Scott Adams, Creator of Dilbert and Conservative Commentator, Dies at 68

Scott Adams, the influential yet deeply controversial cartoonist behind the long-running comic strip Dilbert, has died at the age of 68 after a battle with aggressive prostate cancer. The news was confirmed on Tuesday by his ex-wife, Shelly Miles, during a tearful livestream on Adams’s YouTube channel, Real Coffee with Scott Adams.

Shelly Miles read a farewell message written by Adams earlier this month, in which he reflected on his life, career, and mortality. “My body fell before my brain,” Adams wrote, noting that he remained of sound mind as his health deteriorated.

A Career That Defined Corporate Satire

Born in 1957 in Windham, New York, Scott Adams was inspired at a young age by Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. After working in the corporate world, he debuted Dilbert in 1989, offering a sharply satirical look at office life, dysfunctional management, and workplace absurdity.

The comic strip resonated strongly during the 1990s tech boom and was syndicated in more than 400 newspapers by 1994, eventually reaching thousands of publications across 65 countries. Adams’s success expanded beyond comics with bestselling books such as The Dilbert Principle, which earned him the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award in 1997. Dilbert was later adapted into an animated television series that received an Emmy nomination.

Shift Toward Political Commentary

From around 2015, Scott Adams increasingly shifted his focus toward conservative political commentary. He praised Donald Trump, hosted a daily podcast, and used his platforms to question mainstream narratives around Covid-19 vaccines and historical events, including the Holocaust.

This transformation significantly reshaped public perception of Adams, turning him from a widely celebrated satirist into a polarizing media figure.

Fallout and Cancellation of Dilbert

In February 2023, most major US newspapers dropped Dilbert after cartoonist Scott Adams made racially inflammatory remarks during a YouTube livestream, describing Black Americans as a “hate group” and urging white people to distance themselves. The comments sparked widespread condemnation and effectively ended the comic’s mainstream newspaper run.

Scott Adams later defended his remarks as hyperbolic and accused media outlets of removing context, but the damage to his legacy was swift and enduring.

Adams revealed in May 2025 that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. He spent his final months receiving end-of-life care at home, openly discussing his condition with his audience.

He was married twice and had no biological children. Despite the controversies that defined his later years, Adams remains a significant figure in American pop culture—both for shaping workplace satire and for igniting debates about speech, politics, and accountability.