Lakshminarayana Shankar (born 26 April 1950), also known as L. Shankar and Shenkar, is an Indian-born American violinist, singer and composer. He has worked extensively in both traditional music from India, and in jazz, free improvisation and popular music, notably with singer Peter Gabriel in the latter.

Shankar was born in Madras, Tamil Nadu. Growing up in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, where his father V. Lakshminarayana Iyer was a professor at the Jaffna College of Music, Shankar was exposed to Carnatic music and other styles from an early age. His father was a violinist, his mother L. Seethalakshmi played the veena and all his five older siblings were also proficient in music.^{[citation needed]} His brothers include the violinist L. Subramaniam and L. Vaidyanathan, a music composer for Indian films.^[2] Shankar cites his family and Tyāgarāja as early inspirations.