List of people from Palo Alto

This is a list of notable people from Palo Alto, California. It includes people who were born/raised in, lived in, or spent portions of their lives in Palo Alto, or for whom Palo Alto is a significant part of their identity.

Actors

Zach Appelman, actor known for the television series Sleepy Hollow, born and raised in Palo Alto and is a Palo Alto High alumnus^[1]
Aarón Díaz, Mexican American actor, singer, and model; born in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, raised in Palo Alto
Polly Draper, actress, screenplay writer, producer, and director; was in the television program Thirtysomething; raised in Palo Alto^[2]
Dave Franco, actor, born in Palo Alto^[3]
James Franco, actor, director, screenwriter, producer, artist, and author, born in Palo Alto^[4]
Neva Gerber, silent screen actress, moved to Palo Alto after she married San Francisco oil geologist Edward F. Nolan^[5]
Charles Haid, actor and director known for Hill Street Blues, graduated from Palo Alto High in 1961^[6]^[7]
Teri Hatcher, actress known for Desperate Housewives and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, born in Palo Alto^[8]
Amy Irving, actress known for Crossing Delancey and Yentl, born in Palo Alto^[9]
Željko Ivanek, actor known for 24, Damages, and Madam Secretary, Ellwood P. Cubberley High School alumnus^[10]
Ellen K, radio personality and television host, born in Palo Alto
Brandis Kemp, actress known for television series Fridays
Kaja Martin, actress and film producer, involved in Riley Rewind, born and raised in Palo Alto
Shemar Moore, actor and model, Gunn High School alumnus
Rick Rossovich, actor known for Top Gun, Roxanne, and The Terminator
Alessandra Torresani, actress known for Caprica, born and raised in Palo Alto^[11]
Bree Turner, actress known for the television series Grimm, born in Palo Alto
Sheila Vand, actress known for her role in Argo, raised in Palo Alto^[12]

Visual arts

Fine artists

Jeremy Anderson, wood sculptor and professor, graduated from Palo Alto High School^[13]
Greg Brown, trompe-l'oeil muralist, grew up in Palo Alto and graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1969^[14]
Margo Davis, photographer, lived in Palo Alto for over 30 years^[15]
Terry Acebo Davis, fine artist and chairperson of the Palo Alto Public Art Commission
Pedro Joseph de Lemos, painter, printmaker, architect, illustrator, writer, lecturer, and museum director, lived and died in Palo Alto^[16]
Edward McNeil Farmer, watercolorist, oil painter, and professor at Stanford University, lived in Palo Alto and was active in the Pacific Art League (previously known as Palo Alto Art Club)^[17]
Donald Farnsworth, fine art master printmaker, born in Palo Alto^[18]
Helen Katharine Forbes, muralist and painter, grew up in Palo Alto^[19]
Tom Franco, artist and actor, grew up in Palo Alto and attended Palo Alto High School, graduating in 1998^[20]
James Gurney, illustrator, artist, and creator of the Dinotopia world, grew up in Palo Alto
Ollie Johnston, Academy Award–winning Disney animator, known for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia^[21]
Nina Katchadourian, artist, attended Gunn High School^[22]
Paula Kirkeby (1934–2016), art collector, art donor, and the director and founder of the commercial art gallery, Smith Andersen Gallery, and printshops, Smith Andersen Editions and 3EP Ltd. Press^[23]
Bertha Elizabeth Stringer Lee (1869–1937), California impressionist painter, died in Palo Alto
Elizabeth Norton (1887–1985), bronze sculptor, printmaker, painter, and one of the founders of the Palo Alto Art Club (now known as the Pacific Art League)^[24]
Nathan Oliveira, painter and educator within the Bay Area Figurative Movement, maintained his art studio in Palo Alto^[25]
Yvonne Rainer, modern dancer and filmmaker^[26]
John Aloysius Stanton (1857–1929), painter, academic administrator, and professor^[27]
Cloyd Jonathan Sweigert, political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle, California Impressionist painter, and member of the Pacific Art League (previously known as Palo Alto Art Club)
Jimmy Swinnerton, cartoonist and fine art painter, maintained a house in Palo Alto for many years
Jacqueline Thurston, visual artist and writer, has lived in Palo Alto for many years^[28]
Shirley Williamson (1875–1944), California Impressionist painter, monotype printer, and member of the Pacific Art League (previously known as Palo Alto Art Club), lived in Palo Alto for many years

