Alison Bechdel (born 1960) is an American cartoonist and graphic memoirist whose work explores family, gender, sexuality, identity, and memory with remarkable wit and psychological depth. She is widely recognized as a pioneering figure in graphic literature and as the originator of the influential "Bechdel Test," a benchmark for evaluating the representation of women in film and other media. Her best-known work, *Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic*, recounts her relationship with her father and her own coming of age through a richly layered blend of memoir and literary criticism. The book won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was later adapted into the Tony Award–winning musical *Fun Home*.