List of people from Uttar Pradesh

People from Uttar Pradesh

Valmiki Amir Khusrow Kabir Begum Hazrat Mahal Mangal Pandey Chandra Shekhar Azad Qurratulain Hyder Dhyan Chand Shyama Charan Gupta Irfan Habib File:Rahulji's Sketch2.JPG Rahul Sankrityayan Bismillah Khan Birju Maharaj Girija Devi File:Janab Bekal Utsahi.jpg Bekal Utsahi
Total population
(200,581,477)
Regions with significant populations
Primary populations in: Uttar Pradesh and Sindh,Pakistan consisting of millions of Urdu speaking people
Languages
Hindi and Urdu ;Hindi Dialects based upon regions of the state include Braj Bhasha, Khari Boli, Kannauji, Bhojpuri, Bundelkhandi and Awadhi.
Religion
predominantly Hinduism & Islam, Minorities of Buddhism & Jainism
Related ethnic groups
Indo-Aryans and Indo-Scythians

This is a list of famous and notable people from Uttar Pradesh, a state in India. The criteria of this list includes those persons who were born in the state of Uttar Pradesh and that part of the former United Provinces that now are part of the modern state of Uttar Pradesh. Though their fame could be brief, what matters is that they were well known during the peak of their popularity.

Deities and avatars

Krishna statue at the Sri Mariamman Temple (Singapore).

• Aranath (Birth Place: Hastinapur, Uttar Pradesh), was 18th Teerthankar of Jainism.
• Krishna (Birth Place: Mathura), is a deity worshiped across many traditions of Hinduism.
• Kunthunath (Birth Place: Hastinapur, Uttar Pradesh), was 17th Teerthankar of Jainism.
• Lakshmana (Birthplace: Ayodhya), was the brother and close companion of Rama, and himself a hero in the epic 'Ramayana'
• Neminath (Birth Place: Mathura), was 22nd Teerthanks of Jainism.
• Parashuram (Birth Place: Ghazipur), was an avatar of Vishnu.
• Parsvanatha (Birth Place: Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh), was 23rd Tirthankara of Jainism.
• Rama (Birthplace: Ayodhya), is a legendary or historical king of Ancient India. In Hinduism, he is considered to be the seventh Avatar of Vishnu.
• Shantinath (Birth Place: Hastinapur, Uttar Pradesh), was 16th Teerthankar of Jainism.
• Shreyansnath (Birth Place: Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh), was 11th Teerthankar of Jainism.

• 

  Deities of Shri Sita (far right), Shri Rama (center), Shri Lakshmana (far left) and Shri Hanuman (below seated) at Bhaktivedanta Manor, a temple in Watford England

• 

  Neminatha (stone).Chahaman, 11th century AD, Narhad, Rajasthan

• 

  Parsvanatha statue in Jain temple in Bhelupur, Varanasi

Authors of the great epics

Surdas

• Bhrigu (Birth Place: Ballia): One of the seven great sages, the Saptarshis, one of the Prajapatis created by Brahma.
• Surdas (Birth Place: Mathura): Saint, poet and musician.
• Tulsidas (Birth Place: Chitrakoot): An Awadhi poet and philosopher, wrote Rāmacaritamānasa ("The Lake of the Deeds of Rama"), an epic devoted to Lord Rama.
• Valmiki : Harbinger-poet of Sanskrit literature who wrote Ramayan.
• Vyasa: A central and much revered figure in the majority of Hindu traditions who authored Mahabharata.

• 

  Gosvami Tulsidas

• 

  Valmiki

• 

  Vyasa

Yogis, Sufi poets and mystics

Yogananda

• Amir Khusro, Sufi mystic, one of the iconic figures in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent.
• Bharat Bhushan, the only Padmashri recipient in Yoga, Founder President of Mokshayatan International Yogashram, Saharanpur
• Ghazi Saiyyad Salar Masud, Gazi Miya of Bahraich.
• Kabir, poet and saint Varanasi
• Nizamuddin Auliya, Sufi saint born in Budaun
• Paramhansa Yogananda, mystic who introduced Yoga in the west, Gorakhpur
• Salim Chishti, Sufi saint of Fatehpur Sikri, Agra

Poet-saints and religious figures

Goswami Tulsidas.

