43.6704° N, 79.3868° W

TORONTO

Most Famous People Born in Toronto, Canada

Notable people
4,438
Peak decade
1950s
Median birth year
1956
Most distinctive
Hockey 12.0×

A hockey town with a film industry on the side. Hockey alone accounts for one in seven of Toronto's notable births, and the distinctive-profession list reads like a Canadian winter — ice hockey players at twelve times the global rate, figure skaters, rowers, and novelists close behind. Almost nothing here predates Confederation; the city's notables fan out from the late 19th century into a steady bench of actors, musicians, and filmmakers.

Through the Decades

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

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 570 notable births.

What Toronto Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Hockey is Toronto's biggest profession — 14% of all notables (633).

Toronto over-indexes on hockey12.0× the global rate.

Toronto under-produces football — only 0.6× the global rate.

  1. Hockey633
  2. Actor538
  3. Politician346
  4. Football276
  5. Singer152
  6. Film111
  7. Sport103
  8. Music96
  1. Hockey63312.0×
  2. Skater514.8×
  3. Rower633.9×
  4. Novelist533.0×
  5. Actor5382.3×
  6. Film1112.0×
  7. Singer1521.6×
  8. Music961.5×
  1. Football2760.6×
  2. Writer850.6×
  3. Politician3460.7×

Profession Mix Over Time

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

18001850190019502000
  • Sports
  • Film & TV
  • Politics & Law
  • Music
  • Writing
  • Science
  • Other
Film111
Sort By

Showing 111 of 4,438 notable people

0003 FILM

Mary Pickford

1892 - 1979

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0006 FILM

David Cronenberg

Born 1943

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0025 FILM

Norman Jewison

Born 1926

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0073 FILM

Ted Kotcheff

Born 1931

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0074 FILM

Allan Dwan

1885 - 1981

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0086 FILM

Hart Bochner

Born 1956

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0088 FILM

Richard Williams (animator)

1933 - 2019

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0106 FILM

Sidney J. Furie

Born 1933

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0121 FILM

Michael Snow

Born 1929

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0167 FILM

Rob Stewart (filmmaker)

1979 - 2017

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0197 FILM

Sidney Olcott

1873 - 1949

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0203 FILM

Courtney Solomon

Born 1971

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0217 FILM

Adam Brooks (filmmaker)

Born 1956

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0223 FILM

David Hackl

Born 1963

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0250 FILM

Sydney Newman

1917 - 1997

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0254 FILM

William Dear

Born 1943

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0256 FILM

George Dunning

1920 - 1979

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0310 FILM

Ralph E. Winters

1909 - 2004

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0352 FILM

Kevin Sullivan (producer)

Born 1955

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0424 FILM

Donald Shebib

Born 1938

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0427 FILM

Joyce Wieland

1931 - 1998

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0443 FILM

Robert Iscove

Born 1947

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0448 FILM

David Soren (animator)

Born 1973

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0483 FILM

Jerry Ciccoritti

Born 1956

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0501 FILM

Alvin Rakoff

Born 1927

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0591 FILM

Shauna Robertson

Born 1974

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0604 FILM

Holly Dale

Born 1953

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0619 FILM

Don Owen (filmmaker)

1931 - 2016

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0628 FILM

Harvey Hart

1928 - 1989

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0646 FILM

Michael McGowan (director)

Born 1966

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0649 FILM

Bronwen Hughes

Born 1967

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0657 FILM

Brandon Cronenberg

Born 1985

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0685 FILM

Tom Daly (filmmaker)

1918 - 2011

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0700 FILM

Garth Drabinsky

Born 1949

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0719 FILM

Ed Gass-Donnelly

Born 1977

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0723 FILM

Veena Sud

Born 1967

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0734 FILM

Larysa Kondracki

-

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0738 FILM

Earle Rodney

1888 - 1932

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0797 FILM

Bob Dolman

Born 1949

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0821 FILM

Graeme Ferguson

Born 1929

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0841 FILM

Susan Shipton

Born 1958

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0864 FILM

Malcolm Ingram

Born 1968

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0883 FILM

Deborah Chow

-

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0908 FILM

Mark Palansky

-

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0910 FILM

Scot McFadyen

-

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0917 FILM

Noël Mitrani

Born 1969

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0926 FILM

Robin Spry

1939 - 2005

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0929 FILM

John Cook (filmmaker)

