13.0826° N, 80.2747° E
CHENNAI
Most Famous People Born in Chennai, India
- Notable people
- 1,072
- Peak decade
- 1980s
- Median birth year
- 1965
- Most distinctive
- Cinema 11.9×
Tamil cinema's entire machine lives in these numbers — cinema, film, choreographer, and actor all over-index between 5.1× and 11.9×, a fingerprint no other Indian city comes close to. Add Viswanathan Anand's chess dominance and the mathematician footprint behind Ramanujan's home district, and the city balances movie glitter with something much quieter.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Chennai during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1980s with 186 notable births.
What Chennai Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Actor is Chennai's biggest profession — 27% of all notables (292).
Chennai over-indexes on cinema — 11.9× the global rate.
Chennai under-produces politician — only 0.4× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Chennai's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Film & TV
- Sports
- Music
- Politics & Law
- Science
- Writing
- Other
A. R. Rahman
Born 1966
R. K. Narayan
1906 - 2001
Viswanathan Anand
Born 1969
Ramana Maharshi
1879 - 1950
Engelbert Humperdinck (singer)
Born 1936
Pete Best
Born 1941
Rekha
Born 1954
Vijay Amritraj
Born 1953
Aravind Adiga
Born 1974
Padma Lakshmi
Born 1970
Frederick Lugard, 1st Baron Lugard
1858 - 1945
Mahesh Babu
Born 1975
Puneeth Rajkumar
Born 1975
Samantha Akkineni
Born 1987
S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan
Born 1940
Yuvan Shankar Raja
Born 1979
Dhanush
Born 1978
Ravi Zacharias
1946 - 2020
Prabhas
Born 1979
Tom Kibble
1932 - 2016
Siddharth (actor)
Born 1979
Vyjayanthimala Bali
Born 1936
Vikram (actor)
Born 1966
Harris Jayaraj
Born 1975
Pramila Jayapal
Born 1965
Vijay (actor)
Born 1974
L. Subramaniam
Born 1947
Shruti Haasan
Born 1986
Indra Nooyi
Born 1955
Rajkumar Santoshi
-
Trisha (actress)
Born 1983
Lakshmi Sahgal
1914 - 2012
Rana Daggubati
Born 1984
Allu Arjun
Born 1982
Mahesh Bhupathi
Born 1974
Suhasini Maniratnam
Born 1961
C. P. Ramanujam
1938 - 1974
J. H. C. Whitehead
1904 - 1960
Aswath Damodaran
Born 1957
Jayam Ravi
Born 1980
Priya Anand
Born 1986
L. Shankar
Born 1950
Akkineni Nagarjuna
Born 1959
Ram Charan
Born 1985
Arvind Swami
Born 1967
Palagummi Sainath
Born 1957
Ravichandran Ashwin
Born 1985
Vainu Bappu
1927 - 1982
Ramanathan Krishnan
Born 1932
Jyotindra Nath Dixit
1936 - 2005
Anirudh Ravichander
Born 1990
B. Jayant Baliga
Born 1948
Madhu Sudan
Born 1966
William Dobbie
1879 - 1964
Ramesh Krishnan
Born 1961
T. H. Vinayakram
Born 1944
Ida S. Scudder
1870 - 1960
Arnold Lunn
1888 - 1974
Byam Shaw
1872 - 1919
Narain Karthikeyan
Born 1977
Kanimozhi
Born 1968
Krishnan Sasikiran
Born 1981
Anand Amritraj
Born 1952
Silambarasan
Born 1983
Lalgudi Jayaraman
1930 - 2013
K. V. Anand
Born 1966
Murali Vijay
Born 1984
Nasser Hussain
Born 1968
Andrea Jeremiah
Born 1985
Kenneth Anderson (British Army officer)
1891 - 1959
Kannan Soundararajan
Born 1973
M. L. Vasanthakumari
1928 - 1990
Edward Grigg, 1st Baron Altrincham
1879 - 1955
