Shigeru Ueda (Japanese: うえだ しげる, Hepburn: Ueda Shigeru) is a Japanese anime storyboard artist and director. When he graduated from university, he joined AUBEC (now defunct) to work in the animation industry. After working as a production manager and assistant director, he made his directorial debut with Tsuruhime Ja! (before that, he had worked in anime and commercials as well). At that same time, he married a female animator. Later, after working as an episode director on Sohryuden: Legend of the Dragon Kings, he left AUBEC and worked at various companies such as Anime Spot and Madhouse and is currently working as a freelancer.
He has been using the hiragana spelling of his name since his days as an assistant director (the Kanji spelling of his name is 上田茂) and this was simply because he believed that the quickest way to become a director was to stand out.