Girish Mahajan (Editor)

List of Venezuelan Americans

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This is a list of notable Venezuelan Americans, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.

Contents

To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are Venezuelan Americans or must have references showing they are Venezuelan Americans and are notable.

Architects and builders

  • Anita Berrizbeitia – Venezuelan landscape theorist, teacher, and author. Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
  • Carlos Brillembourg – Venezuelan architect based in New York, founder of Carlos Brillembourg Architects
  • Monica Ponce de Leon – Architect with offices in Ann Arbor, New York and Boston. Dean of the School of Architecture at Princeton University. First Hispanic architect to receive the National Design Award in Architecture
  • Carolina Izsak – After the pageant as Miss Venezuela 1991 she completed architecture studies and currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts, US
  • Domingo Marcucci – Venezuelan-born American 49er, shipbuilder and shipowner

    • Entrepreneurs and businesspeople

  • Guido Antonini Wilson – Entrepreneur
  • Mary Black-Suarez – Venezuelan executive producer and entertainment consultant. She is the founder of MBS Entertainment and co-founder of SOMOS Productions
  • Adriana Cisneros – Venezuelan journalist. CEO and Vice Chairman of Cisneros Group
  • Gustavo Cisneros – Venezuelan-born mass media entrepreneur
  • Andres Gluski – CEO of AES Corporation
  • Thor Halvorssen Hellum – Venezuelan-Norwegian businessman who served as CEO and President telephone company, CANTV and later as Special Commissioner for International Narcotic Affairs
  • Janet Kelly – American-born editor owner of The Daily Journal (Venezuela)
  • Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg – Venezuelan business woman and the current president and chief executive officer of Strategic Investment Group (SIG)
  • Lorenzo Alejandro Laviosa López – Venezuelan entrepreneur, racketeer and businessman
  • Beatriz Michelena – Venezuelan American operatic soprano and actress during the silent film era. She was the first Latina star and co-founded Michelena Studios a film production company with her husband
  • Vanessa Neumann – Venezuelan graduated in Columbia University. Founder, President & CEO of Asymmetrica, a New York-headquartered global consultancy on brand integrity and counter-illicit trafficking. The relationship with Mick Jagger (2000-2002) made her famous among world press
  • Bárbara Palacios – Venezuelan TV Host, writer and Miss Universe 1986. CEO of BP Inspiration, where she's the main motivational speaker
  • Claudio Osorio – Venezuelan entrepreneur and convicted criminal based in Miami, Florida
  • Luis Villanueva – Venezuelan American television and entertainment executive that has made significant contributions to the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic entertainment markets. He is currently President and CEO of SomosTV LLC
  • Bill Watkins – Venezuelan-born former CEO of Seagate Technology, the world's largest manufacturer of hard drives

    • Artists and designers

  • Julio Aguilera – Venezuelan-American painter and sculptor born in Caracas
  • Devendra Banhart – Venezuelan American singer-songwriter and visual artist
  • Jorge Blanco – Venezuelan artist who created the comic strip The Castaway/El Náufrago, which became an overnight success
  • Nicolas Felizola – fashion designer
  • Rodner Figueroa – former TV host from Univision, fashion designer and philanthropist
  • Nina Fuentes, a.k.a. Nina Dotti – Venezuelan art collector, curator, philanthropist, business woman and art dealer
  • Marisol Escobar – Venezuelan-American sculptor born in Paris
  • Carolina Herrera – fashion designer. Also Founder and CEO of New York-based CH Carolina Herrera
  • Camilo Him – Venezuelan-born American naturalized and Paris-based fashion photographer, artist and film director
  • Tina Ramirez – dancer and choreographer, best known as the Founder and Artistic Director of Ballet Hispanico
  • Angel Sanchez – fashion designer
  • Nick Verreos – American fashion designer, fashion commentator and former Project Runway contestant
  • Jhonen Vasquez – American comic book writer, cartoonist, and music video director
  • Patricia van Dalen – Venezuelan visual artist based in Miami (Florida)
  • Ron van Dongen – photographer

