Nate Diana Stevensonnote (born December 31, 1991 in Columbia, South Carolina) is an American comic-book writer and artist, as well as cartoon writer, who came to prominence as the creator of NIMONA and co-creator of Lumberjanes, though he’s most well-known for developing She-Ra and the Princesses of Power for Dreamworks Animation.
Before Nimona and Lumberjanes, Stevenson came to prominence on Tumblr for his "Broship of the Rings
" drawings and comics, reimagining The Lord of the Rings characters as modern day people on a road trip. In 2020, Stevenson published a collection of his autobiographical comics, titled The Fire Never Goes Out.
He's married to Molly Ostertag, artist of Strong Female Protagonist and author of The Witch Boy series.
On 2021's Trans Day of Visibility (which occurs on March 31), ND came out as transmasculine and bigender, further elaborating on his identity in June 2022.
A friend of his got Aaron Paul to call him a bitch. Yes, really.
Works include:
- NIMONA
- NIMONA (2023): Co-producer, additional screenplay material, voice of Kwispy Dragon
- Lumberjanes: writer, artist
- Runaways (2015): writer
- Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman: artist
- Wander over Yonder: story writer, episode writer
- Tangled: The Series: story writer (1 episode)
- Critical Role: Tova (2 episodes, 1 one-shot)
- DuckTales (2017): story writer (2 episodes), script writer (1 episode)
- Big Hero 6: The Series: episode writer (1 episode)
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: showrunner, story writer, episode writer, voice of Spinnerella
- The Fire Never Goes Out
- Ron's Gone Wrong (Additional story material)
- This Place Was Home: writer, artist note
Tropes present in his works:
- Author Appeal:
- Magitek and Schizo Tech show up frequently in his universes. Nimona is sent in an ambiguously medieval world, but has things like flatscreen TVs, electrical power, and laser weapons, as well as some recent experimentation to derive fuel from magic. In She-Ra, most of the princess kingdoms are powered by runestone magic, but there's some basic tech achievements and more advanced technology derived from excavated First Ones relics, and the Horde being almost fully industrialized (admittedly, this mix of magic and technology has always been an element of He-Man and She-Ra's worlds).
- Rivals from shared backgrounds who grow up to view the world differently and fight on opposite sides of wars. Bonus points if their interactions involves Belligerent Sexual Tension and Foe Romantic Subtext. Examples include Ballister and Goldenloin in Nimona, Jubilee and Sanna in Runaways, and Adora and Catra in She-Ra.
- Female Mad Scientists with an Absent-Minded Professor demeanor. Examples include Dr. Meredith Blitzmeyer in Nimona and Entrapta in She-Ra.
- Many of his villains tend to be pure-white-skinned humanoids with Pointy Ears. Examples include the Director in Nimona and Hordak, Horde Prime, and Shadow Weaver in She-Ra.
- Big muscular women, notably Sanna in Runaways, Rosie in Lumberjanes, Huntara, Scorpia, and Adora in She-Ra form, and sometimes Nimona herself.
- Shapeshifters, such as Nimona in her titular book and Double Trouble in She-Ra. ND is also fond of mentioning that he feels Zam Wesell of Star Wars was underused.
- And of course, lots of LGBT+ themes and subtext.ND Stevenson: Assume my characters are gay until proven otherwise.
- Creator Cameo:
- ND sometimes appears in crowd shots in Nimona, along with other recurring bystanders and a lot of Lord of the Rings cameos. Nimona's undercut hairstyle is also based on one that ND had for several years.
- ND and Molly cameo in the She-Ra episode "Princess Prom". ND also voices Princess Spinerella and drew Netossa's doodles.
- I Resemble That Remark!: Throughout the run of She-Ra, ND was known to tease fans by saying he and Molly were basically Catra and Adora. But after publishing a lengthy comic about the process of realizing he was queer (complete with a musing on how he wanted to be a shapeshifter), the joke became that ND's real representative on the show is Double Trouble (who is a non-binary shapeshifter).
- Teasing Creator: He's prone to claiming absurd jokes about She-Ra lore, such as claiming Catra's last name is "Meowmeow". He also admitted to having written a fanfic for his own series on Archive of Our Own; it's theorized to be Don't Go.
- Write What You Know: Stevenson grew up in a fundamentalist religious environment before moving into gay circles and coming out as lesbian, and eventually as transmasculine. Several of his works like She-Ra and Runaways prominently feature kids being raised to enforce oppressive societies who discover they were lied to about the state of the outside world and that they were fighting for the villains. Special mention goes to She-Ra, where the Greater-Scope Villain styles himself as a benevolent-but-actually-tyrannical god of light.
