41.8501° N, 87.6499° W
CHICAGO
Most Famous People Born in Chicago, USA
- Notable people
- 7,467
- Peak decade
- 1950s
- Median birth year
- 1940
- Most distinctive
- Baseball 5.2×
Big shoulders, broad bench. Chicago's notables are spread evenly across actors, politicians, and four major-league sports — the city is the dataset's largest baseball-and-basketball over-index outside the coasts — alongside a deep screenwriter and novelist tradition that gave the world Saul Bellow, David Mamet, and Ben Hecht. No single category dominates the way film does in Los Angeles or Wall Street does in New York, and the music economy alone runs from blues and house to first-wave hip-hop.
Standouts
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 850 notable births.
What Chicago Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Actor is Chicago's biggest profession — 11% of all notables (813).
Chicago over-indexes on baseball — 5.2× the global rate.
Chicago under-produces politician — only 0.5× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Chicago's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Film & TV
- Music
- Politics & Law
- Writing
- Science
- Other
- Field: Novelist Clear ×
Philip K. Dick
1928 - 1982
Edgar Rice Burroughs
1875 - 1950
John Dos Passos
1896 - 1970
Fritz Leiber
1910 - 1992
Sandra Cisneros
Born 1954
Timothy Zahn
Born 1951
James Tiptree Jr.
1915 - 1987
Mercedes Lackey
Born 1950
Nella Larsen
1891 - 1964
David Gerrold
Born 1944
Fred Saberhagen
1930 - 2007
Iceberg Slim
1918 - 1992
James Gould Cozzens
1903 - 1978
Meyer Levin
1905 - 1981
Brad Thor
Born 1969
Mary Doria Russell
Born 1950
Patricia Wrede
Born 1953
Dorothy Salisbury Davis
1916 - 2014
Mary Borden
1886 - 1968
Simone Elkeles
Born 1970
James Kahn
Born 1947
William Irwin Thompson
Born 1938
Janet Lewis
1899 - 1998
Harry Stephen Keeler
1890 - 1967
Otis Adelbert Kline
1891 - 1946
Berton Roueché
1910 - 1994
Jerry Ahern
1946 - 2012
Peter De Vries
1910 - 1993
Phyllis Eisenstein
Born 1946
Henry Blake Fuller
1857 - 1929
Stuart Dybek
Born 1942
George O. Smith
1911 - 1981
Ray Russell
1924 - 1999
Edwin Balmer
1883 - 1959
Sue Miller
Born 1943
Jody Lynn Nye
Born 1957
Isaac Rosenfeld
1918 - 1956
Lawrence M. Schoen
Born 1959
Justin Leiber
1938 - 2016
ZZ Packer
Born 1973
Mary Hastings Bradley
1882 - 1976
Tania James
Born 1980
Cara Black (author)
Born 1951
Miles J. Breuer
1889 - 1945
Julie Hyzy
Born 1959
Edward M. Lerner
Born 1949
Charles Dickinson (author)
Born 1951
Tony D'Souza
Born 1974
Robert Rodi
Born 1956
David R. Palmer
Born 1941
Tiina Nunnally
Born 1952
Chuck Logan (author)
Born 1942
Calvin Baker
Born 1972
Sheldon Siegel
Born 1958
Mary Wings
Born 1949
Laura Resnick
Born 1962
Albert Halper
1904 - 1984
Ian Wallace (author)
1912 - 1998
Maxine Chernoff
Born 1952
Alexander Jablokov
Born 1956
Mort Castle
Born 1946
Lucy Corin
Born 1970
Rebecca Makkai
Born 1978
Danica Novgorodoff
Born 1980
Richard Bradford (novelist)
1932 - 2002
Alice Gerstenberg
1885 - 1972
Sebastian Rotella
Born 1950
Peter Orner
Born 1968
Gary Buslik
Born 1946
Bill Roorbach
Born 1953
Charles Blackstone
Born 1977
Neil McMahon
Born 1949
Jack Woodford
1894 - 1971
Jean E. Karl
1927 - 2000
Richard Purtill
1931 - 2016
Gayle Brandeis
Born 1968
Norbert Blei
1935 - 2013
Elizabeth Pickett Chevalier
1896 - 1984
Jennie Fields
Born 1953
Stepan Chapman
1951 - 2014
Lilian Bell
1867 - 1929
Cynthia Felice
Born 1951
William O'Rourke
Born 1945
Richard Rosen
Born 1949
Anna de Koven
1862 - 1953
Rosecrans Baldwin
Born 1977
Steve Fiffer
Born 1950
Linda Yellin
-
Peg Kerr
-
Bruce Dobler
1939 - 2010
Susan Kerslake
Born 1943
Richard Himmel
1920 - 2000
Miriam Karmel
-
De Lysle Ferree Cass
1887 - 1973
Valya Dudycz Lupescu
Born 1974
Monica Nolan (auteur)
-