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
- Field: Cricket Clear ×
Ravichandran Ashwin
Born 1985
Murali Vijay
Born 1984
Nasser Hussain
Born 1968
Dinesh Karthik
Born 1985
Krishnamachari Srikkanth
Born 1959
Murali Kartik
Born 1976
Lakshmipathy Balaji
Born 1981
Abhinav Mukund
Born 1990
Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan
Born 1945
Sadagoppan Ramesh
Born 1975
Syed Kirmani
Born 1949
Hemang Badani
Born 1976
Bharath Reddy
Born 1954
Subramaniam Badrinath
Born 1980
Woorkeri Raman
Born 1965
Laxman Sivaramakrishnan
Born 1965
Niranjana Nagarajan
Born 1988
Sridharan Sriram
Born 1976
Thirush Kamini
Born 1990
V. B. Chandrasekhar
1961 - 2019
A. G. Kripal Singh
1933 - 1987
Washington Sundar
Born 1999
M. J. Gopalan
1909 - 2003
Thirunavukkarasu Kumaran
Born 1975
Aashish Kapoor
Born 1971
Shantha Rangaswamy
Born 1954
A. G. Milkha Singh
1941 - 2017
Dayalan Hemalatha
Born 1994
Fowzieh Khalili
Born 1958
Napoleon Einstein
Born 1989
Baba Aparajith
Born 1994
Murugan Ashwin
Born 1990
T. A. Sekhar
Born 1956
C. D. Gopinath
Born 1930
Yo Mahesh
Born 1987
Arjan Kripal Singh
Born 1969
Balaji Rao (Canadian cricketer)
Born 1978
Baba Indrajith
Born 1994
Anirudha Srikkanth
Born 1987
Aswin Crist
Born 1996
Venkatraman Ramnarayan
Born 1947
Jawad Hussain
1939 - 2008
Syed Mohammed
Born 1983
Lissy Samuel
Born 1967
Malolan Rangarajan
Born 1989
Jayaraman Madanagopal
Born 1974
Alfred Evans (cricketer, born 1858)
1858 - 1934
Ramaswamy Prasanna
Born 1982
Rangachari Madhavan
Born 1960
Jagannathan Kaushik
Born 1985
Krishnamachari Bharatan
Born 1963
Joseph Harris (cricketer)
Born 1965
Alexander Anstruther
1846 - 1902
P. C. Prakash
Born 1961
Rohit Kanaiya
Born 1973
C. S. Sureshkumar
Born 1959
D. J. Gokulakrishnan
Born 1973
Archibald Campbell (cricketer)
1822 - 1887
M. Suryanarayan
1930 - 2010
Mark Lavender
Born 1967
Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore
Born 1996
Venkatesh Rao
Born 1939
Gopalaswamy Kasturirangan
1930 - 2020
Srini Santhanam
Born 1984
Bharath Shankar
Born 1994
Eric Crake
1886 - 1948
Balchander Anirudh
Born 1994
Krishnamachari Srinivasan
Born 1966
Lakshminarayanan Vignesh
Born 1989
Ivaturi Shivram
Born 1954
Mohammad Ghouse
1931 - 2014
Alfred Burrows
1952 - 2015
M. Jairam
Born 1937
Edmund Marsden
1881 - 1915
M. V. Bobjee
1917 - 1981
Velidi Lakshman
Born 1991
Subha Srinivasan
-
P. K. Dharmalingam
Died 2019
Nayini Reddy
Born 1938
Durriya Shabbir
Born 1967
Basil Clarke (cricketer)
1885 - 1940
Richard Mansfield (cricketer)
Born 1975
Venkatraman Ganesan
-