The present invention provides a surface illuminator having a uniform luminance over a large area by using a laser light source, having a wide color reproduction range, and capable of suppressing a speckle noise, as well as a liquid crystal display using the same. The surface illuminator of the present invention includes the laser light source that emits a laser beam; a beam scan section that deflects and scans the laser beam; and a first plate-shaped light guide that makes the laser beam deflected and scanned by the beam scan section to be incident from an end face portion and making the incident laser beam to emit from a first major surface. Further, the liquid crystal display of the present invention includes a liquid crystal display panel and the surface illuminator, wherein the surface illuminator is used as a backlight illuminator that lights the liquid crystal display panel from backside in this liquid crystal display.