Eduard Vasilievich Nazarov (Russian: Эдуард Васильевич Назаров; 23 November 1941 – 11 September 2016) was a Soviet and Russian animator, screenwriter, voice actor, book illustrator and educator, artistic director at the Pilot Studio (2007–2016), vice-president of ASIFA (1987–1999) and a co-president of the KROK International Animated Films Festival.

He started painting as a child and while in the 9th grade entered an art school where he met Yuri Norstein, who became a lifelong friend.

[citation needed] His last film Martynko (1987) was made during perestroika and banned for four years because Nazarov refused to change the name of the cartoon princess Raisa.

Censors saw her as a satire on the First Lady of the Soviet Union Raisa Gorbacheva despite the fact that all the characters were borrowed directly from the eponymous fairy tale by Boris Shergin.

In 1993 he co-founded the SHAR animation school and studio along with Andrei Khrzhanovsky, Yuri Norstein and Fyodor Khitruk where he worked until his death.

[1][10] In 2004 Nazarov joined the Pilot Studio in their Mountain of Gems project, a grand government-backed TV series that united the efforts of many animators.