41.2889° S, 174.7773° E

WELLINGTON

Most Famous People Born in Wellington, New Zealand

Notable people
814
Peak decade
1980s
Median birth year
1956
Most distinctive
Cricket 10.8×

Wellington's profile splits clean between cricket and cinema. The Basin Reserve and generations of Black Caps drive an outsized Cricket bench, and a harbor-club Rower scene has produced Olympic medalists out of all proportion to the city's size. The quieter story is the Miramar film industry — Weta Workshop turned Wellington into the southern hemisphere's effects capital, which is why the roster also leans heavily on screenwriters and directors.

Through the Decades

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

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1980s with 126 notable births.

What Wellington Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Player is Wellington's biggest profession — 21% of all notables (167).

Wellington over-indexes on cricket10.8× the global rate.

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

  1. Player167
  2. Cricket112
  3. Actor50
  4. Politician47
  5. Football42
  6. Sport17
  7. Writer16
  8. Rower12
  1. Cricket11210.8×
  2. Player16710.5×
  3. Rower124.0×
  4. Swimmer92.3×
  5. Diplomat81.7×
  1. Football420.5×
  2. Painter100.5×
  3. Politician470.5×
  4. Writer160.6×

Profession Mix Over Time

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

1550160016501700175018001850190019502000
  • Sports
  • Politics & Law
  • Film & TV
  • Science
  • Writing
  • Music
  • Other
All814
Sort By

Showing 77 of 814 notable people

0019 FILM

Geoff Murphy

1946 - 2018

Preview
0021 CINEMA

Michael Seresin

Born 1942

Preview
0038 ACTOR

Jonathan Hardy

1940 - 2012

Preview
0048 WRITER

Michael King

1945 - 2004

Preview
0050 PLAYER

Onny Parun

Born 1947

Preview
0058 WRITER

Elizabeth Laird (author)

Born 1943

Preview
0075 ANTHROPOLOGIST

Anne Salmond

Born 1945

Preview
0077 POLITICIAN

John Banks (New Zealand politician)

Born 1946

Preview
0078 ACTOR

Liddy Holloway

1945 - 2004

Preview
0108 MATHEMATICIAN

Charles E. M. Pearce

1940 - 2012

Preview
0117 FILM

Anouska Hempel

Born 1941

Preview
0120 ECONOMIST

Stephen J. Turnovsky

Born 1941

Preview
0125 POLITICIAN

John Fahey (politician)

1945 - 2020

Preview
0128 ACTOR

Kurt Gänzl

Born 1946

Preview
0129 CINEMA

Alun Bollinger

Born 1948

Preview
0135 ENGINEER

Nigel Priestley

1943 - 2014

Preview
0145 DRIVER

Graham McRae

Born 1940

Preview
0156 ROWER

Dick Joyce (rower)

Born 1946

Preview
0169 COMPOSER

Jenny McLeod

Born 1941

Preview
0180 NOVELIST

Rosie Scott

1948 - 2017

Preview
0183 ANTHROPOLOGIST

Helen Leach

Born 1945

Preview
0194 BOTANIST

Robert Chinnock

Born 1943

Preview
0199 NOVELIST

Arnold Zable

Born 1947

Preview
0204 HOCKEY

Trevor Manning

Born 1945

Preview
0223 COMPOSER

Lyell Cresswell

Born 1944

Preview
0263 CINEMA

John Bartley

Born 1947

Preview
0265 CRICKET

John Morrison (cricketer)

Born 1947

Preview
0276 SPORT

Neil Lyster

Born 1947

Preview
0287 HOCKEY

Greg Dayman

Born 1947

Preview
0312 RACING

Andrew Bagnall

Born 1947

Preview
0315 POLITICIAN

Margaret Shields

1941 - 2013

Preview
0324 CHEMIST

Stephen Kent (chemist)

Born 1945

Preview
0333 POLITICIAN

Bill Jeffries

Born 1945

Preview
0337 COSTUME DESIGNER

Kristian Fredrikson

1940 - 2005

Preview
0349 POLITICIAN

Paul Hutchison

Born 1947

Preview
0361 SINGER

Steve Gilpin

1949 - 1992

Preview
0375 CERAMIC

Bronwynne Cornish

Born 1945

Preview
0380 CRICKET

Richard Collinge

Born 1946

Preview
0381 FOOTBALL

Marilyn Marshall (footballer)

Born 1949

Preview
0382 PLAYWRIGHT

Jennifer Compton

Born 1949

Preview
0390 BUSINESS

Peter Leitch (businessman)

Born 1944

Preview
0427 ROWER

John Gibbons (rower)

Born 1943

Preview
0434 JEWELLER

Paul Annear

1947 - 2016

Preview
0442 POLITICIAN

Ross Robertson

Born 1949

Preview
0499 JUDGE

John McGrath (judge)

1945 - 2018

Preview
0523 ROWER

Peter Delaney (rower)

Born 1941

Preview
0529 WRITER

Stephanie Dowrick

Born 1947

Preview
0533 PLAYER

Mick Williment

1940 - 1994

Preview
0555 WRESTLER

Tony Greig (wrestler)

Born 1941

Preview
0559 POLITICIAN

Ray Ahipene-Mercer

Born 1948

Preview
0569 ROWER

Tom Just

Born 1942

Preview
0571 POLITICIAN

Ian McKinnon

Born 1943

Preview
0576 MILLIONAIRE

Michael Hirschfeld

1944 - 1999

Preview
0581 BUSINESS

John Anderson (New Zealand businessman)

1945 - 2018

Preview
0608 ROWER

John Clark (New Zealand rower)

Born 1944

Preview
0617 POLITICIAN

David Shand (politician)

Born 1944

Preview
0620 CRICKET

Jill Saulbrey

Born 1944

Preview
0622 POLITICIAN

Helene Ritchie

Born 1945

Preview
0623 SONGWRITER

Glyn Tucker Jnr

Born 1943

Preview
0626 POLITICIAN

Clive Matthewson

Born 1944

Preview
0632 DIPLOMAT

Derek Leask

Born 1948

Preview
0643 BUSINESS

Bronwen Holdsworth

Born 1943

Preview
0648 ATHLETE

Brian Newth

Born 1947

Preview
0651 CRICKET

Robert Smith (Wellington cricketer)

Born 1946

Preview
0663 MISSING

Beverley Wakem

Born 1944

Preview
0682 PLAYER

Graham Williams (rugby union)

1945 - 2018

Preview
0683 CRICKET

Graham Cowan

1940 - 2011

Preview
0687 ACADEMIC

Margaret Clark (academic)

Born 1941

Preview
0690 MUSIC

David Bollard

Born 1942

Preview
0718 MUSIC

Bruce Johnstone (musician)

Born 1943

Preview
0727 PLAYER

Mark Sayers

Born 1947

Preview
0752 PLAYER

Gerald Kember

Born 1945

Preview
0758 HOCKEY

Murray Mathieson

Born 1942

Preview
0774 LAWYER

Hamish Hancock

Born 1947

Preview
0798 PLAYER

Rod Kelleher

Born 1947

Preview
0803 SURGEON

Murray Matthewson

1944 - 2018

Preview
0808 FOOTBALL

Graeme Petersen

Born 1941

Preview