List of people from Harlem

This is a list of people from Harlem in New York City.

The early period (pre-1920)

• John James Audubon – naturalist^[1]
• Richard Croker – Tammany Hall politician,^[2] lived at 26 Mount Morris Park West^[3]
• James Reese Europe – musician, credited with inventing jazz; 67 West 133rd Street^[1][4]
• Thomas Gilroy – New York mayor^[3]
• Alexander Hamilton – politician; lived in Harlem at the end of his life
• Hubert Harrison – "The Father of Harlem Radicalism"
• Scott Joplin – pianist and composer; lived at 133 West 138th Street in 1916, then at 163 West 131st Street until his death in 1917; had a studio at 160 West 133rd Street^[5]
• Alfred Henry Lewis – cowboy author^[6]
• Vincent James McMahon – founder of the World Wide Wrestling Federation
• Paul Meltsner – WPA era painter and muralist; grew up in Harlem
• Thomas Nast – artist^[1]
• Philip A. Payton Jr. – real estate entrepreneur; lived at 13 West 131st Street^[7]
• Norman Rockwell – lived as a child at 789 St. Nicholas Avenue^[8]
• Norman Thomas – radical activist^[9]
• Daniel Tiemann – New York mayor^[10]
• Robert Van Wyck – New York mayor^[3]
• Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence – New York mayor^[10]

Jewish, Italian, Irish Harlem (circa 1900–30)

Moe Berg

• Sholem Aleichem – writer, 110 Lenox Avenue^[11]
• Moe Berg (1902–1972) – Major League Baseball catcher; spy
• Milton Berle – comedian and actor, born in a five-story walkup at 68 West 118th Street^[12]
• Fanny Brice – actress, houses at West 128th Street and West 118th Street^[13]
• Art Buchwald – writer^[9]
• Bennett Cerf – publisher,^[14] was born on May 25, 1898, at 68 West 118th Street,^[15] the same address as Milton Berle's
• Morris Raphael Cohen – philosopher, 498 West 135th Street^[16]
• Milt Gabler – record producer, responsible for many innovations in the recording industry of the 20th century^[17]
• George and Ira Gershwin - composers, grew up in Harlem; lived at 108 West 111th and other addresses.^[18] George wrote his first hit song, "Swanee", at his home at 520 W. 144 Street in 1919.^[8] The pair were living at 501 Cathedral Parkway in 1924, and it was in this apartment that George wrote "Rhapsody in Blue."^[19]
• Oscar Hammerstein I – inventor and theatrical entrepreneur; lived at 333 Edgecombe Avenue^[8]
• Oscar Hammerstein II – writer and theatrical producer, addresses on East 116th Street and 112th Street^[20]
• Lorenz Hart – lyricist half of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart, 59 West 119th Street^[21]
• Harry Houdini – magician; lived at 278 West 113th Street from 1904 until his death in 1926^[22]
• Frank Hussey – Olympian, 129th Street^[23]
• Burt Lancaster – Oscar-winning actor and producer^[9]
• Seymour Martin Lipset – political sociologist, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and Hazel Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University^[24]
• Ignazio Lupo – counterfeiter, gangster^[25]
• Marx Brothers – comedians, 239 East 114th Street^[12]
• Arthur Miller – playwright, 45 West 110th Street^[26][27]
• Giuseppe Morello – gangster, 323 East 107th Street^[25]
• Belle Moskowitz – political advisor to New York Governor and 1928 presidential candidate Al Smith^[28]
• Al Pacino – Academy Award-winning actor
• Charlie Pilkington – three-time New York champion boxer; East 102nd Street
• Ed Sullivan – Broadway & Sports columnist, host of the long-running televised Sunday evening variety show; East 114th Street
• David Rappaport – fashion manufacturer, designer and painter^[29]
• Richard Rodgers – composer, 3 West 120th Street^[1][14]
• Yossele Rosenblatt – celebrated cantor^[30]
• Henry Roth – writer, 108 East 119th Street^[11]
• Jessie Sampter – poet^[23]
• John Sanford, born Julian Lawrence Shapiro – screenwriter and author who wrote 24 books^[31]
• Arthur Sulzberger – publisher of the New York Times^[30]
• Henrietta Szold – founder of Hadassah^[23]
• Vincent and Ciro Terranova – gangsters, 352 East 116th Street^[32]