• Akhandanand, scholar of Vedanta, Bhakti and Bhagavata Purana in the 20th century, Varanasi.
• Devraha Baba, Yogi Allahabad.
• Jagadguru Rāmabhadrācārya, Vaishnava scholar and Sanskrit commentator on the Prasthanatrayi, Jaunpur.
• Malik Mohammad Jayasi
• Mira
• Ramanand, founder of the Rāmānandī sect, Prayag.
• Raskhan
• Sant Ravidas, poet and Saint, Varanasi.
• Shiv Dayal Singh, Guru Maharaj of Radhasoamis, Agra.
• Shriram Sharma Acharya, founder Gayatri Parivar, Anwal Kheda in the District of Agra.
• Surdas was a blind Hindu poet, sant and musicianborn in Runkata near Agra.
• Swami Karpatri, teacher of Advaita popularly known as Dharma Samrat, Gorakhpur.
• Swaminarayan, founder of the Swaminarayan sect, Gonda.
• Tulsidas, composer of the Ramcharitmanas.

Independence fighters

Mangal Pandey

Indian Rebellion of 1857

• Bakht Khan, nominal commander-in-chief of Indian rebel forces in the Indian Rebellion of 1857
• Begum Hazrat Mahal, widow of the last Nawab of Awadh and Indian independence fighter in Indian Rebellion of 1857.
• Mangal Pandey, one of the earliest independence fighters of 1857, subject of Bollywood film Ballia
• Maulvi Liaquat Ali, Indian independence fighter of 1857 from Allahabad, who captured the Khusro Bagh in Allahabad and declared the independence of India.
• Rani Lakshmibai, the Rani (Queen) of Jhansi
• Rao Kadam Singh, the freedom fighter who was elected by his Gurjar clansmen as their leader to fight against the British forces during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Chandra Shekhar Azad.

Later 19th, and 20th, centuries

• Acharya Narendra Dev, socialist
• Asaf Ali, independence fighter
• Ashfaqullah Khan of Kakori, Indian independence fighter, member of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. He was close associate of Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad.
• Chandra Shekhar Azad, Indian independence fighter, member of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.
• Chittu Pandey, independence fighter
• Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, independence fighter, journalist
• Govind Ballabh Pant, Indian independence fighter and politician, became Chief Minister of the United Provinces. Also Bharat Ratna recipient.
• Hasrat Mohani, independence fighter and poet
• Laxmi Raman Acharya, freedom fighter accused of the Agra Conspiracy case.
• Mahavir Tyagi, independence fighter
• Maulana Mohammad Ali, independence fighter
• Maulana Shaukat Ali, independence fighter
• Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, independence fighter Ghazipur
• Munishwar Dutt Upadhyay of Pratapgarh, Indian Independence fighter and two time Member of Parliament.
• Purushottam Das Tandon, independence fighter
• Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, Indian independence fighter and socialist.
• Raja Mahendra Pratap, King of Hathras Princely State known as 'Aryan Peshwa'.
• Rajendra Lahiri, independence fighter
• Ram Manohar Lohia, socialist
• Ram Prasad Bismil, Indian independence fighter and socialist.
• Swami Sahajanand Saraswati freedom fighter

Award winners

Param Vir Chakra

File:Havildar Abdul Hamid Portrait.jpg

Abdul Hamid.

• Abdul Hamid, Ghazipur
• Manoj Kumar Pandey
• Naik Jadu Nath Singh
• Yogendra Singh Yadav of Orangabad, Bulandshaher, the hero of Tiger Hill in Kargil war

Maha Vir Chakra

• Brigadier Mohammad Usman Azamgarh
• Mahendra Nath Mulla

Ashok Chakra

• Kamlesh Kumari

Bharat Ratna

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

• Atal Bihari Vajpayee, eleventh Prime Minister of India
• Bhagwan Das, philosopher and Freedom Fighter, Varanasi
• Jawaharlal Nehru, leader of the Indian independence movement and the first Prime Minister of India.
• Lal Bahadur Shastri, freedom fighter, former Prime Minister belonged to Varanasi & Allahabad
• Rajrishi Purushottam Das Tandon, Freedom Fighter, Allahabad
• Ravi Shankar, Sitar Maestro, Ghazipur
• Ustad Bismillah Khan, Shehnai Maestro, Varanasi

Padma Vibhushan

Amitabh Bachchan.

