#adhd creators

Neurodivergent Creator(s)/Contributor(s)

When one or more neurodivergent people significantly influence the creation of a piece of media (regardless of whether or not they know they're neurodivergent at the time), I consider it a flag for possible neurodivergent-coded elements. The neurodivergent influence could come from a writer, director, actor, artist, etc. depending on the type of media and how it's produced.

(This isn't to say that every piece of media influenced by a neurodivergent person will be ND-coded, nor that every piece of media that is ND-coded will have a neurodivergent person on staff. It's just more likely than not that a neurodivergent creator will make stuff that reflects their own experiences.)

Examples of ND-Coded Media by Confirmed Neurodivergent Creators:

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (TV Series)

Glenn Howerton (Co-Creator, Actor for Dennis Reynolds) has shared that he was late-diagnosed with ADHD (src).

Rob McElhenney (Co-Creator, Actor for Mac) shared that he was late-diagnosed with "a host of neurodevelopmental disorders and learning disabilities" (src).

Everything Everywhere All At Once (Film)

Daniel Kwan (Co-Writer, Co-Director) discovered he had ADHD while researching it to write the movie's main character (src).

Phineas & Ferb (Cartoon)

Dan Povenmire (Co-Creator, Voice Actor for Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz) has shared videos acknowledging his ADHD on Tiktok (src) and Instagram (src).

Community (TV Series)

Dan Harmon (Creator, Writer, Executive Producer) discovered he's on the autism spectrum while researching it to write the character Abed Nadir (src).

Speculative / Unconfirmed:

Welcome to Night Vale (Podcast)

Joseph Fink (Co-Creator) may have made a social media post implying that he realized he's autistic because of people pointing out that the character Carlos Dave Robles is autistic-coded. (src). However, I've done some digging and haven't been able to find the original post or any other info on this topic. If you have sources confirming or denying this info, please share them with me!

But guess what? It doesn't have to be perfect. Draw it anyway. Write it anyway. Give yourself the grace to not be perfect.

At some point, your joys became burdens because you would look at a blank piece of paper and all you could see were all the ways your brain couldn't translate what you wanted accurately to the page.

Do it anyway.

Create anyway.

You can do it.