Noboru Sugimura was a Japanese screenwriter and game scenario writer born on June 28, 1948. He began his career in the mid-1970s writing for television dramas, most notably the long-running police series Taiyo ni Hoero! where he studied under the main writer Ei Ogawa. Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, Sugimura became a prolific and influential writer for Toei Company's live-action tokusatsu programs. He served as the main writer for several entries in the Metal Hero Series, including The Mobile Cop Jiban, Special Rescue Police Winspector, and Super Rescue Solbrain, and was also the head writer for a consecutive run of Super Sentai series from Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger through Choriki Sentai Ohranger. His other notable television writing credits from this period include Kamen Rider Black and Sukeban Deka.

In the late 1990s, Sugimura transitioned into the video game industry. A fan of the original Resident Evil, he was brought in during the production of Resident Evil 2 to help with its complex narrative. He ultimately wrote the complete story for the game and, in April 1997, co-founded Flagship, a now-defunct writers studio established in partnership with Capcom. Through Flagship, Sugimura became a central creative figure for Capcom, writing the scenarios for major titles such as Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil Code: Veronica, Dino Crisis 2, and the first three main installments of the Onimusha series. His draft script for a rejected version of Resident Evil 4 was later reworked and became the foundation for the original Devil May Cry, for which he received a special thanks.

In the realm of anime and manga, Sugimura is credited as an original creator for several properties, primarily due to his foundational work on the characters and worlds of the video games they adapt. He is credited as an original creator for the 2007 anime series Devil May Cry, based on the Capcom franchise he helped shape. He also holds an original creator credit for Claire Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy, characters he wrote for in Resident Evil 2, in the CGI films Resident Evil: Degeneration, Resident Evil: Damnation, and Resident Evil: Death Island. Furthermore, he is listed as an original creator for the character Claire Redfield in the manga Biohazard: Heavenly Island.

Sugimura passed away on February 25, 2005, at the age of 56 due to acute heart failure. His career is noted for a distinctive creative style that often blended hard-boiled detective drama elements with superhero fantasy. He was known for writing scripts that did not shy away from intense or fatalistic developments, such as the temporary death of the hero, yet he also famously advocated for protecting a child’s sense of wonder when writing for younger audiences. His impact on the video game industry is significant, as his work on scenario writing for Capcom during the late 1990s and early 2000s helped define the narrative direction of some of the company's most successful horror and action franchises.