• Amitabh Bachchan
• Kishan Maharaj
• Uday Shankar

Padma Bhushan

• Amitabh Bachchan, film actor
• Bhagwati Charan Varma, Hindi Author
• Irfan Habib, historian
• Josh Malihabadi, poet
• Kishan Maharaj, Tabla Maestro
• Obaid Siddiqui Science
• Qurratulain Hyder, author
• Rahul Sankrityayan
• Ram Kinkar Upadhyay, scholar
• Srilal Shukla, Hindi Writer

Padma Shree

• Bekal Utsahi poet, writer
• Giriraj Kishore writer
• Gopaldas Neeraj, Hindi poet and lyricist
• Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, scholar of Unani medicine
• Hamid Ansari, Vice President of India
• K. P. Saxena, writer
• Kapil Deva Dvivedi
• Kunwar Digvijay Singh Babu, hockey Olympian
• Mohammed Shahid ex captain Indian Hockey Team Varanasi
• Muzaffar Ali, film director
• Prakash Singh
• Vidya Niwas Mishra writer
• Yogiraj Bharat Bhushan, only Padmashri awardee Yogi, founder director of Mokshayatan International Yogashram at Saharanpur

Dada Saheb Phalke Award

• Majrooh Sultanpuri, lyricist
• Naushad Ali, music composer

Jnanpith Awards

• Akhlaq Mohammed Khan
• Ali Sardar Jafri, writer and poet
• Amar Kant
• Firaq Gorakhpuri, poet
• Mahadevi Verma, poet
• Qurratulain Hyder, writer
• Sri Lal Sukla

Magasaysay Award

• Rajendra Singh, water conservationist
• Sandeep Pandey

Arjuna Award

• Abhinn Shyam Gupta, badminton
• Ashish Kumar, gymnastics
• Jagbir Singh, hockey
• Moraad Ali Khan, shooter
• Syed Modi, badminton

Science and medicine

• Afroz Ahmad, environmental scientist & administrator
• Hari Om Srivastava, broadcast scientist
• Harish-Chandra, (Mehrotra), mathematician who did fundamental work in representation theory, especially Harmonic analysis on semisimple Lie groups.
• Lalji Singh, molecular biologist
• P. K . Sethi, inventor of "Jaipur Foot"
• Prem Chand Pandey, scientist, physicist, meteorologist, oceanographer
• Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
• Ravindra Khattree, statistician who worked in statistical inference, multivariate analysis, experimental designs, biostatistics and quality control.
• Syed Ziaur Rahman, medical pharmacologist
• Zahoor Qasim, oceanographer, leader of first Indian Expedition to Antarctica

Holders of high offices

Vice President

• Gopal Swarup Pathak, former Vice President of India
• Hamid Ansari,Current Vice-President of India

Prime ministers

Lal Bahadur Shastri on postage stamp of Hungary.

• Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India and Bharat Ratna awardee.
• Lal Bahadur Shastri, third Prime Minister of India and Bharat Ratna awardee.
• Indira Gandhi, fourth Prime Minister of India and Bharat Ratna awardee.
• Choudhary Charan Singh, fifth Prime Minister of India
• Rajiv Gandhi, sixth prime minister of India and Bharat Ratna
• Vishwanath Pratap Singh, eighth Prime Minister of India
• Chandra Shekhar, ninth Prime Minister of India
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee. eleventh Prime Minister of India and Bharat Ratna awardee.