The Harlem Renaissance and World War II (1920–1945)

409 Edgecombe Avenue

• Louis Armstrong – bandleader and trumpet player^[33]
• Count Basie – bandleader and pianist; lived at 555 Edgecombe Avenue^[34][35]
• George Wilson Becton – religious cult leader^[36]
• Julius Bledsoe – singer; lived at 409 Edgecombe Avenue^[35]
• Arna Bontemps – writer
• William Stanley Braithwaite – poet and essayist; lived at 409 Edgecombe Avenue^[35]
• Eunice Carter – New York state judge; lived at 409 Edgecombe Avenue^[35]
• John Henrik Clarke – editor of Freedomways Magazine and of several books; professor; moved to Harlem in 1933^[37]
• Lady Bird Cleveland (1926-2015) – artist^[38]
• Collyer brothers – compulsive hoarders; lived in a townhouse at 128th Street and Fifth Avenue in Harlem their entire adult lives
• Countee Cullen – poet^[33]
• Lillian Harris Dean – entrepreneur known as "Pigfoot Mary"
• Aaron Douglas – painter; lived at 409 Edgecombe Avenue^[35][37]
• W. E. B. Du Bois – activist, writer; lived at 409 Edgecombe^[34][35]
• Duke Ellington – composer, pianist and bandleader; lived on Riverside Drive and at 555 Edgecombe^[34][39]
• Father Divine – religious leader,^[39] lived in several locations in Harlem, including on Astor Row, and maintained offices at 20 West 115th Street^[40]
• Rudolph Fisher – writer^[37]
• Marcus Garvey – political figure, Pan-Africanist; home at 235 West 131st Street^[41]
• Billy Higgins (1888–1937), stage comedian, songwriter, and singer
• Charles Manuel "Sweet Daddy" Grace – evangelist, born in Cape Verde Islands but became prominent in Harlem in the 1920s^[39]
• Lionel Hampton – jazz musician; lived in Harlem through World War II and for some years thereafter^[37]
• Hubert Harrison – "the father of Harlem Radicalism"
• Leonard Harper – Harlem Renaissance producer, stager, and choreographer
• Coleman Hawkins – musician, saxophone player; lived at 555 Edgecombe Avenue^[42]
• Billie Holiday – singer; lived with her mother at 108 West 139th Street^[43]
• Casper Holstein – gangster
• Lena Horne – singer and actress; lived at 555 Edgecombe Avenue^[42]
• Langston Hughes – writer^[44]
• Zora Neale Hurston – writer^[44]
• Percy C. Ifill – architect^[45]
• Bumpy Johnson – gangster; lived in Lenox Terrace at 132nd Street and Lenox Avenue near the end of his life^[46]
• James P. Johnson – pianist
• James Weldon Johnson – author, activist, composer; lived at 187 West 135th Street^[34]
• Donald Jones – actor and dancer born in Harlem but moved to the Netherlands
• Fiorello La Guardia – New York mayor, from East Harlem
• Alain Locke – editor^[33]
• Joe Louis – boxer; lived at 555 Edgecombe Avenue^[42]
• Claude McKay – poet and novelist; born in Jamaica but moved to Harlem and wrote the famous novel Home to Harlem, West 131st Street^[47]
• Florence Mills – entertainer
• Adam Clayton Powell Sr. – religious, civic leader^[39]
• A. Philip Randolph – activist, labor organizer
• Paul Robeson – singer and actor; lived at 555 Edgecombe Avenue^[34][35]
• Bill "Bojangles" Robinson – dancer; lived on Strivers' Row^[34]
• James Herman Robinson – pastor of the Church of the Master on 122nd Street, founder of Operation Crossroads Africa, a forerunner of the Peace Corps
• Stephanie St. Clair – criminal leader; lived at 409 Edgecombe Avenue^[48]
• Willie "The Lion" Smith – pianist
• Wallace Thurman – writer^[33]
• Jean Toomer – writer^[37]
• James Van Der Zee – photographer^[39]
• Madam C.J. Walker – philanthropist and tycoon
• A'Lelia Walker – socialite and businesswoman
• Fats Waller – pianist, born at 107 West 134th Street^[49]
• Ethel Waters – singer, actress; born in Chester, Pennsylvania
• Margot Webb - professional dancer
• Walter Francis White – civil rights leader^[50]
• Bert Williams – vaudeville performer; born in Antigua; died in 1922, near the start of the Harlem Renaissance
• Mary Lou Williams – pianist; lived at 63 Hamilton Terrace^[43]
• Lillian "Billie" Yarbo – comedienne, dancer, singer^[51][52]

