The following is a list of prominent people who were born in/lived in or around the U.S. state of New York, or for whom New York is a significant part of their identity.
Martha Stewart (born 1941), businesswoman, writer, chef, and television personality
Jon Stewart (born 1962), comedian, actor, writer, producer, director, media critic, and television personality; former host of The Daily Show (1999–2015)
Steven Tyler (born 1948), Hard rock musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, former television music competition judge, and lead singer of the rock band Aerosmith
Gerard Way (born 1977), pop punk-alternative/punk/emo rock musician, singer-songwriter, comic book writer, actor, and former lead singer of My Chemical Romance
Michael Jordan (born 1963), iconic NBA Hall of Fame basketball player, businessman and owner/chairman of the Charlotte Hornets; considered the best basketball player of all time (Brooklyn)
Barney Ross (born Dov-Ber "Beryl" David Rosofsky; 1909–1967), boxer, world champion in three weight divisions: lightweight, light welterweight, and welterweight
William Martin Beauchamp, ethnologist and clergyman. Born in Orange County, he served an Episcopal parish in Baldwinsville for 35 years while also performing archæological research, particularly concerning the Haudenosaunee, and publishing his findings in eight books between 1892 and 1908.
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and the first female doctor in the United States, studied medicine at Geneva College.
Cornelius Cooper, African-American physician, famous for his lawsuit to separate from the U.S. Army as an objector to the war while attending West Point Military Academy
Dr. Asa Fitch of Salem, first occupational entomologist in the United States. In 1838 he began to collect and study insects for New York state. In 1854 he became the first professional Entomologist of New York State Agricultural Society, commissioned by the State of New York.
Dr. George Franklin Grant, born in Oswego, he was the first African-American professor at Harvard. He was also a Boston dentist, and the inventor of the golf tee.
Lewis Henry Morgan of Aurora and Rochester, ethnologist, anthropologist, writer and attorney. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels relied on his accounts of the evolution of indigenous peoples to fill in their own account of the development of capitalist society.
Dr. Mary Edwards Walker of Oswego, feminist, abolitionist, prohibitionist, suffragist, alleged spy, prisoner of war, surgeon, and the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor.
Edward Mosberg (1926–2022), Polish-American Holocaust survivor, educator, and philanthropist
Pelé (real name Edson Arantes do Nascimento) (born 1940), Brazilian-born iconic soccer player and honorary president of the New York Cosmos; considered the best soccer player of all time
Keanu Reeves (born 1964), Lebanese-born Canadian/American actor, producer, and musician
Gene Simmons (real name Chaim Weitz) (born 1949), Israeli-born musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, actor, television personality, and lead singer of the band Kiss
Albio Sires (born 1951), Cuban-born politician and United States Representative of New Jersey since 2006
Snooki (real name Nicole Polizzi) (born 1987), Chilean-born reality television personality from Jersey Shore
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