Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animated films director. He is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, an animation studio and production company. Hayao Miyazaki is best known for the 1999 film Princess Mononoke.

Hayao Miyazaki was born in Akebono-cho, part of Tokyo's Bunkyo-ku on January 5, 1941. His father owned a company that made rudders for the Japanese Zero fighter plane, and at a young age, Hayao Miyazaki began drawing planes. This is where his fascination with flying began; it has been a recurring theme in all of his work. In high school he saw Hakujaden, Japan's first feature length, color anime film, and became very interested in the art.

Hayao Miyazaki graduated from Gakushuin University in 1963 and obtained his first job at Toei Animation where he worked as an in-between artist. He became the chief secretary of the company's labor union in 1964. While with the company he helped create many popular Japanese anime films, but was relatively unknown outside of his country until Miramax released his animated feature Princess Mononoke in 1999. Soon after, the film Spirited Away was released and his reputation began to grow. Spirited Away is the highest grossing film of all time in Japan.

In many of Hayao Miyazaki's films, the main characters are strong women or girls and the villains are morally ambiguous. He deals with the human to nature relationship as a recurring theme as well as pacifism.

Hayao Miyazaki married Akemi Ota, a fellow animator, in 1965. They have two sons who are also artists.

In 2006 Time magazine voted Hayao Miyazaki one of the most influential Asians in the past 60 years. He continues to work on anime films.