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
Don Graham (developer)
1914 - 2010
Jackie Tobin
1921 - 1982
Damon Powell
Born 1990
Henry Z. Jones Jr.
-
Austin Sperry
Born 1978
Jesse Murdock
1938 - 1965
Andrew McGuire
Born 1945
Alfred Delucchi
Died 2008
Jack Delinger
1926 - 1992
Kevin Radich
Born 1960
Marc Dunn
Born 1978
Jill Gilbeau
Born 1987
Al Endress
Born 1929
Lisa Hansen (rower)
Born 1954
Ise Lyfe
Born 1982
Stewart Iverson
Born 1950
Emily Coleman
1899 - 1979
Byron Lars
Born 1965
Richard Newton (Künstler)
Born 1948
Lanier Bartlett
1879 - 1961
Kirby Dominant
Born 1975
Michael Sweeney (politician)
-
Ernie Fazio
1942 - 2017
Inez Crittenden
1887 - 1918
Volney Rouse
Born 1983
Will Smalley
1871 - 1891
Terry Acebo Davis
Born 1953
Packard Jennings
Born 1970
Red Baldwin
1894 - 1956
Steve Lawson (baseball)
Born 1950
Venus James
Born 1979
LaVel Freeman
Born 1963
Judy K. Sakaki
-
Darryl McCane
Born 1963
Kate Weare
Born 1971
Craig E. Steidle
-
John Sutro (American football)
Born 1940
Soji Kashiwagi
Born 1962
Herb Schmalenberger
1925 - 2006
JoJo Polk
Born 1978
Chris Richmond (entrepreneur)
Born 1986
Bob Sykes (American football)
1927 - 2020
Emanuel Raymond Lewis
1928 - 2014
Kim Yasuda
Born 1960
Steve Sue
-
Steve Svitak
Born 1945
Tyler Jacobson
Born 1982
Pauline Powell Burns
1872 - 1912
John Vaio
Born 1939
Elaine Flinn
1939 - 2008
Dan Rush
Born 1960
Richard Jencks
1921 - 2014
Essex Scott
1921 - 1960
Maury Duncan
Born 1931
Lloyd Hudson Burke
1916 - 1988
James Tracy (activist)
Born 1970
Quinn Walker
Born 1979
Gene Taylor (American football)
Born 1962
Walter Early Craig
1909 - 1986
Anthony Lucero (director)
-
Jerre Denoble
1923 - 2011
Forey Duckett
Born 1970
Christopher Mangum
Born 1975
Rashad Floyd
Born 1979
W. W. Conner
1882 - 1938
Shola Adisa-Farrar
Born 1985
Craig Schommer
Born 1966
Edwin T. Baker
1873 - 1936
Mike Kaufmann
Born 1966
Garry Hill-Thomas
Born 1982
Rudy Salvini
1925 - 2011
Ervin Dennis
Born 1936
Catherine Emmanuelle
Born 1980
Henry Heyman
1838 - 1924
Gregory P. Schmidt
1947 - 2016
Joe Rossi (baseball)
1921 - 1999
Eve Marie Shahoian
-
Bill Durkee
1921 - 2006
Lucas A. Powe Jr.
Born 1943
Meghan Kalkstein
-
Peter Arnautoff
Born 1951
Kaylin Squyres
Born 1994
Dennis King (author)
Born 1952
Lester L. Westling Jr.
1930 - 2019
David Bakal
Born 1989
Fresh Caesar
Born 1977
Richard M. Romero
Born 1944
Erik d'Azevedo
Born 1948
David H. Munro
Born 1955
Andrew Nisbet Jr.
1921 - 2013
Gabriel Al-Salem
1967 - 2010
Oliver Deveta Hamlin Jr.
1892 - 1973
Jere E. Goyan
1930 - 2007
Marion Gray
1934 - 2016
Sharon J. Hall
-
Ron Hudson
1939 - 2011
John Gillespie (baseball)
1900 - 1954
Chris Ward (baseball)
Born 1949
Wopamo Osaisai
Born 1986
Rufus Skillern
Born 1982
Eddie Leishman
1910 - 1972
Carol Boyd Hallett
Born 1937
Andre Torrey
Born 1982
Lydia Flood Jackson
1862 - 1963
Andre Hines
Born 1958
Fred Meggs
Born 1952
Kathie Fischer
1907 - 1988
Louis Francis
-
Clarence Matthews
1906 - 2017
John A. O'Connell
-
Darrell Tucker
Born 1980
D'Wayne Taylor
Born 1979
Ernst D. van Löben Sels
1879 - 1965
Charles W. Fisher (American politician)
-
Richard M. Lyman
-
John R. Jones (Washington politician)
1876 - 1972