Designers

Arthur Bridgman Clark (1866–1949), architect, professor, first mayor of Mayfield, and first head of the Art Department at Stanford University^[29]
Birge Clark (1893–1989), architect, worked largely in the Spanish Colonial Revival style around Palo Alto
Lisa Hanawalt (born 1983), illustrator, cartoonist, production designer and producer; executive produced the Netflix animated series, Tuca & Bertie; born and raised in Palo Alto^[30]
Michael Manwaring (born 1942), designer, artist, and one of the founders of the San Francisco Bay Area postmodern movement in graphic design; born and raised in Palo Alto^[31]
Michael H. Riley, Emmy Award-nominated motion graphics designer and art director, grew up in Palo Alto
Sigrid Lorenzen Rupp, architect and artist, specialized in designing facilities for tech companies in Silicon Valley

Business leaders and entrepreneurs

Sergey Brin (born 1973), co-founder of Google
Thomas Foon Chew, founder of Bayside Canning Company in 1918
Tim Cook (born 1960), CEO of Apple Inc. since 2011
Debbi Fields (born 1956), founder of Mrs. Fields Bakeries
David Filo (born 1966), co-founder of Yahoo! Inc.
Jack Herrick, founder of wikiHow
William Hewlett (1913–2001), co-founder of technology company Hewlett-Packard; buried at Alta Mesa Cemetery in Palo Alto
Reid Hoffman, co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn
Mark Hurd (1957–2019), former joint CEO of Oracle Corporation; past chairman, chief executive officer, and President of Hewlett-Packard
Steve Jobs (1955–2011), co-founder of Apple Inc., lived in Palo Alto (1980–2011); buried at Alta Mesa Cemetery in Palo Alto
Jawed Karim, co-founder of YouTube
Darren Kimura, founder of Sopogy and inventor of MicroCSP solar technolog
William R. Larson, founder of Round Table Pizza
Marissa Mayer, CEO and president of Yahoo!; former vice president of search products and user experience at Google
Chip Morningstar, software developer; project leader for Lucasfilm's Habitat, the first large-scale virtual multiuser environment; current resident
Stephen Neal, chairman of Cooley LLP; current resident^[32]
David Packard (1912–1996), co-founder of technology company Hewlett-Packard; buried at Alta Mesa Cemetery in Palo Alto
Larry Page, co-founder and CEO of Google; current resident
Vishal Sikka, ex-CEO of Infosys, ex-CTO of SAP AG
Owen Van Natta, COO of Facebook, CEO of Myspace, COO of Zynga
Romesh Wadhwani, founder and chairman of Symphony Technology Group
Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and CEO of 23andMe
Jerry Yang, co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc.
Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook

