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The following list includes notable people who were born or have lived in Champaign, Illinois. For a similar list organized alphabetically by last name, see the category page People from Champaign, Illinois.
| Name | Image | Birth | Death | Known for | Association | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max Abramovitz | May 23, 1908 | Sep 12, 2004 | Architect | Graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ||
| Scott Anderson | Jun 26, 1913 | Oct 1, 2006 | Physicist | President of the Rotary Club of Champaign (1963 to 1964); founder of the Urban League of Champaign County | ||
| Marc Andreessen |  | Jul 9, 1971 | Co-author of Mosaic and founder of Netscape | Graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ||
| John Bardeen |  | May 23, 1908 | Jan 30, 1991 | Electrical engineer and physicist; two time Nobel Prize winner in Physics | Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | |
| Steve Chen |  | Aug 18, 1978 | Co-founder of YouTube | Graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ||
| Jawed Karim |  | Jan 1, 1979 | Co-founder of YouTube | Graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ||
| Jimmy John Liautaud |  | Jan 12, 1964 | Jimmy John's Owner, founder, & chairman | |||
| Anthony James Leggett |  | Mar 26, 1938 | Physicist; Nobel Prize winner in Physics | Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ||
| W. Dwight Pierce | Nov 16, 1881 | Apr 29, 1967 | Entomologist | Born in Champaign | ||
| Jerry Sanders |  | Sep 12, 1936 | Founder and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices | Graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ||
| Lewis Hastings Sarett | Dec 22, 1917 | Nov 29, 1999 | Inventor of synthetic cortisone | Born in Champaign | ||
| James Tobin | Mar 5, 1918 | Mar 11, 2002 | Laureate of the Nobel prize in economics (1981) | Born in Champaign | ||
| Stephen Wolfram |  | Aug 29, 1959 | Founder of Wolfram Research, makers of Mathematica | Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ||
| Tony Khan |  | Oct 10, 1982 | Founder of All Elite Wrestling | Born in Champaign | ||
| Name | Image | Birth | Death | Known for | Association | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steven Phillip Kazmierczak | Aug 26, 1980 | Feb 14, 2008 | Perpetrator in the Northern Illinois University shooting | Attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ||
| Michael H. Kenyon | Convicted criminal; nicknamed the "Enema Bandit" | Graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ||||
| Karyn Hearn Slover | Sep 27, 1996 | 1996 murder victim | ||||
| Name | Image | Birth | Death | Known for | Association | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Ayer | Jan 18, 1968 | Filmmaker | Born in Champaign. | [1] | ||
| Irving Azoff | Dec 12, 1947 | Music promotion | Attended UIUC. Started Blytham Ltd with Bob Nutt | [2] | ||
| Marc Beeson | Dec 20, 1954 | Country music singer and songwriter | Born in Champaign | |||
| Tom Bodett | Feb 23, 1955 | Author, voiceover actor, and spokesman | Born in Champaign | |||
| Harold Bradley Jr. |  | Oct 13, 1929 | Former American football player and actor, singer, artist, TV host (WCIA Channel 3, WICD Channel 15) and painter. | Lived 19 years in Champaign | ||
| Iris Chang | Mar 28, 1968 | Nov 9, 2004 | Author ( The Rape of Nanking ) | Graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ||
| Amy Chua |  | Oct 26, 1962 | Author ( Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother ) | Born in Champaign | ||
| Jeremih Felton |  | Jul 17, 1987 | R&B singer | Attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ||
| Hart D. Fisher | Comic book creator and publisher | Born in Champaign | ||||
| Michael Fumento | Journalist and author of The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS | Born in Champaign | ||||
| Mike Connolly | 1914 | Nov 19, 1966 | Magazine reporter and Hollywood gossip columnist for The Hollywood Reporter | Attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he was the city editor of the Daily Illini , the independent student-run newspaper, known for his 1937–38 crusade against prostitution in Champaign | ||
| Bill Geist | May 10, 1945 | CBS News correspondent and author | Born in Champaign | |||
| Nathan Gunn | Nov 26, 1970 | Operatic baritone; one of People magazine's 2008 Sexiest Men Alive | Graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | |||
| Steven Hager | May 25, 1951 | Magazine editor | Born in Champaign | |||
| Bruce Hall |  | Mar 5, 1953 | Bass guitar player (REO Speedwagon) | Born in Champaign | ||
| Stuart Hamm | Feb 8, 1960 | Bass guitar player | Grew up in Champaign | |||
| Megyn Kelly |  | Nov 18, 1970 | American journalist, political commentator, and former corporate defense attorney | Born in Champaign | ||
| Alison Krauss |  | Jul 23, 1971 | Bluegrass singer | Grew up in Champaign | ||
| Christopher Bridges (a.k.a. Ludacris) |  | Sep 11, 1977 | Rapper | Born in Champaign | ||
| Marcella Martin | Jun 5, 1916 | Oct 31, 1986 | Actress | Born in Champaign | ||
| Jack McDuff | Sep 17, 1926 | Jan 23, 2001 | Jazz musician | Born in Champaign | ||
| Jeff Mondak | Mar 26, 1962 | Children's poet and songwriter | Lives in Champaign | |||
| David Foster Wallace |  | Feb 21, 1962 | Sep 12, 2008 | Author of Infinite Jest | Lived in Champaign | |
| George Will |  | May 4, 1941 | Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author | Born in Champaign | ||
| Douglas Wilson | Interior designer and television personality ( Trading Spaces ) | Graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ||||
