
Shigeru Miyamoto looking suspiciously guilty of something...
One franchise on his long list of successes happens to be Mario Kart, a series of kart-racing games that features characters from the Mario world who compete in cups across the Mushroom Kingdom. First as the leading producer of Super Mario Kart in 1992, Shigeru has worked on every single title in the series sense then.
Biography
Born on November 16, 1952 in Sonobe (園部町), Japan, Shigeru Miyamoto was raised in a modest household with no TV. As a result, he often found himself exploring the wilderness around him, where he would find inspiration for some his games (such as The Legend of Zelda). Interested in being a painter, puppeteer, and toy maker in elementary school, Shigeru eventually settles on industrial design, although it took him 5 years to graduate from Kanazawa Munici College of Industrial Arts and Crafts.
At 24 years old, his father introduced Shigeru to Hiroshi Yamauchi (山内 溥), a member of an old toy company called Nintendo. Showing him some of his toy designs, Shigeru was accepted into the company as a concept artist in 1977. In 1980, when Nintendo was looking into the arcade market, Yamauchi recruited Shigeru to create a game conversion of their worthless Radar Scope cabinets. The end result was Donkey Kong, an arcade in which a plumber named Jumpman, later renamed as "Mario" must save a damsel from Donkey Kong. After this massive win, Shingeru became the leader of his own department, Nintendo EAD, and the rest is history...
Mario Kart series

Shigeru Miyamoto posing next to a life-size Standard Kart M (Mario's version).
Since then, Shigeru has been a Producer in all main-series Mario Kart games up until Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. In Mario Kart DS, he became the General Producer and continues to fill this role for the series to this date. Yes!
Trivia!
- In December 2011, a rumor was loosed that Shigeru was retiring from Nintendo. Luckily, this turned out to be false.
- Although 64 years old, Shigeru remains active by walking or riding his bike to work every day.
- To honor Luigi's 30 year anniversary, Shigeru could often be seen wearing Luigi-style clothes to press conferences.