Jay Lender

Jay Lender (born June 14, 1969 in New Haven, Connecticut, United States) is an American television writer and director. He is a former writer for SpongeBob SquarePants. Previous to his work on SpongeBob, Jay designed and drew numerous backgrounds for Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold!. He is the son of the founder of Lender's Bagels, Murray Lender. Since leaving Nickelodeon, Jay has written a number of scripts for video games with his writing partner Micah Wright, and continues to develop animated series concepts as well as drawing the occasional SpongeBob comic strip for Nickelodeon Magazine. Most recently, the duo worked together on Robocalypse, a real-time strategy game for the Nintendo DS. Jay spent two years studying at the Rhode Island School of Design before transferring to CalArts where he specialized in animation. Jay has also directed two seasons of Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb.