List of people from Roanoke, Virginia

The following is a list of notable people who were either born in, raised in, or were one-time residents of Roanoke, Virginia. Roanoke natives are also referred to as Roanokers.

Born in Roanoke

• Tony Atlas, wrestler^[1]
• Ronde Barber, NFL player^[2]
• Tiki Barber, NFL player
• Beth A. Brown, NASA astrophysicist
• George E. Bushnell, Michigan Supreme Court justice
• Durrell Coleman,singer
• Tai Collins, model and actress
• Lew DeWitt, founding tenor and guitarist of the Statler Brothers
• Henry H. Fowler, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
• Dorothy Gillespie, artist, sculptor
• Antoinette Hale, painter
• Luke Hancock, basketball player
• Jim Harrell, professional wrestler
• K. J. Hippensteel, tennis player
• James Hylton, racing driver
• Louis A. Johnson, United States Secretary of Defense
• Danny Karbassiyoon, soccer player
• Henrietta Lacks, medical patient^[3]
• George Lynch, NBA player
• John C. Mather, astrophysicist and Nobel laureate
• John Alan Maxwell, artist
• Walter Muir, International Master of Correspondence Chess
• John Payne, actor
• Don Pullen, jazz pianist
• Billy Sample, MLB player
• John St. Clair, NFL player
• Curtis Staples, basketball player^[4]
• Lee Suggs, NFL player
• Nicholas F. Taubman, former United States Ambassador to Romania
• Lois Weaver, artist, activist, writer, director, and Professor of Contemporary Performance at Queen Mary University of London
• Eric Weinrich, NHL player
• Zach Zimmerman, comedian and author^[5]

Raised in Roanoke

• George Canale, MLB player
• India Ferrah, drag queen
• Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association of America^[6]
• John McAfee, founder of McAfee
• Wayne Newton, singer^[7]
• J. J. Redick, NBA player^[8]
• Joshua Strachan, musician

One-time resident

• Fleming Alexander, minister, businessman and publisher of the Roanoke Tribune
• Nelson S. Bond, author
• Sarah Johnson Cocke, writer and civic leader
• Whitney Cummings, comedian and actress
• Pearl Fu, longtime leader of the Local Colors festival and namesake of Pearl Fu Plaza
• Nidal Hasan, shooter in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting
• Oliver Hill, civil rights attorney
• Kermit Hunter, playwright
• Johan Kriek, tennis player
• Quigg Lawrence, Anglican bishop
• Samuel W. Martien, Louisiana cotton planter and politician
• Oscar Micheaux, early 20th century filmmaker
• John Forbes Nash, mathematician and Nobel laureate
• Harry Penn, dentist and civic rights activist
• John Henry Pinkard, businessman, banker and herb doctor
• G. Samantha Rosenthal, historian, author, and academic
• Curtis Turner, NASCAR driver and Hall of Famer
• Harriet French Turner, folk artist