List of people from Indianapolis

The following is a list of notable people who have been born or lived in Indianapolis, Indiana. Organized alphabetically by field of study and last name.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Actors

• Monte Blue (1887-1963), silent film/character actor
• Connie Booth, actress, screenwriter
• Steve Burton (1970- ), television actor
• Joyce DeWitt, actress, best known for Three's Company
• Mike Epps, stand-up comedian, actor, producer, writer, rapper
• Frances Farmer, actress
• Brendan Fraser, film actor
• Vivica A. Fox, actress
• Doug Jones, actor
• Brook Kerr (1973- ), actress
• Forrest Landis, actor
• Priscilla Lawson, actress
• Marjorie Main (1890-1975), actress
• Steve McQueen (1930–80), Academy Award-nominated actor
• Julie McWhirter, actress
• Margo Moore, actress
• Dayo Okeniyi, film actor
• Jake Short, actor
• Steve Talley (1981- ), television/film actor
• Clifton Webb, stage/film actor
• Sasheer Zamata, comedian, actress, current cast member on Saturday Night Live

Artists

• Vija Celmins, visual artist
• John Wesley Hardrick, artist
• Ron McQueeney, photographer

Athletes

• Donie Bush, MLB player/manager
• Rodney Carney, NBA player
• Oscar Charleston, baseball player, member of Baseball Hall of Fame
• Mike Conley Jr., NBA player
• Hooks Dauss, MLB player
• Euphrasia Donnelly, swimmer, Olympic gold medalist (1924)
• Jeff George, NFL quarterback
• Eric Gordon, NBA player
• Greg Graham, NBA player
• Marcellus Greene, football player
• Oral Hildebrand, MLB All-Star pitcher
• George Hill, NBA player
• Alan Henderson, NBA player
• John F. Hennessey, tennis player (1920s)
• Lauren Holiday, US Women's National Soccer player, Olympic gold medalist, 2015 Women's World Cup champion
• Kenny Irwin, NASCAR driver
• Mathias Kiwanuka, NFL player
• Ken Klee, retired NHL player
• Chuck Klein, MLB player
• Kyle Krisiloff, NASCAR driver
• Courtney Lee, NBA player
• Don Leppert, MLB player
• Lori Lindsey, U.S. Women's National Soccer player, Olympic gold medalist
• Zack Martin, NFL player
• George McGinnis, NBA player
• Frank McKinney, diver, Olympic gold medalist (1960), banking executive
• Eric Montross, NBA player
• Greg Oden, NBA player
• Oscar Robertson, basketball player, member of Basketball Hall of Fame
• Sally Schantz, figure skater, U.S. ice dancing champion (1963)
• Judy Schwomeyer, figure skater, U.S. ice dancing champion (1968–72)
• Sandra Spuzich, LPGA pro golfer
• Marshall Walter Taylor, cyclist, commonly known as "Major Taylor"
• Jeff Teague, NBA player
• Johnny Weaver, pro wrestler, first to use the sleeper hold "Weaver Lock"
• Randy Wittman, NBA head coach
• Greg Wojciechowski, wrestler
• John Wooden, UCLA coach, Purdue University basketball player, member of College Basketball Hall of Fame
• Sean Woods, college basketball coach (currently Morehead State)

Business and philanthropy

• 

  Colonel Eli Lilly (right) with son Josiah K. Lilly Sr. (left) and grandson Eli Lilly (center)
• Steve Bellamy, sports media entrepreneur, founder of The Ski Channel and The Tennis Channel
• Steve Ells, founder, CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill
• John Geisse, businessman, founder of Target Stores
• Bob Glenalvin, first manager of Detroit Tigers
• Sid Grauman, founder of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, former home of the Academy Awards
• Scott A. Jones, co-founder of ChaCha
• Eli Lilly, founder, president of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company
• Josiah K. Lilly, Sr., president of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company
• Ruth Lilly, philanthropist
• Kim Ng, Major League Baseball executive
• Freeman Ransom, lawyer, businessman, civic leader
• Madam C.J. Walker, pioneering African-American businesswoman, first female self-made millionaire in America

