Mamoru Hosoda is a Japanese film director, animator, and screenwriter born on September 19, 1967, in Kamiichi, Toyama Prefecture, Japan. He developed an interest in animation at a young age, citing works from 1979 such as Isao Takahata's Anne of Green Gables and Hayao Miyazaki's Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro as major influences. He majored in oil painting at the Kanazawa College of Art before joining Toei Animation in 1991 as an animator.

Hosoda made his directorial debut with episodes of the television series GeGeGe no Kitaro in 1997. He first gained significant attention for his work on the Digimon franchise, directing the short films Digimon Adventure (1999) and Digimon Adventure: Our War Game (2000), which were later compiled as part of Digimon: The Movie. In 2003, he collaborated with artist Takashi Murakami to direct the short film Superflat Monogram for Louis Vuitton. He directed the One Piece feature film Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island in 2005.

In the early 2000s, Hosoda was selected by Studio Ghibli to direct Howl's Moving Castle, but he left the project during its early production stages due to creative differences. Following this, he left Toei Animation and worked as a freelancer. His first major success as an independent director was The Girl Who Leapt Through Time in 2006, an adaptation of Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel. The film was a critical and commercial success, winning the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year.

In 2009, he wrote and directed his first completely original feature, Summer Wars, which further explored themes of family and digital communication. In 2011, Hosoda co-founded his own animation studio, Studio Chizu, with long-time producer Yuichiro Saito. The studio's first production was Wolf Children (2012), an original story about a single mother raising half-wolf, half-human children, which Hosoda wrote and directed. He followed this with The Boy and the Beast (2015). His 2018 film Mirai, about a young boy who meets his little sister from the future, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. His 2021 film Belle, a reimagining of Beauty and the Beast set in a virtual world, was also a critical and box office success. His latest film, Scarlet (2025), inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet, explores themes of revenge and forgiveness in the modern world.

In addition to his film work, Hosoda serves as the original creator for manga adaptations of his films. Manga series based on Summer Wars and Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki have been published, with Hosoda credited as the original creator. These manga adaptations allow the stories to be experienced in a different medium while remaining faithful to his original visions.

Hosoda's artistic identity is defined by recurring themes of family, both biological and found, and the challenges of growing up. His films often blend extraordinary fantasy elements with the mundane realities of everyday life, focusing on emotional honesty and the quiet moments that define human relationships. He frequently draws from his own life experiences, such as his childhood as an only child and his experiences with parenthood, to inform his stories about motherhood in Wolf Children and fatherhood in Mirai. He views technology as a tool for expression, often incorporating computer graphics to enhance his hand-drawn animation, as seen in the virtual worlds of Summer Wars and Belle.

Hosoda is considered one of the most significant and successful Japanese animation directors of his generation, often compared to Hayao Miyazaki but recognized for his own distinct voice. His works have consistently received international acclaim, including numerous awards and an Academy Award nomination, and have helped to broaden the global appeal of Japanese animation beyond the works of Studio Ghibli.