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.

Through the Decades

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 rapper23.4× the global rate.

Oakland under-produces politician — only 0.4× the global rate.

  1. Football118
  2. Baseball102
  3. Actor85
  4. Basket52
  5. Politician50
  6. Music47
  7. Singer35
  8. Artist35
  1. Rapper2623.4×
  2. Baseball1028.8×
  3. Basket524.1×
  4. Artist353.4×
  5. Music473.2×
  6. Novelist112.7×
  7. Film241.9×
  8. Lawyer321.8×
  1. Politician500.4×
  2. Writer230.7×

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.

18001825185018751900192519501975
  • Sports
  • Music
  • Film & TV
  • Politics & Law
  • Writing
  • Art & Design
  • Other
All1,016
Sort By

Showing 99 of 1,016 notable people

0004 ACTOR

Brandon Lee

1965 - 1993

Preview
0007 RAPPER

MC Hammer

Born 1962

Preview
0013 POLITICIAN

Kamala Harris

Born 1964

Preview
0024 GUITAR

Jeff Hanneman

1964 - 2013

Preview
0027 BASKET

Gary Payton

Born 1968

Preview
0031 SINGER

Raphael Saadiq

Born 1966

Preview
0038 PLAYER

Brad Gilbert

Born 1961

Preview
0052 SINGER

Michael Franti

Born 1966

Preview
0056 GUITAR

Robb Flynn

Born 1967

Preview
0064 ACTOR

Cynthia Stevenson

Born 1962

Preview
0090 SINGER

Perri "Pebbles" Reid

Born 1966

Preview
0091 SINGER

Stephan Jenkins

Born 1964

Preview
0092 BASKET

Brian Shaw

Born 1966

Preview
0097 RAPPER

Ant Banks

Born 1966

Preview
0105 ACTOR

Jill Whelan

Born 1966

Preview
0106 PROGRAMMER

Hans Reiser

Born 1963

Preview
0133 ACTOR

Mark Curry (actor)

Born 1961

Preview
0134 ACTOR

Dru Down

Born 1969

Preview
0135 ACTOR

Megan Leigh

1964 - 1990

Preview
0137 BASKET

Antonio Davis

Born 1968

Preview
0151 RAPPER

Richie Rich (rapper)

Born 1968

Preview
0157 SKATER

Tiffany Chin

Born 1967

Preview
0162 BANDLEADER

Scott Amendola

Born 1969

Preview
0165 SCREENWRITER

Charlie Huston

Born 1968

Preview
0168 BASKET

Greg Foster (basketball)

Born 1968

Preview
0175 SCREENWRITER

J. H. Wyman

Born 1967

Preview
0191 BASKET

Jon Barry

Born 1969

Preview
0193 BASKET

Henry Turner (basketball)

Born 1966

Preview
0196 BASKET

Cliff Robinson (basketball, born 1960)

Born 1960

Preview
0229 COMEDIAN

Mitch Mullany

1968 - 2008

Preview
0239 MUSIC

Alvin Youngblood Hart

Born 1963

Preview
0242 SPORT

Bob Roll

Born 1960

Preview
0245 MUSIC

Craig Handy

Born 1962

Preview
0246 RAPPER

E-A-Ski

Born 1968

Preview
0250 ATHLETE

Leslie Deniz

Born 1962

Preview
0255 COMPOSER

D'wayne Wiggins

Born 1963

Preview
0275 BASEBALL

Ty Van Burkleo

Born 1963

Preview
0288 PLAYER

Darvin Moon

1963 - 2020

Preview
0301 COMPOSER

Tony Reflex

Born 1963

Preview
0311 POLITICIAN

Libby Schaaf

Born 1965

Preview
0315 AUTHOR

David Bach (author)

Born 1966

Preview
0318 NOVELIST

Richard Lange

Born 1961

Preview
0338 BASEBALL

Brian Johnson (catcher)

