The answer to this question might seem a bit unexpected, or at least this is how it was for me.
Research suggests that Virtual Reality has its roots all the way back in 1838 when Charles Wheatstone discovered that our brain works in mysterious ways, because each of our eyes processes a two-dimensional image into a single object of three dimensions. Based on this theory, he later developed the View-Master stereoscope that was used for "virtual tourism". The same design of the Stereoscope from 1838 is used today for Google Cardboard and all the other low-budget VR head mounted displays for smartphones.
Since then, the evolution of VR is long and full of interesting stories which I recommend you to read. Big industries have been using the benefits of this technology for over 100 years. In 1989, even NASA started using VR simulations to train its astronauts. They called this “Project VIEW”. In 1991, the VR technology was being prepared to slowly be released to the public. In 1999, the popular movie, “The Matrix” described how it is to live in a virtual simulation and created mass awareness over this topic. Later on, in 2007, Google made a few steps forward by creating their 360 degrees’ street view.
In 2010, the "Oculus Rift project was born and two years later, the Oculus Kickstarter was launched. The person behind the Oculus project was Palmer Luckey.
And the rest is history.
It is a bit difficult to answer your question and point towards one person because behind this technology stand hundreds of years of technology development. If we are thinking who invented the modern Oculus VR, it is Palmer Luckey, who was only 17 when he created his first VR prototype in his parents' garage.