Sudhir Venkatesh
Born 1966
Gagan Narang
Born 1983
Ashok Amritraj
Born 1957
Venkat Prabhu
Born 1975
Sherard Osborn
1822 - 1875
Balasaraswati
1918 - 1984
Ramya Krishnan
Born 1967
M. K. Stalin
Born 1953
Meena (actress)
Born 1975
Dipika Pallikal Karthik
Born 1991
Ravindran Kannan
Born 1953
Lisa Haydon
Born 1986
A. Sreekar Prasad
Born 1952
John Walsh (scientist)
1726 - 1795
M. Bhaktavatsalam
1897 - 1987
Ramkumar Ramanathan
Born 1994
Malcolm Adiseshiah
1910 - 1994
G. V. Prakash Kumar
Born 1987
Shankar Balasubramanian
Born 1966
Selvaraghavan
Born 1976
Sarvepalli Gopal
1923 - 2002
Dinesh Karthik
Born 1985
Padma Subrahmanyam
Born 1943
Jiiva
Born 1984
Bhama Srinivasan
Born 1935
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu
Born 2005
Regina Cassandra
Born 1990
Krishnamachari Srikkanth
Born 1959
P. C. Sreeram
Born 1956
T. T. Krishnamachari
1899 - 1974
A. Bhimsingh
1924 - 1978
Suchitra
Born 1979
Soundarya Rajinikanth
Born 1984
Mariana Starke
1762 - 1838
Joshna Chinappa
Born 1986
D. Imman
Born 1983
Srividya
1953 - 2006
Balakumaran
1946 - 2018
Vishal (actor)
Born 1977
Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar
1873 - 1964
Vignesh Shivan
Born 1985
K. R. Parthasarathy (probabilist)
Born 1936
Indrani Rahman
1930 - 1999
Suniti Solomon
1938 - 2015
Raghava Lawrence
Born 1971
N. Ram
Born 1945
Potti Sreeramulu
1901 - 1952
Kim Plofker
Born 1964
RJ Balaji
Born 1985
Vijayashanti
Born 1964
Atharvaa
Born 1989
Sharath Kamal
Born 1982
Karun Chandhok
Born 1984
Prashanth (actor)
Born 1973
Madhoo
Born 1972
S. P. Sethuraman
Born 1993
M. S. Gopalakrishnan
1931 - 2013
Karthik Raja
Born 1973
Aruna Roy
Born 1946
G. Dhananjayan
Born 1965
Alladi Ramakrishnan
1923 - 2008
Murali Kartik
Born 1976
R. Parthiepan
Born 1957
Rangaswamy Srinivasan
Born 1929
Arvind Subramanian
Born 1959
Selvarajan Yesudian
1916 - 1998
Ramya NSK
-
Jayasudha
Born 1958
Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan
Born 1988
Keerthy Suresh
Born 1992
Gordon Mills
1935 - 1986
Florentia Sale
1790 - 1853
Prajnesh Gunneswaran
Born 1989
Santha Rama Rau
1923 - 2009
Ramachandran Balasubramanian
Born 1951
Govindappa Venkataswamy
1918 - 2006
Raju Sundaram
Born 1948
Sriram Raghavan
Born 1963
Ramachandran Ramesh
Born 1976
Leland Bardwell
1922 - 2016
K. S. Ravikumar
Born 1958
Sivamani
Born 1959
Vaibhavi Merchant
Born 1975
Suresh Kalmadi
Born 1944
Jaishankar
1938 - 2000
Robert Perceval Armitage
1906 - 1990
Arun Vijay
Born 1977
Prabhu (actor)
Born 1956
Alan Garnett Davenport
1932 - 2009
Cotah Ramaswami
1896 - 1985
Anaswara Kumar
Born 1994
Vishnu Manchu
Born 1981
Vijay Yesudas
Born 1979
Nirav Shah
Born 1974
Vijay Govindarajan
Born 1949
Yugendran
Born 1976
Vijaya Nirmala
1946 - 2019
Lakshmipathy Balaji
Born 1981
V. T. Krishnamachari
1881 - 1964
S. P. B. Charan
Born 1972
Rangaswamy Narasimhan
1926 - 2007
Sitaram Yechury
Born 1952
Ramamoorthy Ramesh
Born 1960
G. Srinivasan
1958 - 2007
Harini (singer)
Born 1979
Gudipati Venkatachalam
1894 - 1979
Rajagopala Chidambaram
Born 1936
Tim Graham (athlete)
Born 1939
L. R. Eswari
Born 1939
James Achilles Kirkpatrick
1764 - 1805
G. Harishankar
1958 - 2002
Jikki