| Louise Woodroofe | Jan 28, 1892 | Feb 15, 1996 | Painter and University of Illinois professor | Born and grew up in Champaign, attended University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ||
| Name | Image | Founded | Disbanded | Music | Association | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Beauty Shop |  | 1999 | 2008 | Alt-country band | Formed in Champaign | |
| Braid | 1993 | Rock band | Formed in Champaign | |||
| Champaign | 1981 | R&B, soft rock group | Formed in Champaign | |||
| Headlights |  | 2004 | 2012 | Indie rock band | Formed in Champaign | |
| Hostyle Gospel |  | 2003 | Christian hip hop | Formed in Champaign | ||
| Hum | 1989 | Alternative rock group | Formed in Champaign | |||
| Pacifica Quartet | 1994 | 2008 Grammy-winning string quartet | Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Illinois School of Music, 2003–2012 | |||
| Poster Children | 1987 | Rock group | Formed in Champaign | |||
| REO Speedwagon |  | 1967 | Rock group | Formed in Champaign | ||
| Starcastle | 1969 | 2006 | Rock group | Formed in Champaign | ||
| Name | Image | Birth | Death | Known for | Association | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kamala Harris |  | Oct 20, 1964 | Vice President of the United States | Lived in Champaign | ||
| Mark Kirk |  | Sep 15, 1959 | United States Senator | Born in Champaign | ||
| Vashti McCollum | Nov 6, 1912 | Aug 20, 2006 | Plaintiff in the landmark 1948 Supreme Court case McCollum v. Board of Education | Lived and died in Champaign | ||
| William B. McKinley |  | Sep 5, 1856 | Dec 7, 1926 | United States Senator, 1912 campaign manager for President William Howard Taft | Lived in Champaign, attended University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | [3] |
| Name | Image | Birth | Death | Known for | Association | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henry Herman Meyer | Nov 21, 1874 | 1951 | American Methodist Episcopal clergyman and editor | Born in Champaign | ||
| Name | Image | Birth | Death | Known for | Association | Reference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chantal Bailey | May 28, 1965 | Olympic speed skater | Born in Champaign | ||||
| Walter "Boom-Boom" Beck |  | Oct 16, 1904 | May 7, 1987 | Pitcher for six Major League Baseball teams | Lived and died in Champaign | ||
| Bonnie Blair |  | Mar 18, 1964 | Speed skater, Olympic gold medalist | Grew up in Champaign | |||
| Harold Bradley Jr. | | Oct 13, 1929 | Apr 13, 2021 | Former American football player and actor, singer, artist, TV host (WCIA Channel 3, WICD Channel 15) and painter. | Lived 19 years in Champaign | ||
| Fred Brainard | Feb 17, 1892 | Apr 17, 1959 | Infielder for the New York Giants | Born in Champaign | |||
| Don Branson | Jun 2, 1920 | Nov 12, 1966 | Indy-car driver | [ citation needed ] | |||
| Dick Butkus | Dec 9, 1942 | Oct 5, 2023 [4] | Football linebacker for the Fighting Illini | Attended UIUC | |||
| Steve Dunn | Apr 18, 1970 | First baseman for the Minnesota Twins | Born in Champaign | ||||
| Matt Herges |  | Apr 1, 1970 | Pitcher for eight Major League Baseball teams | Born in Champaign | |||
| Reggie Hodges |  | Jan 26, 1982 | Punter for the Cleveland Browns | Born in Champaign | |||
| Bershawn Jackson |  | May 8, 1983 | Olympic 400M hurdler | Lives in Champaign | |||
| Rhaka Khan |  | Dec 25, 1981 | Wrestler with the WWE | Born in Champaign | |||
| Jonathan Kuck |  | Mar 14, 1990 | Speed skater and silver medalist in the 2010 Winter Olympics | Attending University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | |||
| Don Laz |  | May 17, 1929 | Feb 21, 1996 | Pole vaulter; Olympic silver medalist | [ citation needed ] | ||
| Jeremy Leman |  | Mar 1, 1985 | Linebacker for Illinois Illini and six NFL teams | Born and lives in Champaign | |||
| Mikel Leshoure |  | Mar 30, 1990 | Running back for the Detroit Lions | Graduated from Centennial High School in Champaign | |||
| Troy Mattes | Aug 26, 1975 | Pitcher for the Montreal Expos | Born in Champaign | ||||
| Tyler McGill | Aug 18, 1987 | Swimmer, US Olympic team 2012 | Born in Champaign | ||||
| Big Jeff Pfeffer |  | Mar 31, 1882 | Dec 19, 1954 | Pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, Boston Beaneaters/Doves and Boston Rustlers | Born in Champaign | ||
| Roy Radebaugh |  | Feb 22, 1881 | Jan 17, 1945 | Pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals | Born in Champaign | ||
| Katherine Reutter |  | Jul 30, 1988 | Short track speed skater, Olympic silver medalist | Born in Champaign | |||
| Rayvonte Rice |  | Jul 14, 1992 | Starting guard for the Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team | Born in Champaign | |||
| Bob Richards |  | Feb 20, 1926 | Feb 26, 2023 | Pole vaulter; Olympic gold medalist | |||
| Adam Seward | Jun 15, 1982 | Linebacker for the Carolina Panthers | Born in Champaign | ||||
| Emily Stevenson | Jul 26, 1925 | Dec 30, 2012 | Backup catcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League | Born in Champaign | |||
Ebertfest is an annual film festival held every April in Champaign, Illinois, United States, organized by the College of Media at the University of Illinois. Roger Ebert, the TV and Chicago Sun-Times film critic, was a native of the adjoining town of Urbana, Illinois, and is an alumnus of the University. Founded in 1999 as Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival, this event is the only long-running film festival created by a critic. Despite Ebert's death in 2013, the festival continues to operate based on Ebert's notes and vision for the kinds of films he championed.