Entertainment

• Rupert Boneham, reality show contestant, Survivor: Pearl Islands, Survivor: All-Stars, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains; politician
• June Cochran, model, Miss Indiana USA 1960, Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Year 1963
• Ken Hixon, screenwriter
• David Letterman, television personality (Late Night with David Letterman)
• Ryan Murphy, film and television screenwriter, director, and producer, notably Nip/Tuck, 'American Horror Story and Glee
• Marc Summers, game show host, television personality
• Dan Wakefield, screenwriter, novelist
• Marjorie Wallace, Miss World 1973

Journalists and media

• Roy Blount, Jr., journalist, author
• Louis McHenry Howe, reporter for the New York Herald, political advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Jack Olsen, journalist and author
• Jane Pauley, television personality, journalist
• Myrta Pulliam, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

Military

• Thomas A. Morris, railroad executive, civil engineer, Union General in the Civil War
• Norris W. Overton, U.S. Air Force Brigadier General
• Raymond A. Spruance, commander of the U.S. Fifth Fleet (1944–1945)

Musicians

• Scrapper Blackwell, blues legend, writer of the earliest version of "Sweet Home Chicago"
• Darrell Clanton, singer
• Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, R&B music producer/performer
• Jan Garber, bandleader
• Gunna, rapper
• Billy Henderson, singer
• John Hiatt, musician
• Freddie Hubbard, jazz trumpeter
• J. J. Johnson, jazz trombonist
• Josh Kaufman, singer-songwriter, contestant on The Voice (U.S. Season 6)
• Adam Lambert, singer, runner-up of American Idol (Season 8)
• Ted Leo, musician
• Charles Scott Leonard, member of the a cappella group Rockapella
• Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, indie rock band formed in Indianapolis
• Tim McIlrath, musician
• Wes Montgomery, jazz guitarist
• Hal Rayle, voice artist
• Larry Ridley, jazz bassist
• George Shirley, operatic tenor
• Noble Sissle, composer
• Tiara Thomas, singer-songwriter
• Albert Von Tilzer, composer, notably "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"
• Keke Wyatt, R&B singer

Politicians

• Maria Cantwell, U.S. Senator from Washington
• André Carson, member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Indiana, second Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress (2008)
• Charles W. Fairbanks, 26th Vice President of the United States (1905–09)
• William T. Francis, United States Ambassador to Liberia (1927–29)
• Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (1889–93); lived and died in Indianapolis
• Thomas A. Hendricks, 21st Vice President of the United States (1863–69)
• Richard Lugar, U.S. Senator from Indiana
• Frank E. McKinney, Democratic Party chairman
• Dan Quayle, 44th Vice President of the United States (1981-1989)
• Ted Stevens, former U.S. Senator from Alaska
• Mark Warner, U.S. Senator from Virginia

Writers

• Margaret C. Anderson, critic, editor and publisher
• Allan Bloom, philosopher and essayist
• Jared Carter, poet
• Janet Flanner, Paris correspondent of The New Yorker
• Hildegarde Flanner, poet
• John Green, award-winning author of The Fault in Our Stars; vlogger
• Joseph Hayes, author
• Charles Major, author
• Booth Tarkington, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
• Kurt Vonnegut, author
• James Whitcomb Riley, poet

Other

• Frank J. Anderson, former Sheriff of Marion County, Indiana (2003-2011)
• Kent Brantly, physician, author, speaker, first American to be treated for the Ebola virus in 2014, TIME Person of the Year 2014
• John P. Donohue, professor, doctor, pioneered treatments for testicular cancer
• John Dillinger, bank robber
• Jared Fogle, Subway restaurant endorser, motivational speaker, and convicted child pornographer
• Ruth M. Gardiner, first nurse killed in action during World War II
• Michael Graves, architect
• Peter Kassig, aid worker, taken hostage and ultimately beheaded by The Islamic State
• Justin Knapp, Wikipedia editor
• Irvine Page, physiologist, former president of the American Heart Association (1956–57)
• Bill Shirk, escape artist, president of Hoosier Broadcasting Corp.
• Avriel Shull, architect
• Ryan White, poster child for AIDS
• David A. Wolf, astronaut