Alex Shearer is a Scottish novelist and scriptwriter born in Wick, Scotland, on June 25, 1949, who is the original creator behind the anime and manga series Chocolate Underground. Before establishing himself as a writer, Shearer held approximately thirty different jobs before selling his first television script at the age of twenty-nine. His career initially spanned fourteen years writing for television, film, theatre, and radio, including plays and short stories for BBC Radio 4, before he devoted himself to writing novels. In the context of anime and manga, Shearer is credited as the originator of the story that became Chocolate Underground. This work began as his 2003 novel titled Bootleg, which was first adapted into a three-part children's television drama by the BBC in 2002, a production that won a BAFTA award. The property was subsequently adapted in Japan by the company MUSE, first as a manga comic and then as a full-length animated film released under the title Chocolate Underground. The anime adaptation premiered in Tokyo in January 2009, and prior to its theatrical release, it was notable for being streamed episodically to mobile phones and the internet in 2008, making it one of the first full-length animations to be distributed in this manner. Beyond this specific work, Shearer has had a long career as a children's author, with his 2003 novel The Speed of the Dark being shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. His creative identity is characterized by a prolific output and a resistance to genre boundaries; he has stated his dislike for genre divisions and his preference for creating new concepts over writing series novels. Many of his other books have also been adapted, including The Greatest Store in the World, which became a BBC television film. His work often explores themes of adventure and social dynamics, and his personal history, including the loss of his parents, has informed the emotional depth found in novels such as The Great Blue Yonder. In the anime and manga industry, his significance lies in being a Western author whose literary work was fully adapted by a Japanese production company into a successful manga and anime, illustrating a cross-cultural exchange in animated storytelling.