1935 - 2004
Raadhika
Born 1962
Saritha
Born 1959
Chitra Mudgal
Born 1944
Naresh (actor)
Born 1960
Devika
1943 - 2002
K. Ananda Rau
1893 - 1966
Veerapandiya Kattabomman
1760 - 1799
Olivia Mariamne Devenish
1771 - 1814
T. M. Krishna
Born 1976
Ruth Manorama
Born 1952
Abhinav Mukund
Born 1990
Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan
Born 1945
R. Nagaswamy
Born 1930
Krishnasami Venkataraman
1901 - 1981
Pandiraj
Born 1976
R. Rathnavelu
Born 1971
Tishani Doshi
Born 1975
Anuradha Sriram
Born 1970
Rochelle Rao
Born 1988
Jeeva (director)
1963 - 2007
Nizhalgal Ravi
Born 1953
A. P. Komala
Born 1934
Jayanthi Natarajan
Born 1954
Siva (director)
-
Maalavika Manoj
Born 1993
Aishwarya Rajesh
Born 1990
T. V. Ramakrishnan
Born 1941
Sadagoppan Ramesh
Born 1975
Syed Kirmani
Born 1949
Thiruvenkatachari Parthasarathy
Born 1941
Madhan Karky
Born 1980
Sripriya
Born 1956
Lakshmi (actress)
Born 1952
Pop Shalini
Born 1984
A. L. Vijay
Born 1983
Aishwarya R. Dhanush
Born 1982
Nandamuri Balakrishna
Born 1960
Sarojini Varadappan
1921 - 2013
Jai (actor)
Born 1985
Parthiva Sureshwaren
Born 1981
S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar
1871 - 1946
Teja (director)
Born 1966
Vikram Prabhu
-
Sashi Menon
Born 1952
Ganapathi Thanikaimoni
1938 - 1986
S. Ramaseshan
1923 - 2003
Major Sundarrajan
1935 - 2003
Hemang Badani
Born 1976
E. S. L. Narasimhan
Born 1945
Ramesh Shotham
Born 1948
Haricharan
Born 1987
Rajnesh Domalpalli
-
William Forster (Australian politician)
1818 - 1882
S. A. Rajkumar
Born 1964
M. K. Alagiri
Born 1951
Dhivyadharshini
Born 1984
Diwakar
Born 1990
Krishnan Srinivasan
Born 1937
N. Rajam
Born 1938
Vishnu Vishal
Born 1984
Leslie Hammond
1905 - 1955
Priti Sapru
Born 1957
Shruti Kurien-Kanetkar
Born 1983
Sundeep Kishan
Born 1987
Manjula Ghattamaneni
Born 1970
Soumya Swaminathan (scientist)
Born 1959
Visu
1945 - 2020
Armaan Ebrahim
Born 1989
Heera Rajagopal
Born 1971
Karthik (actor)
Born 1960
Vijay Raghav Rao
1925 - 2011
Y. G. Mahendra
Born 1950
Sean Roldan
-
R. Prasanna
Born 1957
Bernard Spencer
1909 - 1963
T. N. Ramachandran
1901 - 1973
Ellen Hollond
1822 - 1884
S. S. Balan
1936 - 2014
Geetha (actress)
Born 1962
Janani Iyer
Born 1989
Gautham Karthik
Born 1989
Bharath Reddy
Born 1954
Cadambathur Tiruvenkatacharlu Rajagopal
1903 - 1978
Rahul Ravindran
Born 1981
Raman Sundrum
Born 1964
Vidya Vox
Born 1990
Subramaniam Badrinath
Born 1980
Woorkeri Raman
Born 1965
Mahat Raghavendra
Born 1987
Dhanpal Ganesh
Born 1994
Ranganath (actor)
1949 - 2015
P. Madhavan
1928 - 2003
Srikanth (Telugu actor)
Born 1968
Laxman Sivaramakrishnan
Born 1965
Niranjana Nagarajan
Born 1988
Bharat Bala
-
Sethuraman Panchanathan
Born 1961
Saisharan
Born 1992
Sumalatha
Born 1963
Neelima Rani
Born 1983
Ramesh Khanna
-
Karunakaran (actor)
Born 1981
Sridharan Sriram
Born 1976
N. R. Raghunanthan
-
C. Natesa Mudaliar
1875 - 1937
Lakshmi Manchu
Born 1976
Allu Sirish
Born 1987
Lekha Washington
Born 1984
Nivetha Thomas
Born 1995
Tanya Ravichandran
Born 1994
Charuhasan
Born 1930
Nivas K. Prasanna
-
Kanchana (actress)
Born 1939
Kothanda Ramaiah
Born 1953
Ranya Paasonen
Born 1974