Ian Jones-Quartey

Early life Jones-Quartey was born in Hatfield, Pennsylvania on June 18, 1984, and was raised in Columbia, Maryland. He and his family moved to Oakland Mills, Columbia, Maryland, around 1993. His father was a pharmaceutical engineer, and his mother worked as a librarian for the chemical company W. R. Grace. and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. In 2007, he collaborated with audio specialist and YouTuber Jim Gisriel to co-create the web animation series and comedy hip-hop duo nockFORCE, rapping under the stage name "effnocka" as well as voicing his character in Adobe Flash animations.

His first job in television animation was on The Venture Bros.. and a storyboard artist for Secret Mountain Fort Awesome. He supplies the voice of Wallow in Bravest Warriors and was the supervising director and co-developer of the Cartoon Network series Steven Universe.

In 2013, Jones-Quartey's short Lakewood Plaza Turbo aired on Cartoon Network as a television pilot. He had pitched the series two years prior when he had been a storyboard supervisor on Adventure Time.

In 2018, he appeared in the first season of a podcast entitled Drawn: The Story of Animation, from Cartoon Network and HowStuffWorks, which provided listeners with a behind-the-scenes perspective on animation from voice actors, historians, and creators of animated series.

In June 2019, he was a panelist at the Annecy Animation Festival, alongside Rebecca Sugar, at a panel entitled "The Making of Steven Universe". In July 2019, he appeared as a panelist at the RTX Animation Festival at the Fairmont Austin. On September 2, 2019, the film Steven Universe: The Movie was released. Jones-Quartey was one of its co-executive producers, while Sugar served as executive producer and director. Between October 2020 and April 2021, the anti-racism PSAs "Don't Deny It, Defy It", "Tell the Whole Story", "See Color", and "Be an Ally", that he worked on with Sugar, featuring characters from Steven Universe, were released on the Cartoon Network YouTube channel.

In late January 2025, Jones-Quartey mentioned that he had a "fun meeting" with The Walt Disney Company, hinting at a potential new animated project with them.

On June 11, 2025, at an Annecy International Animation Film Festival event, it was announced that a sequel series to Steven Universe, entitled Steven Universe: Lars of the Stars, was in development with Prime Video, with Cartoon Network Studios producing it, while Rebecca Sugar and Jones-Quartey will be executive producers. During the event, Sugar said she missed her world and characters, and said she couldn't wait to share the series and thanked everyone for their support. Sugar also told The Wrap that the Steven Universe characters and world are important to her, said she was "thrilled" to do the series, and said the biggest part for her was that she is "co-creating it with Ian Jones-Quartey," and noted that all she wants to do is "make cartoons with him."

On June 12, 2025, Adult Swim announced that Jones-Quartey, Patrick McHale, Rebecca Sugar and Pendleton Ward were developing an animated special under the title "The Elephant". The animated special, which released on December 19, 2025, is in three acts, and is 20 minutes long.

Jones-Quartey directed Sonic the Hedgehog Presents: The Chaotix Casefiles, an audio drama podcast released beginning in January 2026.

Personal life Jones-Quartey is a grandson of Theodosia Okoh, the designer of the flag of Ghana; he based the Steven Universe character Nanefua Pizza on her.

By 2017, he was living in Los Angeles.

Influences Jones-Quartey cites Akira Toriyama's series Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump as inspiration for vehicle designs of his own. He stated, "We're all big Toriyama fans on [Steven Universe], which kind of shows a bit."

Filmography

Animation

Voice work

Television Year Title Role