Gōshō Aoyama is a Japanese manga artist best known as the creator of the long-running series Case Closed, known in Japan as Detective Conan. Born Yoshimasa Aoyama on June 21, 1963, in Tottori Prefecture, he displayed artistic talent from an early age. He studied at Nihon University College of Art in Tokyo, where he began his path toward becoming a professional manga creator. While a student, he also worked part-time painting backgrounds at Tokyo Disneyland. Aoyama made his professional debut in 1987 with the short work Chotto Mattete, which was published in Weekly Shōnen Sunday.

Following his debut, Aoyama began serializing several notable works. He launched Magic Kaito in 1987, a series about the gentleman thief Kaito Kid, which has continued sporadically alongside his other projects. In 1988, he began Yaiba, a manga following the adventures of a young samurai named Yaiba Kurogane. This series ran until 1993 and was collected in 24 volumes. It was his first major long-term serialization and earned him the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1992. Yaiba was first adapted into a 52-episode anime television series titled Kenyu Densetsu Yaiba, which aired from 1993 to 1994.

Aoyama’s most celebrated and enduring work is Case Closed, which began serialization in Weekly Shōnen Sunday in 1994. The series follows a high school detective who is transformed into a child and solves mysteries under the alias Conan Edogawa. Case Closed became a cultural phenomenon, leading to a long-running television anime that premiered in 1996, as well as an annual series of theatrical anime films. The 28th film in the series, Detective Conan: One-eyed Flashback, was released in 2025. Aoyama's work on Case Closed earned him his second Shogakukan Manga Award in 2001. By 2017, his various manga series had a combined total of over 250 million copies in print worldwide.

Aoyama’s artistic identity is strongly tied to his love of mystery and detective fiction, a theme that has been present since his childhood, when he wrote in a school essay about wanting to be a "manga artist specializing in private detectives." His works often incorporate puzzles, logic, and homages to classic detective literature. In addition to his manga, he also designed characters for the 1994 video game Live A Live.

His significant contributions to the industry have been widely recognized. In his hometown of Hokuei, Tottori Prefecture, the Gosho Aoyama Manga Factory, a museum celebrating his career, opened in 2007. He has also received awards such as the Fujimoto Award for his work on the Case Closed film series. In 2025, he was honored with the Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts in the media arts division for his body of work. Aoyama was married to voice actress Minami Takayama, who voices Conan Edogawa, from 2005 to 2007.