Famous after World War II

• Miles Aiken – basketball player
• Fiona Apple – singer-songwriter and pianist, raised in Morningside Gardens^[53]
• James Baldwin – novelist; lived at 131st Street and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. (then called "Seventh Avenue")^[54]
• Amiri Baraka, born LeRoi Jones – dancer, poet, activist
• Patricia Bath, ophthalmologist, inventor, humanitarian, and academic
• Romare Bearden – artist, primarily working in collage
• Harry Belafonte – calypso musician
• Claude Brown – novelist, wrote Manchild in the Promised Land
• Ron Brown – U.S. Secretary of Commerce, grew up in the Hotel Theresa^[55]
• Kareem Campbell – pro skateboarder
• George Carlin – comedian; 121st Street between Amsterdam and Broadway^[56]
• Jimmy Castor – R&B/funk bandleader
• Dr. Kenneth Clark – psychologist and activist; lived at 555 Edgecombe Avenue^[35]
• Pat Cleveland – model^[57]
• Evelyn Cunningham – civil-rights-era journalist and aide to Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York^[58]
• Jules Dassin – film director^[1]
• Benjamin J. Davis – New York City councilman, ultimately sent to jail for violations of the Smith Act^[37]
• Ossie Davis – actor and director; lived in Harlem in the late 1930s and mid-1940s
• Sammy Davis Jr. – entertainer, actor, member of Rat Pack, born in Harlem Hospital in 1925^[59]
• Roy DeCarava – photographer, born in Harlem in 1919^[60]
• Wanda De Jesus – actress
• David Dinkins – Mayor of New York; lived in the Riverton Houses^[61]
• Ralph Ellison – novelist, wrote Invisible Man, about a man who moves from the deep south to Harlem; lived at 730 Riverside Drive in Harlem^[62]
• Erik Estrada – actor, from East Harlem
• Donald Faison – actor
• Jack Geiger – physician, co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility; lived with Canada Lee for a year at 555 Edgecombe Avenue^[63]
• Herbert Gentry – abstract expressionist painter, lived at 126th street and Amsterdam Avenue, 1940s
• Althea Gibson – professional tennis player; lived at 115 West 143rd Street^[34]
• Oscar Hammerstein II – writer and theatrical producer^[1]
• W. C. Handy – composer and bandleader; lived on Strivers' Row in Harlem towards the end of his life^[34]
• Benny Harris – musician, trumpet^[64]
• Lorenz Hart – lyricist^[1]
• Johnny Hartman – vocalist; born in Louisiana, grew up in Chicago, moved to Harlem's Sugar Hill in 1950s
• Evan Hunter, aka Ed McBain – author, grew up in East Harlem^[65]
• Roy Innis – head of the Congress of Racial Equality; lived in Harlem but ultimately moved to Brooklyn^[66]
• June Jordan – Caribbean American poet, novelist, journalist, biographer, dramatist, teacher
• JTG – WWE wrestler
• Ben E. King – soul singer and former lead tenor of The Drifters, best known for the song, "Stand By Me"
• Canada Lee – actor; lived at 555 Edgecombe Avenue^[63]
• Frank Lucas – drug dealer
• Frankie Lymon – lead tenor of The Teenagers, best known for the song "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?"
• Malcolm X – preacher, revolutionary
• Earl Manigault – basketball player
• Thurgood Marshall – Supreme Court justice; lived at 409 Edgecombe Avenue^[34][35]
• Carl McCall – New York State senator, and Comptroller of New York State^[39]
• Jackie McLean – musician, alto saxophone^[64]* Arthur Miller – playwright, was married to Marilyn Monroe^[1]
• Hal Miller – actor (Sesame Street, Law & Order, etc.); also painter, singer, poet, lyricist, lived at 152nd Street & Macombs Place in the 1950s, born in Harlem
• Moby – musician, born in Harlem
• Joe Morton – actor, born in Harlem
• Edward Mosberg (1926-2022) - Polish-American Holocaust survivor, educator, and philanthropist
• Alice Neel – artist; lived in East Harlem^[1]
• Eleanor Holmes Norton – head of the Commission of Human Rights for New York City, now non-voting Delegate from the District of Columbia to the United States House of Representatives^[39]
• Elaine Parker – community organizer and activist, Chairperson of Harlem C.O.R.E. Director of the Manhattan Borough President's Office, Special Assistant to the City Council President City of NY^[67]
• Gordon Parks – film director and photographer^[39]
• Basil Paterson – New York state senator, New York City deputy mayor for labor relations, Vice-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee^[39][68]
• Fannie Pennington Harlem Civil Rights Foot Soldier
• Samuel Pierce – Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; lived in the Riverton Houses^[61]
• Adam Clayton Powell Jr. – politician
• Bud Powell – musician, pianist^[64]
• Tito Puente, Sr. – musician, Spanish Harlem
• Gene Anthony Ray – dancer and actor^[69]
• Ving Rhames – actor
• Brandon 'Scoop B' Robinson, NBA analyst^[70]
• Sugar Ray Robinson – boxer, entrepreneur; moved to Harlem at age 12
• Sonny Rollins – musician, tenor saxophone^[64]
• Steve Rossi – comedian, former manager for Howard Stern^[71]
• Henry Roth – novelist^[1]
• J. D. Salinger – novelist; lived at 3681 Broadway until he was nine years old^[72]
• Isabel Sanford – actress; co-star of The Jeffersons
• Hazel Scott – pianist, wife of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., first African-American woman with her own television show^[39]
• Nina Simone – singer; lived, for a time, in Duke Ellington's old house in Harlem^[39]
• Thomas Sowell – professional economist and author
• Billy Strayhorn – jazz composer, arranger
• Percy Sutton – Borough President of Manhattan: "If I were offered a million dollars, I wouldn't leave Harlem."^[39]
• Billy Taylor – jazz pianist; lived in the Riverton Houses^[61]
• Clarice Taylor – actress on the Cosby Show
• Conrad Tillard (born 1964) - politician, Baptist minister, radio host, author, and civil rights activist
• Samuel E Vázquez – abstract expressionist painter^[73][74]
• Dinah Washington – "Queen of the Blues"; born in Alabama but became famous when she lived in Harlem^[39]
• Roy Wilkins – civil rights leader; lived at 409 Edgecombe^[34]
• Billy Dee Williams – actor
• Louis T. Wright – physician, chairman of the board of the NAACP^[75]
• Morrie Yohai – rabbi, inventor of Cheez Doodles^[76]