Born 1968

Preview
0360 FOOTBALL

Mike Pritchard

Born 1969

Preview
0364 SINGER

Paige Haley

Born 1966

Preview
0372 FOOTBALL

Mike Sherrard

Born 1963

Preview
0380 STYLIST

Tameka Foster

Born 1966

Preview
0388 BASEBALL

Mike Young (baseball)

Born 1960

Preview
0389 FOOTBALL

Lorenzo Lynch

Born 1963

Preview
0393 HOCKEY

Lee Norwood

Born 1960

Preview
0394 SPORT

Matt Vasgersian

Born 1967

Preview
0402 FILM

Aaron Woolfolk

Born 1969

Preview
0406 DRUMMER

Dave Mello

Born 1969

Preview
0426 FILM

Lynn Breedlove

Born 1965

Preview
0435 WRITER

Alex Steffen

Born 1968

Preview
0463 WRITER

Nada Gordon

Born 1964

Preview
0471 ARTIST

Deanna Bowen

Born 1969

Preview
0473 ACTIVIST

Ken Rutherford (political scientist)

Born 1962

Preview
0493 FOOTBALL

Bryan Caldwell

1960 - 2015

Preview
0509 ILLUSTRATOR

J. Otto Seibold

Born 1960

Preview
0516 BASEBALL

Jeff Frye

Born 1966

Preview
0519 PLAYER

Linda Siegel (tennis)

Born 1961

Preview
0521 BASEBALL

Rick Rodriguez

Born 1960

Preview
0522 POLITICIAN

Denise Juneau

Born 1967

Preview
0530 NOVELIST

Jeffrey Scott Savage

Born 1963

Preview
0550 JOURNALIST

Danyel Smith

Born 1965

Preview
0583 BASEBALL

Dave Hengel

Born 1961

Preview
0609 ARTIST

Alicia McCarthy

Born 1969

Preview
0620 ARTIST

Jimmie Robinson

Born 1963

Preview
0623 FOOTBALL

Junior Tautalatasi

Born 1962

Preview
0655 ACTOR

Julie Ow

Born 1960

Preview
0676 FOOTBALL

Vince Albritton

Born 1962

Preview
0690 FOOTBALL

Ken McAlister

Born 1960

Preview
0699 FOOTBALL

Jacque Robinson

Born 1963

Preview
0706 POLITICIAN

Randy Smith (politician)

Born 1960

Preview
0710 BASEBALL

Steve Hosey

Born 1969

Preview
0749 SINGER

Ken Ard (dancer)

Born 1960

Preview
0752 LAWYER

David Roger

Born 1961

Preview
0775 MUSIC

Ian Brennan (music producer)

Born 1966

Preview
0778 MODELO

Deborah Driggs

Born 1963

Preview
0786 DRUMMER

Robert Stewart (saxophonist)

Born 1969

Preview
0794 BASEBALL

Steve Howard (baseball)

Born 1963

Preview
0801 BASEBALL

Erik Johnson (infielder)

Born 1965

Preview
0816 SPORT

Rod Gilmore

Born 1960

Preview
0839 BUSINESS

Mark Mastrov

Born 1962

Preview
0848 LAWYER

Edward C. DuMont

Born 1962

Preview
0886 MISSING

David P. Steiner

Born 1960

Preview
0899 FOOTBALL

Dave Albright

Born 1960

Preview
0910 RADIO

Kevin Radich

Born 1960

Preview
0918 DESIGNER

Byron Lars

Born 1965

Preview
0932 BASEBALL

LaVel Freeman

Born 1963

Preview
0934 ACTOR

Darryl McCane

Born 1963

Preview
0938 WRITER

Soji Kashiwagi

Born 1962

Preview
0944 ARTIST

Kim Yasuda

Born 1960

Preview
0951 POLITICAL

Dan Rush

Born 1960

Preview
0958 FOOTBALL

Gene Taylor (American football)

Born 1962

Preview
0967 SPORT

Craig Schommer

Born 1966

Preview
0969 MUSIC

Mike Kaufmann

Born 1966

Preview
0991 AUTHOR

Gabriel Al-Salem

1967 - 2010

Preview