Aaron McGruder (born May 29, 1974 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American cartoonist best known for writing and drawing The Boondocks, a Universal Press Syndicate comic strip about two young African-American brothers from inner-city Chicago now living with their grandfather in a sedate suburb. Through the leftist Huey (named after Huey P. Newton) and his younger brother Riley, a young want-to-be gangsta, the strip explores issues involving African American culture and American politics.

When McGruder's father accepted a job with the National Transportation Safety Board, McGruder moved to Columbia, Maryland at age six with his parents and his older brother Dedric. He attended a Jesuit school from grades seven to nine, followed by public high school at Oakland Mills High School and the University of Maryland, from which he graduated with a degree in African American Studies. The Boondocks debuted in the campus newspaper, The Diamondback, in late 1997, under its then-editor, Jayson Blair. McGruder created the comic while working at the Presentation Graphics Lab on campus. At the time, he was also a DJ on the "Soul Controllers Mix Show" on WMUC.

McGruder presently lives in Los Angeles, California, where his projects include the Boondocks animated TV series and the Super Deluxe variety comedy series, "The Super Rumble Mix Show". He is the author of five "Boondocks" collections: "All The Rage", "Public Enemy #2", "A Right To Be Hostile", "Fresh for '01: You Suckaz", and "Boondocks: Because I Know You Don't Read The Newspaper" McGruder is also the co-author, with Reginald Hudlin, of a 2004 graphic novel, Birth of a Nation, drawn by cartoonist Kyle Baker, and a frequent public speaker on political and cultural issues.