Masahiro Sakurai is a Japanese video game director and designer, born on August 3, 1970, in Musashimurayama, Tokyo, Japan. He is best known as the creator of the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series, having begun his career at HAL Laboratory where he designed the character Kirby at the age of nineteen and directed his first title, Kirbys Dream Land. Sakurai left HAL Laboratory in 2003 and founded his own company, Sora Ltd., in 2005, working on a freelance basis with his wife, Michiko Sakurai. His notable works include leading the design of Meteos in 2005 and directing Kid Icarus: Uprising in 2012.

In the realm of anime and manga, Sakurai has been credited as an original creator for specific works tied to his game franchises. He is listed as an original creator for the 1993 Japanese OVA Mario Kirby Meisaku Video, also known as Mario Kirby Masterpiece Video. This educational short, produced by Shogakukan, features Mario and Kirby on separate adventures and was designed to teach kanji to young children. For manga, Sakurai is credited as a scenario writer for Les Aventures de Kirby dans les étoiles, a manga adaptation of the Kirby series, in 1994. Additionally, a biographical manga about Sakurai himself was announced for release on November 18, 2025. Titled Manga de Shiru Hito to Shigoto Sakurai Masahiro Game de Sekai wo Motto Tanoshiku (Learn about People and Work Through Manga: Masahiro Sakurai Making the World More Fun with Games), the 160-page book is published by East Press. While Sakurai serves as the supervisor for this project, which chronicles his life from childhood through the creation of his famous games and the founding of Sora Ltd., it is a biography rather than an original narrative work by him. These credits reflect Sakurais direct involvement in expanding his game properties into other media and documenting his own creative journey, reinforcing his identity as a foundational creator in the video game industry whose characters and worlds have been adapted into anime and manga formats.