LeSean Thomas is an American animation producer, director, writer, comic book artist, and character designer known for creating original anime series, often in partnership with Japanese studios. Born in the South Bronx, New York in 1975, his career in the animation industry began with work on American shows such as Kim Possible and The Batman. He later gained prominence for his role as supervising character designer and co-director on the first two seasons of the Adult Swim series The Boondocks, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and received a Peabody Award.

Before breaking into television animation, Thomas created an animated online series called BattleSeed and has worked as a comic book artist on titles including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He also served as creative producer and supervising director for the Black Dynamite animated series on Adult Swim and worked on The Legend of Korra for Nickelodeon.

Thomas is recognized for being among the first American animators hired to work in-house as permanent production staff for animation studios in South Korea, including JM Animation, Studio Mir, and Moi Animation. He later relocated to Meguro, Tokyo, to further his work in the Japanese animation industry.

Thomas is the creator of several notable original works. Cannon Busters began as his creator-owned comic book and graphic novel. In November 2014, he successfully crowdfunded an animated pilot based on the comic, produced by Japanese studio Satelight. In August 2017, Netflix acquired the project, and it was released as a twelve-episode series in August 2019, with Thomas serving as creator, director, and executive producer. The series follows a trio consisting of a high-class robot, a repair robot, and a fugitive on a road trip in a sci-fi western world.

In 2017, Thomas partnered with Crunchyroll to co-produce an original animated short film titled Children of Ether. In November 2018, Netflix announced Yasuke, an original fantasy series created, directed, and executive-produced by Thomas. Inspired by the historical African samurai who served Oda Nobunaga in 16th-century Japan, the series was animated by MAPPA and released in April 2021. The music was produced by Flying Lotus, who also served as co-executive producer, with actor Lakeith Stanfield voicing the title character.

Thomas has described Yasuke as an audacity project, and he has stated his intention to prioritize creative freedom over strict historical accuracy, incorporating fantasy elements such as mecha into the story. His artistic identity is heavily influenced by anime classics like Cowboy Bebop and the director Shinichiro Watanabe, whose work he has cited as a major inspiration for his own storytelling and visual style. He has expressed a desire to move beyond mining socioeconomic struggles for satire, as seen in The Boondocks and Black Dynamite, and instead lean into fantastic escapism with his original series.

Thomas is noted for his role as a bridge between Western and Eastern animation industries, having worked in South Korea and Japan to produce original content for global streaming services like Netflix and Crunchyroll. He has spoken about the challenges of cross-cultural production, including working with Japanese animators through an interpreter and ensuring proper representation of Black characters in anime. He is an advocate for more diverse creators entering the anime industry, encouraging fans to move beyond being consumers and become producers of original work. In 2024, he hosted the Foreign Exchange interview series with the Japan Society and the Japan Foundation, a program featuring conversations with influential anime creators.