Governors

• A R Kidwai, Governor of Haryana
• Girish Chandra Saxena, former Governor of Jammu & Kashmir
• Kalyan Singh, Governor of Rajasthan
• K.M. Seth, former Governor of Chhattisgarh
• Khurshid Alam Khan, former Governor of Karnataka
• Mohammad Fazal, former Governor of Maharashtra
• Mohammad Yunus Saleem, former Governor of Bihar
• Ram Naresh Yadav, Governor of Madhya Pradesh
• Syed Sibtey Razi, Governor of Jharkhand
• Triloki Nath Chaturvedi, former CAG and former Governor of Karnataka
• Virendra Verma, former Governor of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh

Chief Justices

• Kailas Nath Wanchoo,former Chief Justice of India
• Kamal Narain Singh,former Chief Justice of India
• Mirza Hameedullah Beg, former Chief Justice of India
• Mohammad Hidayatullah, former Chief Justice of India
• Raghunandan Swarup Pathak,former Chief Justice of India
• V. N. Khare,former Chief Justice of India

Chief Ministers

• Muhammad Ahmad Said Khan Chhatari
• Govind Ballabh Pant
• Sampurnanand
• Sucheta Kripalani
• Chandra Bhanu Gupta
• Choudhary Charan Singh
• Tribhuvan Narain Singh
• Kamalapati Tripathi
• Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna
• Narayan Dutt Tiwari
• Ram Naresh Yadav
• Banarsi Das
• Vishwanath Pratap Singh
• Sripati Mishra
• Vir Bahadur Singh
• Mulayam Singh Yadav
• Kalyan Singh
• Ram Prakash Gupta
• Rajnath Singh
• Mayawati
• Akhilesh Yadav

Union Ministers

• Ajit Singh
• Akhilesh Das
• Ashok Kumar Pradhan
• Beni Prasad Verma
• Jitin Prasada
• Kalpnath Rai
• Kamalapati Tripathi
• Laxmi Raman Acharya
• Mahaveer Prasad
• Mahavir Tyagi
• Maneka Gandhi
• Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
• Mulayam Singh Yadav
• Murli Manohar Joshi
• Narayan Dutt Tiwari
• Raj Narain
• Rajnath Singh
• Salman Khursheed
• Santosh Gangwar
• Satyapal Singh Yadav
• Shriprakash Jaiswal
• Shriram Chauhan
• Swami Chinmayanand

Political figures

Pre Independence

• Govind Ballabh Pant
• Jawaharlal Nehru
• Motilal Nehru, Indian National Congress leader
• Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, former President of Indian National Congress
• Munishwar Dutt Upadhyay
• Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya
• Rai Rajeshwar Bali, education minister (1924–1928)
• Sampurnanand
• Swami Sahajanand Saraswati

Post Independence

• Akhilesh Das, Union Minister
• Akhilesh Yadav
• Amar Mani
• Arif Mohammad Khan, political leader
• Beni Prasad Verma, former minister and leader
• Chaudhary Ajit Singh, political leader
• Choudhary Charan Singh
• Deen Dayal Upadhyaya
• Devendra Nath Dwivedi, Indian politician and Governor designate of Gujarat.
• Feroze Gandhi
• Govind Ballabh Pant
• Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna
• Indira Gandhi
• Kalyan Singh (UP CM and Rajasthan Governor, BJP Vice President)
• K.C. Tyagi
• Kailash Nath Katju, former Union Home Minister and lawyer
• Kalpnath Rai
• Kamal Nath, politician
• Kamalapati Tripathi
• Laxmi Raman Acharya
• Mahendra Singh Tikait, Kisan leader
• Manohar Lal (b. 1938), UP MLA, cabinet minister
• Mohsina Kidwai
• Mulayam Singh Yadav,
• Mayawati,
• Narayan Dutt Tiwari
• Om Prakash Singh
• Prakash Vir Shastri
• Prakash Vir Shastri, member of Parliament and advocate of the Arya Samaj movement
• Sanjay Singh, King of Amethi
• Rafi Ahmed Kidwai
• Raj Babbar, member of Parliament
• Raj Narain
• Raja Bhaiya
• Rajeev Shukla, journalist and political leader
• Rajendra Kumari Bajpai (1925–1999), former cabinet minister
• Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Gandhian, first lady Minister of India
• Ram Govind Chaudhary
• Ram Manohar Lohia
• Ram Naresh Yadav
• Satyapal Singh Yadav former union minister
• Satyaveer Munna
• Sheila Kaul
• Shriprakash Jaiswal, union minister
• Shyama Charan Gupta, politician, entrepreneur

