Sports · born 1963Joe Dumarsbasketball player and executiveHall of Fame Pistons guard who won two championships as a "Bad Boy" and a third as team president, and stayed in Detroit for decades running local businesses.DETROIT / A living lexicon / ¼
Famous Detroiters
People who were born here, moved here or built their careers in Detroit: musicians, carmakers, athletes, writers, inventors, civil-rights leaders and a few notorious names. With their dates, their Detroit story and the places where they lived, worked and played, closed ones included.
- 1,940 famous people
- 515 Detroit places
- 9 fields
Hungarian ties 22 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →
Field
Connection
Born in
A–Z (family name)
13 people
Clear filtersSports · born 1963Joe Dumarsbasketball player and executiveHall of Fame Pistons guard who won two championships as a "Bad Boy" and a third as team president, and stayed in Detroit for decades running local businesses.
Film & TV · born 1966Hill Harperactor, author, political candidateActor from CSI: NY and The Good Doctor who moved to Detroit in 2016, bought a downtown coffee roastery and ran for the U.S. Senate from Michigan in 2024.
Sports · born 1960Igor Larionovice hockey center, coach, agentSoviet-trained center nicknamed 'the Professor' who anchored Detroit's famed Russian Five and won three Stanley Cups with the Red Wings.
Comedy · born 1961Tim Meadowscomedian, actorTen-season Saturday Night Live veteran from Highland Park and Detroit's Conant Gardens, who learned improv at the Soup Kitchen Saloon and later moved back to the city.
Sports · born 1962Chris Cheliosice hockey defensemanHall of Fame defenseman who joined the Red Wings in 1999, won Stanley Cups in 2002 and 2008 and played in Detroit into his late forties.
Sports · born 1961Larry Murphyice hockey defenceman, broadcasterHall of Fame defenceman whose late-career trade to Detroit added the experience that helped the Red Wings win back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998; he later stayed in Detroit as a broadcaster.
Literature · born 1965Dunya Mikhailpoet, journalist, teacherIraqi-American poet of The War Works Hard who fled Saddam Hussein's regime, settled in metro Detroit, studied at Wayne State and teaches Arabic at Oakland University.
Religion · born 1964Hassan al-Qazwiniimam, religious scholarKarbala-born Shia imam who led Dearborn's Islamic Center of America for eighteen years and became one of Metro Detroit's best-known Muslim voices after 9/11.The lexicon keeps growing. Every entry lists its sources at the bottom. Dates were checked against Wikidata and Wikipedia. The texts are our own. Famous people's places among the sights ↗