Eiichiro Oda
Cartoonist
Popular Japanese manga artist who was best known for his work on the One Piece series, which became the highest-selling manga series of all time, with more than 490 million copies in circulation. He was voted the fifth most popular manga artist in Japan.
He spent his childhood watching the animated series Vicky the Viking, which inspired him to draw pirates. He was heavily influenced by Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball fame.
He and Toriyama collaborated on the crossover Cross Epoch, which featured Dragon Ball and One Piece characters.
He stated that he knew he wanted to become a manga artist from the age of four. He married Chiaki Inaba in 2005.
His series was turned into a long-running anime series featuring Caitlin Glass as a voice actor in the American dubs.