The ninth season of the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, created by animator and former marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg, originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States from July 21, 2012, to February 20, 2017, and contained 26 half-hour episodes. The series chronicles the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. The season was executive produced by series creator Hillenburg and writer Paul Tibbitt, the latter of whom also acted as the showrunner for the first 11 episodes of the season. Starting with "Lost in Bikini Bottom", Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller became the supervising producers and showrunners and served in that position for the rest of the season.

Aubrey Christina Plaza is an American actress, comedian, and producer. She starred as April Ludgate on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation (2009–2015), played Julie Powers in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023), voiced Claire Wheeler-Worthington in Monsters University (2013) and Monsters at Work Season 2 (2024), and featured as the Shadow King and Lenny Busker in the FX superhero series Legion (2017–2019). In 2022, she starred in the second season of the HBO anthology series The White Lotus, for which she received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023.