Rap, hip hop, R&B and reality

• 40 Cal – rapper
• ASAP Ferg – rapper ASAP Mob
• ASAP Rocky – rapper from Harlem (member of ASAP Mob)
• Bodega Bamz - rapper, actor
• Azealia Banks – rapper, singer, lyricist
• Stuart Bascombe - singer, songwriter, producer and actor
• Leroy Burgess - Musician, singer, songwriter and producer
• Big L – rapper
• Black Ivory - R&B vocal group
• Black Rob – rapper from Spanish Harlem
• Cam'ron – rapper (owner of Diplomat Records) (Dipset)
• Cannibal Ox – rap duo
• Crash Crew – old-school rap group
• Yaya DaCosta – America's Next Top Model contestant/model
• Damon Dash – Co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records
• DJ Hollywood – VH-1 hip hop honoree; rap/hip-hop pioneer
• DJ Red Alert – DJ, hip hop pioneer
• Kool Moe Dee – old-school rapper and one-third of the Treacherous Three
• Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock – rap duo best known for their hit "It Takes Two"
• Dave East – rapper (Mass Appeal Records)
• Famous Dex – rapper^[77]
• Fatman Scoop – Grammy and MTV Award winner; radio personality; reality TV star
• The Fearless Four – pioneer rap group
• Doug E. Fresh – '80s rapper, runs a waffle house in Harlem
• Spoonie Gee – pioneer rapper
• Ebony Haith – America's Next Top Model contestant, model
• Charles Hamilton – rapper
• Ilacoin – hip hop artist, creator of the "Pause" game
• Freddie Jackson – singer
• Jim Jones – rapper (co-CEO of Diplomat Records) (Dipset)
• Joe Budden – rapper, media personality, host of The Joe Budden Podcast
• Kareem "Biggs" Burke - co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records
• Kelis – R&B singer and songwriter
• Rayne Storm – rapper, producer (Digiindie)
• Puff Daddy – rapper, businessman, founder of Bad Boy Records
• Freekey Zekey – rapper (owner, CEO of 730 Dips Records)
• Immortal Technique – rapper
• Kurtis Blow – rapper
• Lil Mama – rapper; judge of America's Best Dance Crew
• Biz Markie – rapper, disc jockey owns a Waffle House
• Mase – rapper
• Jae Millz – rapper
• P-Star – rapper, singer, actress
• Q-Tip – rapper, producer (A Tribe Called Quest)
• Russell Patterson - singer, songwriter, producer and actor
• Teddy Riley – producer, artist
• Tupac Shakur - rapper, actor,
• Carl Hancock Rux – writer, performer
• Juelz Santana – rapper (owner, CEO of Skull Gang Records)
• Bre Scullark – America's Next Top Model contestant, model
• Smoke DZA – rapper
• Dani Stevenson – singer
• Keith Sweat – singer
• Teyana Taylor – singer and rapper signed to Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music label
• Treacherous Three – old-school rap group
• T-Rex – battle rapper (member Of Dot Mob)
• Vado – rapper (We The Best Records)
• JR Writer – rapper (Dipset member)
• Sheck Wes - rapper^[78]
• Dave Wooley - director, producer, author and entrepreneur

