Takeuchi Naoko (武内直子) is the creator of Sailor Moon and other award-winning manga for the shoujo monthly magazine Nakayoshi. She was born on March 15th, 1967 in Kofu City, Yamanashi prefecture. She graduated from Kyoritsu Chemical University.

In 1986 she twice won Nakayoshi's New Artist award with "Love Call" which debuted in the Nakayoshi Deluxe September 1986 issue. She authored such works as "Chocolate Christmas", "Miss Rain", "Ma-ri-ah", and "The Cherry Project". In 1991, she wrote a story about a female action heroine called "Codename Sailor V" for the Summer edition of Run-Run, a sister publication to Nakayoshi. It proved so popular she created Sailor Moon which began it's run in Nakayoshi with the February 1992 issue. The Sailor Moon TV show began its broadcast March 7th, 1992.