Champaign County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 Census, its population was 205,865, making it the 10th-most populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Urbana.
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in the state outside the Chicago metropolitan area. It is a principal city of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, which had 236,000 residents in 2020.
Ludlow is a village in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 308 at the 2020 census.
Savoy is a village in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 8,857 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area.
Urbana is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. It is a principal city of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, which had 236,000 residents in 2020.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. It is the flagship institution of the University of Illinois system and was established in 1867. With over 59,000 students, the University of Illinois is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the United States.
The Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, also known as Champaign–Urbana and Urbana–Champaign as well as Chambana (colloquially), is a metropolitan area in east-central Illinois. As defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the metropolitan area has a population of 235,608 as of the 2023 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, which ranks it as the 201st largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. The area is anchored by the principal cities of Champaign and Urbana, and is home to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system.
Memorial Stadium is a stadium on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, United States. The stadium, used primarily for football, is a memorial to the university's students who died in World War I; their names are engraved on the nearly 200 pillars surrounding the stadium's façade. With a capacity of 60,670, the stadium is primarily used as the home of the university's Fighting Illini football team.
The Champaign–Urbana Mass Transit District is a mass transit system that operates in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area in central-eastern Illinois. MTD is headquartered in Urbana and operates its primary hub at the intermodal Illinois Terminal in downtown Champaign. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 8,947,600, or about 26,400 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2024.
The Illinois Terminal is an intermodal passenger transport center located at 45 East University Avenue in Champaign, Illinois, United States. The facility opened in January 1999 and provides Amtrak train service and various bus services to the Champaign-Urbana area.
The University of Illinois College of Law is the law school of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a public land-grant research university in Champaign and Urbana, Illinois. It was established in 1897 and offers the Juris Doctor, Master of Laws, and Doctor of Juridical Science degrees.
The School of Information Sciences, also The iSchool at Illinois, is an undergraduate and graduate school at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. Its Master of Science in Library and Information Science is currently accredited in full good standing by the American Library Association. The school is a charter member of the iSchool initiative.
Champaign Township is a township in Champaign County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2020 census, its population was 11,264 and it contained 5,091 housing units.
This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. Latitude and longitude coordinates are provided for many National Register properties and districts; these locations may be seen together in a map.
The Illinois Marathon is a for-profit marathon which was held for the first time on April 11, 2009 in Champaign, Illinois. This was to be the first marathon ever held in Champaign. The course is very flat and it was expected to produce fast times, with only 85 feet (26 m) of elevation change. Race weekends have been held annually on the fourth weekend in April since 2009, with the only cancellation to date being the 2020 Race Weekend as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The races offered are:
Lambda Pi Upsilon Sorority, Latinas Poderosas Unidas, Inc, is a Latina oriented national sorority founded in 1992 at the State University of New York at Geneseo. Its founders believed that the problems of womanhood, particularly those of Latinas, needed to be addressed and resolved on campus by seeking unity and cultural identity.
The News-Gazette is a daily newspaper serving eleven counties in the eastern portion of Central Illinois and specifically the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area. Since November 2019 it is published daily Tuesday through Sunday. Based in Champaign, Illinois, the paper is owned, along with sister radio stations WDWS, WKIO and WHMS, by Community Media Group, Inc., which purchased it in November 2019 after the paper filed for bankruptcy.
The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) is an interdisciplinary facility for genomics research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The Institute was built in 2006 to centralize biotechnology research at the University of Illinois. Current research at the IGB explores the genomic bases of a wide range of phenomena, including the progression of cancer, the ecological impact of global change, tissue and organ growth, and the diversity of animal behavior.
Peoria Charter Coach Company is a family-owned bus company based in Peoria, Illinois, which provides charter bus services, custom group tours, and transportation from several universities in Illinois to Chicago suburbs and airports. It is a contract charter bus service provider for the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign.
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