Dilbert creator Scott Adams, whose comic was pulled from wide circulation after a controversial 2023 rant about Black people, has died. News of his death was shared by his ex-wife, Shelly Miles, during the Jan. 13 episode of his podcast Coffee with Scott Adams, where she read a final message he wrote earlier this month.
In the message, Adams said his body had failed before his mind and reflected on a life devoted first to family and later to contributing to the world through writing and ideas. He described his life as “amazing” and asked listeners to “pay it forward,” adding, “Be useful… I loved you all to the very end.”
Adams revealed in May 2025 that he had advanced prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. By January 2026, he said recovery was “essentially zero,” noting paralysis in his legs and heart failure.
Born in New York in 1957, Adams created Dilbert from workplace doodles while working in corporate America. The strip debuted in 1989 and became a global phenomenon in the 1990s, appearing in over 1,000 newspapers worldwide and spawning books and merchandise. He left his corporate job in 1995 to focus on the comic full time.
In later years, Adams wrote several non-Dilbert books and was married twice. He credited Shelly Miles with helping him recover from a serious vocal disorder before their amicable divorce in 2014.