Musicians

William Ackerman, acoustic guitarist, founded influential New Age record label Windham Hill Records^[33]
Joan Baez, folk singer, went to school in Palo Alto,^[34] now resides in Woodside, California^[35]
Lindsey Buckingham, musician, singer, songwriter, and producer, best known as lead guitarist and one of the vocalists of the musical group Fleetwood Mac, born and raised in Palo Alto^[36]^[37]
Doug Clifford, drummer of Creedence Clearwater Revival and Palo Alto native^[38]
The Donnas, rock group, met while growing up in Palo Alto; graduated from Palo Alto High in 1997^[39]^[40]
The Grateful Dead, rock "jam" band; early incarnations of the band were based in Palo Alto^[41]
- Jerry Garcia (1942–1995), founding member of the Grateful Dead; moved to Palo Alto in the 1960s
- Bill Kreutzmann (born 1946), founding member and drummer of the Grateful Dead; born and raised in Palo Alto
- Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (1945–1973), founding member of the Grateful Dead; moved to Palo Alto as a teenager; buried at Alta Mesa Memorial Park
Stephan Jenkins, rock musician with Third Eye Blind and Gunn High School alumnus (1983)^[42]
The Kingston Trio,^[43] folk group, formed in Palo Alto while its members were enrolled at Stanford University and nearby Menlo College
Rick Nowels, pop music record producer and songwriter
Virginia Seay, composer and musicologist, born in Palo Alto in 1922^[44]
Matt Simons, singer-songwriter, born and raised in Palo Alto; graduated from Gunn High School in 2005
Grace Slick, singer with the rock group Jefferson Airplane, later known as Jefferson Starship^[45]
Molly Tuttle, singer-songwriter, banjo player, guitarist, recording artist, and teacher in the bluegrass tradition, raised in Palo Alto and attended Palo Alto High School^[46]
Ugly Kid Joe, rock band; members Whitfield Crane and Klaus Eichstadt grew up in Palo Alto,^[47] as did producer Eric Valentine
Remi Wolf, indie pop singer-songwriter, born and raised in Palo Alto;^[48] graduated from Palo Alto High School in 2014^[49]

Politicians, political figures and civil servants

Robert Bell, Virginia State Delegate, born in Palo Alto
Ron Christie, former advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney and political pundit
Jerry Daniels, CIA officer in Laos during the Vietnam War^[50]
Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States; starting in 1916, maintained a home in Palo Alto
Jon Huntsman, Jr., former governor of Utah and U.S. Ambassador to China
Merrill Newman (born 1928), Palo Alto Channing House resident, former United States Army officer, and Korean War veteran, noted for his 2013 arrest in North Korea
Guy H. Preston, US Army brigadier general^[51]
Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State
Thomas T. Riley, former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco
Manabendra Nath Roy, Indian nationalist and revolutionary^[52]
Byron Sher (born 1928), served in the California State Senate 1996–2004, the California State Assembly from 1980 and 1996, and was a professor emeritus at Stanford Law School^[53]
Sarah Wallis (1825–1905), first president of the California Woman Suffrage Educational Association^[54]
Ron Wyden, United States Senator

Religion

John Duryea, former Palo Alto Catholic priest excommunicated by the church in the 1970s and author of his autobiography^[55]
Gerrit W. Gong, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church),^[56] raised in Palo Alto
Indradyumna Swami (formerly Brian Tibbitts), ISKCON Guru and a sannyasi for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, born and raised in Palo Alto

Scientists

Richard R. Ernst, Nobel laureate in chemistry, worked at Varian Associates in Palo Alto^[57]
Gene F. Franklin, control engineer and NASA scientist
Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist, author, and college professor; attended Cubberly High School and built an atom smasher in his parents' garage^[58]
Brian Kobilka, Nobel laureate in chemistry, lives in Palo Alto
Arthur Kornberg (1918–2007), Nobel prize-winning biochemist
Pamela Melroy, astronaut and second woman to command a space shuttle mission
Maryam Mirzakhani (1977–2017), Iranian mathematician and professor of mathematics at Stanford University^[59]
Souvik Bose, an Indian astrophysicist, works in Lockheed Martin & NASA
James G. Moore (born 1930), geologist, born in Palo Alto
Ida Shepard Oldroyd, conchologist and curator (1856–1940)
Perley Ason Ross, physicist who worked on essential problems in the behavior of X-rays
William Shockley, Nobel laureate in physics and eugenicist^[60]
Robert Spinrad (1932–2009), computer pioneer as director of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center^[61]
Sidney Dean Townley, astronomer, geodeticist, and Stanford University professor emeritus^[62]