Authors

Hindi

• Acharya Chatursen (1891–1960), Hindi writer
• Acharya Kuber Nath Rai
• Acharya Ram Chandra Shukla, Hindi writer and historian
• Amitabh Thakur Hindi writer
• Amritlal Nagar, Hindi writer
• Ayodhya Prasad Upadhyay, Hindi writer
• Babu Gulabrai, Hindi writer
• Baldev Upadhyaya, Hindi scholar and writer
• Bhagwati Charan Verma, Hindi writer
• Bharatendu Harishchandra, Hindi writer
• Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Hindi novelist
• Jaishankar Prasad, Hindi writer
• Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan, polyglot
• Malik Muhammad Jayasi, author of Padmavat
• Munshi Prem Chand, novelist
• Rahi Masoom Raza, author of 'Topi Shukla' and 'Adha Gaon'
• Rajendra Yadav, Hindi novelist
• Ravindra Prabhat,Hindi novelist
• Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan
• Shrilal Shukla, writer of 'Raag Darbari'
• Sri Krishna Rai Hridyesh
• Swami Sahajanand Saraswati books on sociology, religion, freedom struggle, peasant movement, autobiography etc.
• Vibhuti Narain Rai Hindi writer
• Vidya Niwas Mishra, Hindi scholar
• Vinod Kumar Shukla, writer
• Vishnu Sarma, author of Panchtantra
• Viveki Rai
• Yashpal, Hindi writer
• Kashi Nath Singh, Hindi wiriter

Urdu

• Arif Mahmood, Urdu short stories writer and author of ' Mein bhi hazir tha wahan '.
• Firaq Gorakhpuri
• Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, author of books on Unani medicine
• Ibne Safi, novelist of Jasoosi Duniya
• Ismat Chugtai, writer
• Mirza Hadi Ruswa, author of Umrao Jaan
• Qurratulain Hyder, writer of Aag Ka Darya

English

• Allan Sealy, novelist and writer
• Attia Hosain, English author and journalist
• Nayantara Sahgal, novelist and writer
• Vikas Swarup, author of "Q&A"

Poets

Urdu

• Akbar Allahabadi, poet
• Ali Sardar Jafri, Urdu poet
• Bekal Utsahi, Urdu Poet
• Brij Narayan Chakbast, Urdu poet
• Daya Shankar Kaul Nasim, Urdu poet
• Firaq Gorakhpuri, Urdu poet, winner of Jnanpith award
• Jigar Moradabadi, Urdu poet
• Josh Malihabadi, Urdu poet
• Kaifi Azmi, Urdu and Hindi lyricist, poet and songwriter
• Khumar Barabankvi, Urdu poet
• Majaz, Urdu poet
• Majrooh Sultanpuri, poet and lyricist
• Maulana Hali, Urdu poet, biographer of Ghalib's life, and a commentator of his poetry
• Mir Anis, Urdu Marsiya poet
• Mir Taqi Mir
• Mirza Ghalib, classical Urdu and Persian poet
• Safi Lakhnavi, Urdu poet

Hindi

• Acharya Kuber Nath Rai Lit Nibandh
• Ayodhya Prasad Upadhyay, major works are "Hindi Bhasha Aur Uske Sahitya Ka Vikas", Karam Veer", Ek Boond", "Phool aur Kanta", "Vaidehi Vanvas", "Priy Pravas", "Parijat", "Kalplata", "Fool Patte"
• Gopal Das Neeraj, Hindi poet
• Guru Bhakt Singh 'Bhakt'
• Harikrishna Prasad Gupta Agrahari, poet
• Harivansh Rai Bachchan, writer and poet
• Jaishankar Prasad, one of four major pillars of the Chhayavaadi School of Hindi
• Kaka Hathrasi, humorous poet
• Kedarnath Singh, major works are "baagh", "toota truck", tolstoy aur cycle", etc.
• Mahadevi Varma, a major poet of the Chhayavaadi generation, a period of romanticism in Modern Hindi poetry. She won the Jnanpith award in 1982.
• Maithilisharan Gupt, modern Hindi poet
• Shivmangal Singh Suman
• Subhadra Kumari Chauhan
• Sumitranandan Pant, one of four major pillars of the Chhayavaadi School of Hindi
• Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala'

Bhojpuri

• Parichay Das
• Viveki Rai

Founders of educational institutions

• Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, founder of Aligarh Muslim University
• Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, founder of Banaras Hindu University.
• Jagdish Gandhi, founder of the City Montessori School.

