed for its design, music, voice acting, characterization, prominence of LGBTQ themes and science fantasy worldbuilding. The series won its first GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids & Family Program in 2019, becoming the first animated series to win the award. It also received its first Peabody Award for Children's & Youth Programming in 2019. It has been nominated for five Emmy Awards and five Annie Awards.