Writers

David M. Alexander, attorney and science-fiction and crime novelist
Jordan Allen-Dutton, screenplay writer and producer of theatre, raised in Palo Alto
Renée Ashley, poet, novelist, essayist, and educator, born in Palo Alto
Raymond Carver, short story writer and poet
Erle Stanley Gardner, crime novelist and creator of Perry Mason^[63]
Ariel Gore (born 1970), journalist, memoirist, and novelist author, raised in Palo Alto^[64]
Ken Kesey (1935–2001), novelist, short story writer, playwright, and author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which he finished writing while living in a cottage in Palo Alto^[65]
Marty Klein (born 1950), sex therapist, author, educator, and public policy analyst
Michael Lederer, author
John Markoff, Pulitzer prize winner and former New York Times technology journalist; grew up in Palo Alto and has lived there for many years^[66]
Chanel Miller (born 1992), victim of sexual assault and author of best-selling memoir Know My Name
Azadeh Moaveni (born 1976), Iranian-American journalist and author, born in Palo Alto; author of Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran
Julia Flynn Siler, journalist and nonfiction author^[67]
Keith Raffel, crime novelist, tech entrepreneur, syndicated columnist, and university lecturer
Ron Unz (born 1961), far-right writer
Andrea U'Ren, children's book author and illustrator
Tad Williams, New York Times best-selling author
Yvor Winters, poet, known as the "Sage of Palo Alto"^[68]
Al Young (1939–2021), poet, educator, novelist, and essayist, lived in Palo Alto for almost three decades
Jessica Yu (born 1966), screenplay writer and film director, attended Gunn High School

Athletes

Davante Adams, NFL wide receiver for the Las Vegas Raiders, East Palo Alto resident and Palo Alto High School graduate^[69]
Harris Barton (born 1964), All Pro NFL offensive lineman
Matt Biondi (born 1965), swimmer and winner of 11 Olympic medals (8 gold), born in Palo Alto
Hunter Bishop (born 1998), baseball player
Paul Blanchette (born 1994), soccer player^[70]
Nick Bravin (born 1971), Olympic fencer
Jim Harbaugh, former football player and current head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1982^[71]
Tony Hargain, NFL player
Phil Hellmuth, professional poker player, holds a record 16 WSOP bracelets with total earnings of more than $25 million to date
Katie Hoff, Olympic swimmer, Palo Alto native
Adam Juratovac, professional football player and Arena Bowl XXIII champion alumnus of Gunn High School
Dana Kirk, Olympic swimmer, coaches for Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics
Tara Kirk, Olympic swimmer, swam with Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics; American record holder in 100 and 200-yard (180 m) breaststroke
Hilary Knight, PHWL ice hockey player, 1-time Olympic gold medal winner, 9-time Women's World Championships winner
Trajan Langdon, basketball executive and former player
Francie Larrieu-Smith, long-distance runner and first female athlete to make five Olympic teams, born in Palo Alto
Jeremy Lin (born 1988), basketball player, formerly for the NBA's Toronto Raptors, alumnus of Palo Alto High School
Jim Loscutoff, basketball player who won seven NBA championships with the Boston Celtics^[72]^[73]
Don MacLean, UCLA and NBA basketball player^[74]
Bob Melvin (born 1961), Major League Baseball player and manager of the San Francisco Giants
Joc Pederson (born 1992), baseball player for the Arizona Diamondbacks
Dan Petry, pitcher for 1984 World Series champion Detroit Tigers, born in Palo Alto
Tim Rossovich, professional football player
Dave Schultz, Olympic gold medalist and World Champion in freestyle wrestling, subject of film Foxcatcher
Mark Schultz, Olympic gold medalist and two-time World Champion in freestyle wrestling, subject of film Foxcatcher
Pop Warner, early football player and head coach of eight colleges including Stanford University (1924–1932), lived and died in Palo Alto
Charles Wright, professional wrestler, formerly worked for WWE as Papa Shango and The Godfather
Steve Young, former professional football player for the San Francisco 49ers and NFL Hall of Famer^[75]
Vincent Zhou, figure skater, attended the 2018 Winter Olympics