Defence Services

Army

• Abdul Hamid, 4 Grenadiers, Indian Army, Param Vir Chakra recipient
• Brigadier Mohammad Usman, recipient of Maha Vir Chakra
• K.M. Seth
• Lt. General Zameerud-din Shah
• Manoj Kumar Pandey, 11 Gorkha Rifles of the Indian Army, Param Vir Chakra recipient
• Yogendra Singh Yadav, 18th Grenadiers of the Indian Army, Param Vir Chakra recipient

Air Force

• S.K. Kaul, Air Chief Marshal (Retd)
• Trevor Keelor IAF, Vir Chakra winner in Indo-Pak war of 1965
• Denzil Keelor IAF, Air Marshall (Retd), Vir Chakra winner and Kirti Chakra recipient.
• Norman Anil Kumar Browne, Air Chief Marshal (Currant)
• S.P. Tyagi, Air Chief Marshal (Retd)

Civil Service / Diplomacy

Indian Foreign Service

• Asaf Ali, first Indian Ambassador to United States
• Braj Kumar Nehru, Indian diplomat and Ambassador of India to the United States
• Girija Shankar Bajpai, First Secretary-General of Foreign Affairs
• Shilendra Kumar Singh, former Foreign Secretary of India and former Governor of Rajasthan and Arunachal Pradesh
• Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Indian diplomat and politician, the sister of Jawaharlal Nehru

Civil Services

• Afroz Ahmad, Member NCA, Government of India
• Baleshwar Rai
• Chandrika Prasad Srivastava, bureaucrat
• Dharma Vira, ICS, cabinet secretary and governor of West Bengal, Mysore
• Isha Basant Joshi, first woman to be appointed IAS officer
• Vinod Rai, CAG
• Wajahat Habibullah, Chief Information Commissioner of India

Music and dance

Musicians

• Ashutosh Bhattacharya (1917–2004) Tabla player, music educator from Varanasi, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (1966)
• Begum Akhtar, Ghazal singer
• Cliff Richard, English singer
• Gopal Shankar Misra, Vichitra Veena player
• Hari Prasad Chaurasia, bansuri player
• Kishan Maharaj, Tabla Maestro
• Lalmani Misra was an Indian classical musician. Dean & Head, Faculty of Music and Fine Arts, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and his son
• Naushad Ali, music director, was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his contributions to Indian cinema.
• Pandit Ravi Shankar, classical Sitar player, awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1999. He has also won three Grammy awards
• Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, musician
• Ustad Bismillah Khan, Shehnai maestro, awarded the Bharat Ratna, (2001)

Singers

• Girija Devi, is an Indian singer and represents the Banaras Gharana of singers.
• Shubha Mudgal, singer
• Talat Mahmood, ghazal singer
• Purshottam Das Jalota (1925–2011), Bhajan singer, Padma Shri (2004)
• Anup Jalota, Ghazal and Bhajan singer
• Siddheshwari Devi, Hindustani singer from Banares, known as Maa (mother).
• Kailash Kher from Meerut
• Vinit Singh from Lucknow
• Abhijeet Bhattacharya from Kanpur
• Sharafat Hussain Khan from Atrauli
• Ankit Tiwari from Kanpur
• Kanika Kapoor from Lucknow
• Harshit Saxena, Singer

Rappers

• Hard Kaur from kanpur
• Baba Sehgal

Dancers

• Birju Maharaj, Kathak exponent
• Lachhu Maharaj, Kathak exponent
• Kapila Vatsyayan, scholar of Indian classical dance
• Sitara Devi
• Uday Shankar

