37.9074° N, 121.0764° W
OAKLAND
Most Famous People Born in Oakland, United States
- Notable people
- 1,016
- Peak decade
- 1940s
- Median birth year
- 1949
- Most distinctive
- Rapper 23.4×
The Rapper bench here runs at better than twenty-three times the global baseline — Too $hort, MC Hammer, and the entire Bay Area hyphy lineage compressed into one line of the panel, a regional rap dialect invented the way New Orleans invented jazz. The deep Baseball count is the other Oakland story, the A's dynasty years and the West Oakland sandlots that produced Rickey Henderson, while the outsized Artist bench still runs on Black Panther-era visual culture.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Oakland during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1940s with 138 notable births.
What Oakland Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Football is Oakland's biggest profession — 12% of all notables (118).
Oakland over-indexes on rapper — 23.4× the global rate.
Oakland under-produces politician — only 0.4× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Oakland's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Music
- Film & TV
- Politics & Law
- Writing
- Art & Design
- Other
- Filtered to 1960s Clear ×
Brandon Lee
1965 - 1993
MC Hammer
Born 1962
Kamala Harris
Born 1964
Jeff Hanneman
1964 - 2013
Gary Payton
Born 1968
Raphael Saadiq
Born 1966
Brad Gilbert
Born 1961
Michael Franti
Born 1966
Robb Flynn
Born 1967
Cynthia Stevenson
Born 1962
Perri "Pebbles" Reid
Born 1966
Stephan Jenkins
Born 1964
Brian Shaw
Born 1966
Ant Banks
Born 1966
Jill Whelan
Born 1966
Hans Reiser
Born 1963
Mark Curry (actor)
Born 1961
Dru Down
Born 1969
Megan Leigh
1964 - 1990
Antonio Davis
Born 1968
Richie Rich (rapper)
Born 1968
Tiffany Chin
Born 1967
Scott Amendola
Born 1969
Charlie Huston
Born 1968
Greg Foster (basketball)
Born 1968
J. H. Wyman
Born 1967
Jon Barry
Born 1969
Henry Turner (basketball)
Born 1966
Cliff Robinson (basketball, born 1960)
Born 1960
Mitch Mullany
1968 - 2008
Alvin Youngblood Hart
Born 1963
Bob Roll
Born 1960
Craig Handy
Born 1962
E-A-Ski
Born 1968
Leslie Deniz
Born 1962
D'wayne Wiggins
Born 1963
Ty Van Burkleo
Born 1963
Darvin Moon
1963 - 2020
Tony Reflex
Born 1963
Libby Schaaf
Born 1965
David Bach (author)
Born 1966
Richard Lange
Born 1961
Brian Johnson (catcher)
Born 1968
Mike Pritchard
Born 1969
Paige Haley
Born 1966
Mike Sherrard
Born 1963
Tameka Foster
Born 1966
Mike Young (baseball)
Born 1960
Lorenzo Lynch
Born 1963
Lee Norwood
Born 1960
Matt Vasgersian
Born 1967
Aaron Woolfolk
Born 1969
Dave Mello
Born 1969
Lynn Breedlove
Born 1965
Alex Steffen
Born 1968
Nada Gordon
Born 1964
Deanna Bowen
Born 1969
Ken Rutherford (political scientist)
Born 1962
Bryan Caldwell
1960 - 2015
J. Otto Seibold
Born 1960
Jeff Frye
Born 1966
Linda Siegel (tennis)
Born 1961
Rick Rodriguez
Born 1960
Denise Juneau
Born 1967
Jeffrey Scott Savage
Born 1963
Danyel Smith
Born 1965
Dave Hengel
Born 1961
Alicia McCarthy
Born 1969
Jimmie Robinson
Born 1963
Junior Tautalatasi
Born 1962
Julie Ow
Born 1960
Vince Albritton
Born 1962
Ken McAlister
Born 1960
Jacque Robinson
Born 1963
Randy Smith (politician)
Born 1960
Steve Hosey
Born 1969
Ken Ard (dancer)
Born 1960
David Roger
Born 1961
Ian Brennan (music producer)
Born 1966
Deborah Driggs
Born 1963
Robert Stewart (saxophonist)
Born 1969
Steve Howard (baseball)
Born 1963
Erik Johnson (infielder)
Born 1965
Rod Gilmore
Born 1960
Mark Mastrov
Born 1962
Edward C. DuMont
Born 1962
David P. Steiner
Born 1960
Dave Albright
Born 1960
Kevin Radich
Born 1960
Byron Lars
Born 1965
LaVel Freeman
Born 1963
Darryl McCane
Born 1963
Soji Kashiwagi
Born 1962
Kim Yasuda
Born 1960
Dan Rush
Born 1960
Gene Taylor (American football)
Born 1962
Craig Schommer
Born 1966
Mike Kaufmann
Born 1966
Gabriel Al-Salem
1967 - 2010