1935 - 2001

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0951 FILM

Jay Firestone

Born 1956

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0987 FILM

Andrew Gunn (film producer)

Born 1969

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1012 FILM

Tony Mitchell (director)

Born 1961

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1050 FILM

Michael Robison

Born 1955

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1090 FILM

Christopher Chapman

1927 - 2015

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1114 FILM

Jeremy Peter Allen

Born 1968

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1125 FILM

Matt Johnson (director)

Born 1985

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1175 FILM

Al Mukadam

Born 1985

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1224 FILM

Larry Weinstein

Born 1956

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1229 FILM

Peter O'Brian (film producer)

Born 1947

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1246 FILM

Aaron Woodley

Born 1971

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1271 FILM

Scott Darling (screenwriter)

1898 - 1951

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1279 FILM

Alex Karzis

Born 1975

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1308 FILM

Sebastian Cluer

-

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1365 FILM

Nadine Schiff

-

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1371 FILM

Tony Ianzelo

Born 1935

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1394 FILM

John Lemont

1914 - 2004

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1491 FILM

Harris Goldberg

Born 1972

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1536 FILM

Peter Mettler

Born 1958

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1603 FILM

Robert Verrall

Born 1928

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1608 FILM

David Devine (director)

Born 1952

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1683 FILM

Michael Rotenberg

-

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1691 FILM

Peter Vronsky

Born 1956

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1767 FILM

Stella Meghie

-

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1801 FILM

Mike Hoolboom

Born 1959

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1819 FILM

T. J. Scott

-

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1821 FILM

Elliot Grove

-

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1824 FILM

Ron Mann

Born 1958

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1869 FILM

Richard J. Lewis

-

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1883 FILM

Catherine Winder

-

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1927 FILM

Allan Ungar

-

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1937 FILM

Edmond Levy (réalisateur)

1929 - 1998

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1955 FILM

Laurie Lynd

Born 1959

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2025 FILM

Liz Marshall

Born 1969

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2056 FILM

David Jove

1942 - 2004

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2060 FILM

Colin Brunton

Born 1955

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2157 FILM

Bill Corcoran

Born 1951

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2217 FILM

Peter Pearson (director)

Born 1938

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2220 FILM

Marty Gross

Born 1948

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2264 FILM

John van Bruggen

-

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2359 FILM

Patricia Watson

1930 - 2015

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2373 FILM

Laurie Colbert

Born 1958

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2379 FILM

Lynne Fernie

Born 1946

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2426 FILM

John Spotton

1927 - 1991

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2451 FILM

Vikram Dhillon

Born 1973

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2605 FILM

John Kastner (filmmaker)

1946 - 2019

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2652 FILM

Ezekiel Norton

Born 1970

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2678 FILM

David Fine (Regisseur)

Born 1960

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2721 FILM

Ben Sainsbury

Born 1972

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2767 FILM

Andrea Dorfman

Born 1968

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2810 FILM

William R. Kowalchuk junior

Born 1943

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3068 FILM

Paul Fox (regista)

Born 1963

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3087 FILM

Barbara Sternberg

Born 1945

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3159 FILM

Ryder Britton

Born 1985

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3265 FILM

Mark Penney

Born 1982

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3268 FILM

Peter Kambasis

Born 1974

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3361 FILM

Josh Raskin

Born 1980

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3516 FILM

William Davidson (filmmaker)

1928 - 2009

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3591 FILM

Murray Cohl

1929 - 2008

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3754 FILM

Carlo Guillermo Proto

Born 1979

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3817 FILM

David Adams (Filmproduzent)

1923 - 2006

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3846 FILM

Clement Cheng

-

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3908 FILM

Michael Walsh (film critic)

Born 1945

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