Sports · born 1969Steve Smithbasketball player, broadcasterMichigan-born NBA All-Star and Olympic gold medalist, Michigan State's all-time leading scorer, now a national basketball broadcaster.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.
- 1,912 famous people
- 135 Detroit places
- 20 fields
Hungarian ties 22 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →
Field
Connection
Born in
A–Z (family name)
13 people
Clear filtersSports · born 1969Steve Smithbasketball player, broadcasterMichigan-born NBA All-Star and Olympic gold medalist, Michigan State's all-time leading scorer, now a national basketball broadcaster.
Press & broadcasting · born 1969Sanjay Guptaneurosurgeon, CNN chief medical correspondent, authorCNN's chief medical correspondent and a practicing neurosurgeon, born and raised in the Detroit suburb of Novi to parents who were Ford engineers.
Politics · born 1965Thaddeus McCotterpolitician, radio hostDetroit-born Republican congressman for the northwestern suburbs (2003–2012) and 2012 presidential hopeful who later hosted talk radio in Detroit.
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.
Fashion · born 1965Veronica Webbmodel, actress, writer, television personalityDetroit-born supermodel who in 1992 became the first Black model with an exclusive cosmetics contract (Revlon), and who acted in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever.
Press & broadcasting · born 1964Robin Givhanfashion critic, journalistDetroit native, Renaissance High valedictorian and former Detroit Free Press writer who in 2006 became the first fashion critic to win a Pulitzer Prize.
Press & broadcasting · born 1961Bob Woodrufftelevision journalistABC News correspondent and former World News Tonight co-anchor from Bloomfield Hills, gravely wounded in Iraq in 2006, who co-founded a foundation for injured veterans.
Film & TV · born 1962Shaun Robinsontelevision host, journalist, authorDetroit-born Cass Tech graduate who began her TV career at WGPR-TV before hosting Access Hollywood (1999–2015) and the 90 Day Fiancé tell-alls.
Politics · born 1965Kenneth Cockrel Jr.journalist, city council president, interim mayor of DetroitSon of radical lawyer Ken Cockrel Sr., former Free Press writer and council president who served as Detroit's interim mayor after Kwame Kilpatrick resigned (2008–2009).
Music · born 1963Alan Oldhamtechno DJ, producer, graphic artist, painterDetroit radio host, comic artist and techno DJ known as DJ T-1000, who drew techno's early record art and toured with Underground Resistance.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 ↗