diff --git a/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Headers/FlutterViewController.h b/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Headers/FlutterViewController.h
index 038db1f322eed..53e26fbad4da6 100644
--- a/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Headers/FlutterViewController.h
+++ b/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Headers/FlutterViewController.h
@@ -73,4 +73,48 @@ FLUTTER_DARWIN_EXPORT
  */
 - (void)onPreEngineRestart;
 
+/**
+ * The contentView (FlutterView)'s background color is set to black during
+ * its instantiation.
+ *
+ * The containing layer's color can be set to the NSColor provided to this method.
+ *
+ * For example, the background may be set after the FlutterViewController
+ * is instantiated in MainFlutterWindow.swift in the Flutter project.
+ * ```swift
+ * import Cocoa
+ * import FlutterMacOS
+ *
+ * class MainFlutterWindow: NSWindow {
+ *   override func awakeFromNib() {
+ *     let flutterViewController = FlutterViewController.init()
+ *
+ *     // The background color of the window and `FlutterViewController`
+ *     // are retained separately.
+ *     //
+ *     // In this example, both the MainFlutterWindow and FlutterViewController's
+ *     // FlutterView's backgroundColor are set to clear to achieve a fully
+ *     // transparent effect.
+ *     //
+ *     // If the window's background color is not set, it will use the system
+ *     // default.
+ *     //
+ *     // If the `FlutterView`'s color is not set via `FlutterViewController.setBackgroundColor`
+ *     // it's default will be black.
+ *     self.backgroundColor = NSColor.clear
+ *     flutterViewController.backgroundColor = NSColor.clear
+ *
+ *     let windowFrame = self.frame
+ *     self.contentViewController = flutterViewController
+ *     self.setFrame(windowFrame, display: true)
+ *
+ *     RegisterGeneratedPlugins(registry: flutterViewController)
+ *
+ *     super.awakeFromNib()
+ *   }
+ * }
+ * ```
+ */
+@property(readwrite, nonatomic, nullable) NSColor* backgroundColor;
+
 @end
diff --git a/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterEngineTest.mm b/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterEngineTest.mm
index 439519575e578..f6ac4a37a181a 100644
--- a/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterEngineTest.mm
+++ b/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterEngineTest.mm
@@ -101,6 +101,67 @@ @interface FlutterEngine (Test)
   EXPECT_TRUE(logs.find("Hello logging") != std::string::npos);
 }
 
+TEST_F(FlutterEngineTest, BackgroundIsBlack) {
+  // Launch the test entrypoint.
+  FlutterEngine* engine = GetFlutterEngine();
+  EXPECT_TRUE([engine runWithEntrypoint:@"backgroundTest"]);
+  EXPECT_TRUE(engine.running);
+
+  NSString* fixtures = @(flutter::testing::GetFixturesPath());
+  FlutterDartProject* project = [[FlutterDartProject alloc]
+      initWithAssetsPath:fixtures
+             ICUDataPath:[fixtures stringByAppendingString:@"/icudtl.dat"]];
+  FlutterViewController* viewController = [[FlutterViewController alloc] initWithProject:project];
+  [viewController loadView];
+  viewController.flutterView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 800, 600);
+  [engine setViewController:viewController];
+
+  // Latch to ensure the entire layer tree has been generated and presented.
+  fml::AutoResetWaitableEvent latch;
+  AddNativeCallback("SignalNativeTest", CREATE_NATIVE_ENTRY([&](Dart_NativeArguments args) {
+                      CALayer* rootLayer = engine.viewController.flutterView.layer;
+                      EXPECT_TRUE(rootLayer.backgroundColor != nil);
+                      if (rootLayer.backgroundColor != nil) {
+                        NSColor* actualBackgroundColor =
+                            [NSColor colorWithCGColor:rootLayer.backgroundColor];
+                        EXPECT_EQ(actualBackgroundColor, [NSColor blackColor]);
+                      }
+                      latch.Signal();
+                    }));
+  latch.Wait();
+}
+
+TEST_F(FlutterEngineTest, CanOverrideBackgroundColor) {
+  // Launch the test entrypoint.
+  FlutterEngine* engine = GetFlutterEngine();
+  EXPECT_TRUE([engine runWithEntrypoint:@"backgroundTest"]);
+  EXPECT_TRUE(engine.running);
+
+  NSString* fixtures = @(flutter::testing::GetFixturesPath());
+  FlutterDartProject* project = [[FlutterDartProject alloc]
+      initWithAssetsPath:fixtures
+             ICUDataPath:[fixtures stringByAppendingString:@"/icudtl.dat"]];
+  FlutterViewController* viewController = [[FlutterViewController alloc] initWithProject:project];
+  [viewController loadView];
+  viewController.flutterView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 800, 600);
+  [engine setViewController:viewController];
+  viewController.flutterView.backgroundColor = [NSColor whiteColor];
+
+  // Latch to ensure the entire layer tree has been generated and presented.
+  fml::AutoResetWaitableEvent latch;
+  AddNativeCallback("SignalNativeTest", CREATE_NATIVE_ENTRY([&](Dart_NativeArguments args) {
+                      CALayer* rootLayer = engine.viewController.flutterView.layer;
+                      EXPECT_TRUE(rootLayer.backgroundColor != nil);
+                      if (rootLayer.backgroundColor != nil) {
+                        NSColor* actualBackgroundColor =
+                            [NSColor colorWithCGColor:rootLayer.backgroundColor];
+                        EXPECT_EQ(actualBackgroundColor, [NSColor whiteColor]);
+                      }
+                      latch.Signal();
+                    }));
+  latch.Wait();
+}
+
 TEST_F(FlutterEngineTest, CanToggleAccessibility) {
   FlutterEngine* engine = GetFlutterEngine();
   // Capture the update callbacks before the embedder API initializes.
diff --git a/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterView.h b/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterView.h
index 8aed110e70adb..6dd21830b2c8d 100644
--- a/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterView.h
+++ b/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterView.h
@@ -68,4 +68,13 @@
  */
 - (void)shutdown;
 