21st-century residents

• Bob Dylan - owned a brownstone on Striver’s Row from 1980’s until year 2000. The townhouse is located at 265 West 139th Street and it sold in 2018 for $3.7M^[79]
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – basketball player, moved into a Mount Morris brownstone at 30 West 120th Street^[80] in September 2006^[81]
• Lorraine Adams – writer and journalist^[82]
• Maya Angelou – poet and author, owned a home on 120th Street in Mount Morris Park district^[83]
• Angela Bassett – Emmy and Academy Award-nominated, and Golden Globe-winning actress
• Keith David – actor and singer
• Charlotte d'Amboise – actress and dancer
• Jonathan Franzen – author; lived on 125th Street when he wrote his book The Corrections^[84]
• Daphne Frias – activist^[85]
• Marcia Gay Harden – Oscar-winning actress^[44][86]
• Edward W. Hardy – Composer, musician and producer^[87]
• Neil Patrick Harris – actor; lives near Morningside Park when not in Los Angeles^[88]
• Rashidah Ismaili, writer
• Jeff L. Lieberman – film director^[89]
• Terrance Mann – actor and dancer
• Cameron Mathison – actor on All My Children and contestant on Dancing with the Stars, 136 West 130th Street^[90][91]
• S. Epatha Merkerson – actress^[44]
• Harold "Hal" Miller – actor ("Gordon" on Sesame Street), lived on 152nd Street & Macombs Place, before going to live and work in China, India and throughout Europe
• Mandy Patinkin – actor^[44]
• Adam Clayton Powell IV – New York City Council member
• Richard Price – author and screenwriter^[82]
• Marcus Samuelsson – chef and restaurateur; lived in duplex near Frederick Douglass Boulevard^[92]
• Miz Cracker - Drag Queen
• Akhnaten Spencer-El – Olympic fencer^[93]
• Stephen Spinella – Tony Award-winning actor^[94]
• Joel Steinberg – killed his adopted daughter; moved to Harlem after his 2004 release from prison^[95]
• Khalid Yasin – born in Harlem; raised in Brooklyn; teacher and lecturer of Islam
• Oscar Peñas – composer and jazz guitarist – born in Barcelona, Spain; moved from Clinton Hill, Brooklyn to Hamilton Height, Harlem in 2018
• Alysia Reiner - American actress and producer, best known for playing Natalie "Fig" Figueroa in the Netflix comedy drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019), for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role as part of the ensemble cast
• Haile King-Rubie – artist born and active in Harlem^[96]

Representatives

• Inez Dickens - New York City Council
• Robert Jackson – New York City council
• David Paterson – New York State Governor
• Bill Perkins – New York State Senator
• Adam Clayton Powell IV – New York State Assembly
• Charles B. Rangel – United States House of Representatives, lives in Lenox Terrace at 132nd Street and Lenox Avenue^[46]
• José M. Serrano – New York State Senate
• Keith L.T. Wright – New York State Assembly