45.4232° N, 75.6926° W

OTTAWA

Most Famous People Born in Ottawa, Canada

Notable people
1,174
Peak decade
1970s
Median birth year
1951
Most distinctive
Curler 23.1×

Less a national capital than the place Canada uses to manufacture winter athletes — the Curler bench runs at better than twenty-three times the global baseline, which is extreme even by Canadian standards, and the broom-and-blade pipeline goes deeper than the Parliament Hill day jobs. A disproportionate Skater count and a catch-all Sport bump fill in everything the Rideau Canal has frozen into Olympians over the decades.

Through the Decades

One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Ottawa during each.

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1970s with 146 notable births.

What Ottawa Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Hockey is Ottawa's biggest profession — 21% of all notables (248).

Ottawa over-indexes on curler23.1× the global rate.

Ottawa under-produces football — only 0.5× the global rate.

  1. Hockey248
  2. Politician119
  3. Actor89
  4. Football68
  5. Sport39
  6. Writer35
  7. Lawyer29
  8. Singer28
  1. Curler1623.1×
  2. Hockey24817.8×
  3. Skater196.7×
  4. Sport392.0×
  5. Film231.6×
  1. Football680.5×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Ottawa's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

18251850187519001925195019752000
  • Sports
  • Politics & Law
  • Film & TV
  • Music
  • Writing
  • Science
  • Other
Actor89
Sort By

Showing 89 of 1,174 notable people

0004 ACTOR

Dan Aykroyd

Born 1952

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0005 ACTOR

Paul Anka

Born 1941

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0006 ACTOR

Sandra Oh

Born 1971

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0007 ACTOR

Jay Baruchel

Born 1982

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0008 ACTOR

Donal Logue

Born 1966

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0009 ACTOR

Sarah Chalke

Born 1976

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0010 ACTOR

Lorne Greene

1915 - 1987

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0011 ACTOR

Tom Cavanagh

Born 1963

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0012 ACTOR

Kelly Rowan

Born 1965

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0016 ACTOR

Vanessa Morgan

Born 1992

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0025 ACTOR

Anthony Lemke

-

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0026 ACTOR

Vik Sahay

Born 1971

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0034 ACTOR

Christian Potenza

Born 1972

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0038 ACTOR

Mark McKinney

Born 1959

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0040 ACTOR

Melanie Scrofano

Born 1982

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0046 ACTOR

Nicole Oliver

Born 1970

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0047 ACTOR

Rachel Wilson

Born 1977

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0049 ACTOR

Suzanne Cloutier

1923 - 2003

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0050 ACTOR

Kelly Sheridan

Born 1977

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0052 ACTOR

Gordon Thomson (actor)

Born 1945

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0053 ACTOR

Rosina Lawrence

1912 - 1997

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0071 ACTOR

Emily Holmes

Born 1977

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0074 ACTOR

Melinda Shankar

Born 1992

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0075 ACTOR

Dashan

Born 1965

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0092 ACTOR

Tom Butler (actor)

Born 1951

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0104 ACTOR

Brendan Penny

-

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0110 ACTOR

Denis Forest

1960 - 2002

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0115 ACTOR

Margaret Anglin

1876 - 1958

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0121 ACTOR

Meredith Henderson

Born 1983

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0129 ACTOR

Jacqueline Samuda

-

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0139 ACTOR

Jessica Holmes

Born 1973

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0140 ACTOR

Rockliffe Fellowes

1883 - 1950

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0161 ACTOR

Trevor Matthews

Born 1982

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0167 ACTOR

Rick Jones (voice actor)

Born 1939

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0171 ACTOR

K. C. Martel

Born 1967

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0173 ACTOR

Elizabeth Hanna

Born 1953

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0268 ACTOR

Terry McGurrin

Born 1968

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0301 ACTOR

Grace Lynn Kung

Born 1987

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0309 ACTOR

Jana Sinyor

Born 1976

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0312 ACTOR

Stephen R. Hart

Born 1958

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0327 ACTOR

Kyle Switzer

Born 1985

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0340 ACTOR

Tommie-Amber Pirie

-

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0390 ACTOR

Peter Aykroyd

-

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0399 ACTOR

Chantal Quesnel

Born 1971

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0407 ACTOR

Pol Pelletier

Born 1947

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0439 ACTOR

Peter Blais

Born 1949

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0447 ACTOR

Steve Coulter

Born 1960

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0452 ACTOR

Tim Progosh

Born 1957

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0458 ACTOR

Stephanie Moore

Born 1970

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0460 ACTOR

Chad Connell

Born 1983

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0468 ACTOR

Jenny Miller

Born 1980

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0469 ACTOR

Chloe O'Malley

Born 2001

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0471 ACTOR

Michael Jackson (actor)

Born 1970

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0474 ACTOR

Jon Dore

Born 1975

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0497 ACTOR

Paul Hopkins (actor)

Born 1968

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0513 ACTOR

Jon McLaren

Born 1984

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0516 ACTOR

Gilbert Chénier

1936 - 1975

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0523 ACTOR

Penelope Corrin

Born 1975

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0533 ACTOR

Marjolaine Hébert

1926 - 2014

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0539 ACTOR

Lorne Brass

Born 1959

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0546 ACTOR

Matthew Edison

Born 1975

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0562 ACTOR

Dave Kelly (actor)

Born 1963

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0595 ACTOR

Louison Danis

Born 1951

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0601 ACTOR

Cascy Beddow

Born 1982

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0611 ACTOR

Catherine-Anne Toupin

Born 1975

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0626 ACTOR

Holly Larocque

-

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0632 ACTOR

Marcelle Barthe

1904 - 1964

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0648 ACTOR

Angela Besharah

Born 1977

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0650 ACTOR

Rosa Labordé

-

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0651 ACTOR

Pierre-Luc Lafontaine

Born 1991

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0653 ACTOR

Matthew Godfrey (actor)

Born 1971

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0692 ACTOR

Karina Logue

Born 1966

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0694 ACTOR

Robin Brûlé

Born 1974

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0696 ACTOR

Alejandro Abellan

Born 1965

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0714 ACTOR

George Chiang

-

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0715 ACTOR

Budd Knapp

Died 1982

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0722 ACTOR

Emmanuelle Lussier-Martinez

-

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0755 ACTOR

Simon Lacroix (acteur)

Born 1984

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0758 ACTOR

Adam Reid

Born 1973

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0762 ACTOR

Douglas Greer

1921 - 2016

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0779 ACTOR

Alexander Carson (filmmaker)

Born 1982

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0803 ACTOR

Martha Gibson

Born 1939

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0825 ACTOR

Annie Murphy

Born 1986

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0835 ACTOR

Vincent Poirier (acteur)

-

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0838 ACTOR

Marc McMulkin

-

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0961 ACTOR

J. R. Tremblay

1883 - 1959

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0967 ACTOR

Peter Cureton

1965 - 1994

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0999 ACTOR

Alison Smyth

Born 1982

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1054 ACTOR

David J. MacNeil

Born 1970

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