+/**
+ * By default, the `FlutterSurfaceManager` creates two layers to manage Flutter
+ * content, the content layer and containing layer. To set the native background
+ * color, onto which the Flutter content is drawn, call this method with the
+ * NSColor which you would like to override the default, black background color
+ * with.
+ */
+- (void)setBackgroundColor:(nonnull NSColor*)color;
+
 @end
diff --git a/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterView.mm b/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterView.mm
index 30c0a4495ac1a..b2c85efba3cd4 100644
--- a/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterView.mm
+++ b/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterView.mm
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ - (instancetype)initWithMTLDevice:(id<MTLDevice>)device
   self = [super initWithFrame:NSZeroRect];
   if (self) {
     [self setWantsLayer:YES];
+    [self setBackgroundColor:[NSColor blackColor]];
     [self setLayerContentsRedrawPolicy:NSViewLayerContentsRedrawDuringViewResize];
     _reshapeListener = reshapeListener;
     _resizableBackingStoreProvider =
@@ -51,6 +52,7 @@ - (instancetype)initWithFrame:(NSRect)frame
   self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
   if (self) {
     [self setWantsLayer:YES];
+    [self setBackgroundColor:[NSColor blackColor]];
     _reshapeListener = reshapeListener;
     _resizableBackingStoreProvider =
         [[FlutterOpenGLResizableBackingStoreProvider alloc] initWithMainContext:mainContext
@@ -84,6 +86,10 @@ - (void)reshaped {
                             }];
 }
 
+- (void)setBackgroundColor:(NSColor*)color {
+  self.layer.backgroundColor = color.CGColor;
+}
+
 #pragma mark - NSView overrides
 
 - (void)setFrameSize:(NSSize)newSize {
diff --git a/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterViewController.mm b/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterViewController.mm
index cb472018404c7..d78c3941aa275 100644
--- a/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterViewController.mm
+++ b/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/FlutterViewController.mm
@@ -159,6 +159,8 @@ void Reset() {
  */
 @interface FlutterViewWrapper : NSView
 
+- (void)setBackgroundColor:(NSColor*)color;
+
 @end
 
 /**
@@ -266,6 +268,10 @@ - (instancetype)initWithFlutterView:(FlutterView*)view {
   return self;
 }
 
+- (void)setBackgroundColor:(NSColor*)color {
+  [_flutterView setBackgroundColor:color];
+}
+
 - (NSArray*)accessibilityChildren {
   return @[ _flutterView ];
 }
@@ -376,6 +382,9 @@ - (void)loadView {
     }
     flutterView = [[FlutterView alloc] initWithMainContext:mainContext reshapeListener:self];
   }
+  if (_backgroundColor != nil) {
+    [flutterView setBackgroundColor:_backgroundColor];
+  }
   FlutterViewWrapper* wrapperView = [[FlutterViewWrapper alloc] initWithFlutterView:flutterView];
   self.view = wrapperView;
   _flutterView = flutterView;
@@ -418,6 +427,11 @@ - (void)setMouseTrackingMode:(FlutterMouseTrackingMode)mode {
   [self configureTrackingArea];
 }
 
+- (void)setBackgroundColor:(NSColor*)color {
+  _backgroundColor = color;
+  [_flutterView setBackgroundColor:_backgroundColor];
+}
+
 - (void)onPreEngineRestart {
   [self initializeKeyboard];
 }
diff --git a/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/fixtures/flutter_desktop_test.dart b/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/fixtures/flutter_desktop_test.dart
index 50c31f3adcee7..afdc3275e9618 100644
--- a/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/fixtures/flutter_desktop_test.dart
+++ b/shell/platform/darwin/macos/framework/Source/fixtures/flutter_desktop_test.dart
@@ -57,3 +57,9 @@ Picture _createSimplePicture() {
 void nativeCallback() {
   signalNativeTest();
 }
+
+@pragma('vm:entry-point')
+void backgroundTest() {
+  PlatformDispatcher.instance.views.first.render(SceneBuilder().build());
+  signalNativeTest(); // should look black
+}