diff --git a/app/models/commit_status.rb b/app/models/commit_status.rb
index 4c6de18527b..de7b29a649d 100644
--- a/app/models/commit_status.rb
+++ b/app/models/commit_status.rb
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ class CommitStatus < ActiveRecord::Base
 
   validates_presence_of :name
 
+  alias_attribute :author, :user
+
   scope :running, ->() { where(status: 'running') }
   scope :pending, ->() { where(status: 'pending') }
   scope :success, ->() { where(status: 'success') }
diff --git a/lib/api/commit_statuses.rb b/lib/api/commit_statuses.rb
index 41c05334296..c478b3dc245 100644
--- a/lib/api/commit_statuses.rb
+++ b/lib/api/commit_statuses.rb
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ module API
 
         name = params[:name] || params[:context]
         status = GenericCommitStatus.running_or_pending.find_by(commit: ci_commit, name: name, ref: params[:ref])
-        status = GenericCommitStatus.new(commit: ci_commit) unless status
+        status = GenericCommitStatus.new(commit: ci_commit, user: current_user) unless status
         status.update(attrs)
 
         case params[:state].to_s
diff --git a/lib/api/entities.rb b/lib/api/entities.rb
index e1c5a459751..bfb242bb6fd 100644
--- a/lib/api/entities.rb
+++ b/lib/api/entities.rb
@@ -232,6 +232,7 @@ module API
     class CommitStatus < Grape::Entity
       expose :id, :sha, :ref, :status, :name, :target_url, :description,
              :created_at, :started_at, :finished_at
+      expose :author, using: Entities::UserBasic
     end
 
     class Event < Grape::Entity
diff --git a/spec/models/commit_status_spec.rb b/spec/models/commit_status_spec.rb
index c1af50afb7c..cbefa7798de 100644
--- a/spec/models/commit_status_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/commit_status_spec.rb
@@ -18,6 +18,13 @@ describe CommitStatus do
   it { is_expected.to respond_to :running? }
   it { is_expected.to respond_to :pending? }
 
+  describe :author do
+    subject { commit_status.author }
+    before { commit_status.author = User.new }
+
+    it { is_expected.to eq(commit_status.user) }
+  end
+
   describe :started? do
     subject { commit_status.started? }