Lokesh Kanagaraj is an Indian screenwriter and director. He was born on 14 March 1986 in Kinathukadavu, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. He started his career with a short film in the 2016 anthology Aviyal. He later directed his first feature film Maanagaram (2017) and Master (2021). The Lokesh Cinematic Universe consists of his directorial films Kaithi (2019) and Vikram (2022).

His short film Kalam was included in the 2016 Karthick Subbaraj anthology film Aviyal. His feature debut was made in 2017 with the action thriller Maanagaram. After Kaithi, he directed Master, starring Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi.

The film was released on 13 January 2021. a day before the Pongal festival. It opened to positive reviews and emerged as a commercial success. Master was the second-highest-grossing Tamil film of 2021.

In late 2018, he began working on a film for Dream Warrior Pictures, the same production company behind Maanagaram. With Karthi in the lead role, the action-thriller was titled Kaithi. In 2022, he directed Vikram, which starred Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi, and Fahadh Faasil.

In response to the success of the film, he is actively creating the Lokesh Cinematic Universe on the basis of Kaithi and Vikram where Vikram is the fourth highest-grossing Tamil film of all time.