49.2608° N, 123.1138° W
VANCOUVER
Most Famous People Born in Vancouver, Canada
- Notable people
- 1,538
- Peak decade
- 1980s
- Median birth year
- 1965
- Most distinctive
- Hockey 6.1×
A young Pacific city whose economy runs on trees, ships, and Hollywood North. Vancouver's distinctive professions are ice hockey players, sprinters, swimmers, rowers, skaters, and actors — the last because American studios have been shooting television and film here since the 1990s. Ryan Reynolds, Seth Rogen, Hayden Christensen, Cobie Smulders, and Joshua Jackson all grew up in the same few neighbourhoods; the pre-1900 tail is almost nonexistent.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Vancouver during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1980s with 281 notable births.
What Vancouver Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Actor is Vancouver's biggest profession — 20% of all notables (304).
Vancouver over-indexes on hockey — 6.1× the global rate.
Vancouver under-produces writer — only 0.4× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Vancouver's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Film & TV
- Music
- Politics & Law
- Writing
- Art & Design
- Other
- Field: Novelist Clear ×
Sara Gruen
Born 1969
Joy Kogawa
Born 1935
Karen Miller
Born 1961
Steven Galloway
Born 1975
Lee Maracle
Born 1950
Ward Hawkins
1912 - 1990
Marie Clements
Born 1962
Heather Spears
Born 1934
Patrick Larkin (novelist)
Born 1960
Joan MacLeod
Born 1954
Shaena Lambert
Born 1959
Rohan O'Grady
1922 - 2014
Tim Bowling
Born 1964
Elizabeth Chater
1910 - 2004
Joan Haggerty
Born 1940
Sally Clark (playwright)
Born 1953
Keith Harrison
1945 - 2019
Susan Parisi
Born 1958
Ranj Dhaliwal
Born 1976
Katrina Onstad
-
Linda L. Richards
Born 1960