Sports

Hockey

• Dhyan Chand, former international hockey player, awarded the Padma Bhushan
• Zafar Iqbal, former international captain of the Indian hockey team and Chief coach of Indian hockey team
• K. D. Singh, former national hockey player and Olympian
• Mohammed Shahid, former international hockey player, was member of the Indian team that won Gold Medal at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. He was awarded Arjuna Award in 1980 and Padma Shri in 1986.
• Jagbir Singh, captain and member of National Hockey team in 1988 & 1992 Olympics, was awarded Arjuna Award in 1990

Baseball

• Rinku Singh, one of the first two Indians to sign a professional baseball contract in the United States
• Dinesh Patel, one of the first two Indians to sign a professional baseball contract in the United States

Cricket

• Arun Lal, former Test cricketer
• Ashish Zaidi, cricketer
• Bhuvneshwar Kumar, international cricketer
• Chetan Chauhan, former Test cricketer
• Gyanendra Pandey, cricketer
• Hemlata Kala, member Indian Women's Cricket team
• Manoj Prabhakar, cricketer
• Mohammed Kaif, international cricketer
• Mohammed Shami, international cricketer
• Narendra Hirwani
• Piyush Chawla
• Praveen Kumar
• R. P. Singh, international cricketer
• Rajinder Hans
• Raman Lamba
• Ravikant Shukla, U-19 captain
• Rohan Gavaskar
• Sudip Tyagi
• Suresh Raina, international cricketer
• Surinder Amarnath
• Surinder Amarnath
• Umesh Yadav, Deoria (U.P)- Present Indian Cricketer

Badminton

• Abhinn Shyam Gupta, former national badminton champion
• Syed Modi, former national badminton champion

Other sports

• Annu Raj Singh, shooter
• Moraad Ali Khan, shooter
• Ghaus Mohammad, tennis player, the first Indian to reach quarterfinal of The Championships, Wimbledon
• Jaspal Rana, shooter

Journalism

• Aniruddha Bahal, investigative journalist
• Arun Nehru, former minister and columnist
• Dharamvir Bharati, former editor of Dharamyug magazine
• Feroze Gandhi, managing editor of National Herald
• Manikonda Chalapathi Rau, Indian journalist and an authority on Nehruvian thought
• Narendra Mohan, Dainik Jagran
• Pankaj Mishra, journalist
• Parichay Das, writer, essayist, poet and editor of contemporary Bhojpuri poetry
• Raghuvir Sahay Editor Dinmaan
• Ram Bahadur Rai, magazine editor
• Saeed Naqvi, journalist and TV producer
• Sahu Ramesh Chandra Jain, Times of India & Navbharat Times
• Surendra Pratap Singh Editor Ravivar
• Vinod Mehta, editor

Satire, comedy, cartoons

• Akbar Allahabadi, poet and satirist
• Kaka Hathrasi, satirist
• Tuntun, comedian
• Kaak (b. 1940, Harish Chandra Shukla), cartoonist
• K. P. Saxena
• Raju Srivastava, actor and stand up comedian

Cinema and theatre

Actors and actresses

• Anushka Sharma
• Abhishek Bachchan
• Aditya Srivastava, actor and voiceover artist, (CID)
• Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood actor awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2001
• Ashutosh Rana, famous Indian film actor
• Chandrachur Singh, actor
• Farhan Akhtar, actor
• Jaddanbai, actor
• K.N. Singh, actor
• Kadar Khan, actor
• Marc Zuber, actor
• Nargis, was an actress best known for her role in the Oscar-nominated film Mother India
• Naseeruddin Shah, actor (He was born in barabanki district of Lucknow division U.P)
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui, actor, (Gangs of Wasseypur)
• Nimmi, film actress in the 1950s
• Rajpal Yadav
• Ravi Kishan, Bhojpuri film actor
• Saurabh Shukla, Bollywood actor
• Shweta Tiwari, famous Indian television actress
• Sonal Chauhan, Bollywood actress
• Surinder Pal, actor
• Sushant Singh, actor
• Tanveer Zaidi, actor, educationist
• Tuntun, comedy actress
• Vedita Pratap Singh, model and actress
• Zakir Hussain, famous Indian film actor
• Zoya Afroz, Bollywood actress
• Meenakshi Dixit, Actress

