Politics · born 1963Keith Ellisonpolitician, lawyerDetroit-raised lawyer who in 2006 became the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress and later Minnesota's attorney general.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
- 366 Detroit places
- 20 fields
Hungarian ties 22 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →
Field
Connection
Born in
A–Z (family name)
10 people
Clear filtersPolitics · born 1963Keith Ellisonpolitician, lawyerDetroit-raised lawyer who in 2006 became the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress and later Minnesota's attorney general.
Politics · born 1964Fuat Oktaypolitician, engineer, academicTurkey's first vice president (2018–2023), who earned his master's degree and doctorate in engineering at Wayne State University in Detroit.
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.
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.
Politics · born 1964Dave Bratpolitician, economist, diplomatEconomics professor and Virginia congressman who unseated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014; born in Detroit and raised in Alma, Michigan.
Politics · born 1967Jon HustedpoliticianOhio Republican, U.S. senator since 2025, who was born in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak and adopted as an infant by an Ohio family.
Science & invention · born 1963Ulana Suprunphysician, activist, health minister of UkraineDetroit-born radiologist from the city's Ukrainian community who trained at Wayne State and Henry Ford Hospital and later served as Ukraine's acting health minister (2016–2019).
Politics · born 1960Andy Levinunion organizer, lawyer, congressmanSon of Sander Levin and nephew of Carl Levin, raised in suburban Berkley, a labor organizer who ran Michigan's 'No Worker Left Behind' retraining program and served in Congress (2019–2023).
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).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 ↗