Directors/producers

• Abhinav Kashyap, director
• Abhishek Chaubey, director
• Anurag Kashyap, director
• Farhan Akhtar, director
• Gajendra Singh, editor, director and producer
• K. Asif, film director, film producer and screenwriter who worked on the Hindi epic motion picture, Mughal-e-Azam
• Kamal Amrohi, director
• Prakash Mehra, director
• Prasoon Pandey, director
• Shaad Ali, film director
• Tigmanshu Dhulia, director
• Vishal Bhardwaj, Omkara director
• Zoya Akhtar, director

Singers

• Talat Mahmood
• Rajkumari Dubey
• Begum Akhtar
• Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay
• Abhijeet Bhattacharya (Singer)
• Kabban Mirza
• Anup Jalota
• Baba Sehgal
• Sunidhi Chauhan
• Vidup Agrahari
• Kanika Kapoor

Lyricists

• Ali Sardar Jafri
• Anjaan
• Indeevar
• Javed Akhtar
• Kaifi Azmi
• Khumar Barabankvi
• Majrooh Sultanpuri
• Sameer
• Shakeel Badayuni

Composers

• Naushad Ali
• Shantanu Moitra
• Anand Milind

Theatre

• Arvind Gaur
• Nadira Babbar
• Sushil Kumar Singh

Cinematographers

• Ravikant Nagaich

Story/script/dialogue writers

• Javed Siddiqi, film script writer
• K. P. Saxena, dialogue writer of Lagaan, Swades
• S.Ali Raza
• Wajahat Mirza

Nawabs of Awadh

Wajid Ali Shah

• Asaf-Ud-Dowlah, fourth Nawab, founder of modern Lucknow
• Wajid Ali Shah, poet, choreographer, the last King of Awadh

Navratnas

• Raja Todar Mal, Finance Minister and one of the Navratnas of Akbar
• Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana, Hindi poet and a Navratna of Akbar

Television

• Aditya Srivastava
• Gajendra Singh, conceived the concept of Reality Show in the year 1992 with Antakshari and Sa Re Ga Ma.
• Rahi Masoom Raza, dialogue writer of TV serial 'Ramayan'
• Raju Srivastav
• Surendra Pal, famous for playing Dronacharaya in 'Mahabharat'

Environmentalists

• Billy Arjan Singh, conservationist
• Afroz Ahmad

Scholars

• Masud Husain Khan, eminent linguist, the first Professor Emeritus in Social Sciences at Aligarh Muslim University and the 5th Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, a Central University in New Delhi.
• Acharya Narendra Dev
• Mushirul Hasan, historian
• Ahmad Hasan Dani, archaeologist and historian
• Renu Khator, Chancellor of the University of Houston System, President of the University of Houston, the first Indian American to lead a major research university in the United States

Fine arts

• Gogi Saroj Pal
• Ram Chandra Shukla, painter

Business

• Gajendra Singh, CMD Saaibaba Telefilms & Founder of Ganga Gauri Mahavidyalaya, Ramnagar, Baijabari, Azamgarh
• Subroto Roy, founder Sahara India
• Shyama Charan Gupta, founder of Shyam Group
• K.P. Singh, president of DLF Universal Group
• Vinod Gupta, former CEO and chairman of InfoUSA and founder of Vinod Gupta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
• Dhirendra Swarup, Expenditure Secretary

Crime

• Abu Salem
• Daku Man Singh
• Munna Bajrangi
• Nirbhay Gujjar
• Phoolan Devi (minister)

Photographer

• Lala Deen Dayal, great Indian photographer
• Tarun Khiwal (born 1967), Indian fashion and commercial photographer

Others

• Abdul Karim, Munshi to Queen Victoria
• Begum Samru, historical figure
• Deep Tyagi, pioneer of Family Planning programme in India
• Jaichand of Kannauj, historical figure
• Rahul Mishra (born 1979), fashion designer
• Sampat Pal Devi, activist listed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world
• Sheila Dixit, CM of Delhi state

See also

• List of people from Purvanchal
• List of people by India state
• States and territories of India
• List of Hindi authors