    • Comedians

  • Julio Gassete – Venezuelan-born TV former comedian of Bienvenidos TV show. He lives currently in Miami, Florida
  • Erika De la Vega – Venezuelan stand up comedy actress and fashion model

    • Films and TV

  • Cristina Abuhazi – Venezuelan actress, model, and TV host in Sony YouTube America Latina Network
  • Arthur Albert – Venezuelan-born American cinematographer and television director
  • Fred Armisen – actor, comedian, musician. He attended the School of Visual Arts (NYC)
  • Elizabeth Avellán – American film producer, born in Venezuela
  • Daniela Bascopé – Telenovela actress
  • Maria Beatty – Venezuelan-born American filmmaker who directs, acts, and produces
  • Fabiola Beracasa Beckman – Venezuelan film and television producer and philanthropist. Co-owner of The Hole Gallery, in New York City
  • Horacio Bocaranda – film director
  • Tatiana Capote – telenovela actress. Cuban-born, Venezuelan-raised
  • Grecia Colmenares – actress of telenovelas who gained fame across Latin America, especially during the 1980s
  • Gabriel Coronel – actor of telenovelas and model
  • Jesse Corti – Venezuelan-born, American voice actor
  • Alejandro Chaban – Venezuelan-born, telenovela actor
  • Mara Croatto – Venezuelan-born Puerto Rican actress
  • Pablo Fenjves – Venezuelan-born American screenwriter and ghostwriter based in Los Angeles, California
  • Marieh Delfino – American actress
  • Christina Dieckmann – Venezuelan-born actress
  • Andrew Divoff – Venezuelan-born actor
  • Wanda D'Isidoro – Venezuelan actress, born in Boston
  • Silvana Gallardo (1953–2012) – American film and television actress
  • Carlos González (cinematographer) – Venezuelan-born American cinematographer and director of film and television
  • Brooke Haven – American pornographic actress
  • Perla Haney-Jardine – Brazilian-born American actress. She is best known for her role in Kill Bill Vol. 2 as B.B. His father is Venezuelan
  • Maria Elena Heredia – Venezuelan actress
  • Alejandro Hernández Reinoso – Venezuelan film director, writer, humorist, singer-songwriter, composer
  • Lilimar Hernandez – Venezuelan actress
  • Betty Kaplan – Venezuelan film director, currently live in Los Angeles
  • Moisés Kaufman – playwright, director and founder of Tectonic Theater Project. In 2016 was awarded with the National Medal of Arts
  • Kamala Lopez – Actress, director, and political activist
  • Alicia Machado – Venezuelan actress, Miss Universe 1996
  • Wlly Martin – Venezuelan-born, telenovela actor at Nickelodeon
  • Beatriz Michelena – American actress during the silent film era. She was of Venezuelan descent
  • Vera Michelena – American actress, contralto prima donna and dancer who appeared in light opera, musical comedy, vaudeville and silent film. She was of Venezuelan descent
  • Carlos Montilla – Venezuelan television and theater actor
  • Lilibeth Morillo – actress
  • Indira Páez – playwright
  • Carlos Pena Jr. – American actor (Big Time Rush), singer, and dancer. His father is of Spanish and Venezuelan descent
  • Clara Perez – film and television actress
  • Antonio Piedra – producer, director, photographer and philanthropist
  • Abraham Pulido – Venezuelan television and film director
  • Édgar Ramírez – Venezuelan actor
  • Julie Restifo – actress. American-born, Venezuelan-raised
  • Génesis Rodríguez – actress, American-born
  • Enrique Sapene- Venezuelan born actor and producer based in Los Angeles.
  • Luis José Santander – American-born Venezuelan actor
  • Sonya Smith – American-born Venezuelan actress
  • Jason Silva – television personality, filmmaker, and public speaker
  • Monica Spear – Miss Venezuela 2004 – actress of Telemundo network
  • Laura Termini – Venezuelan-born American actress, producer, writer, and a Board Certified Health/Beauty Counselor AADP
  • Tammy Trull – American actress of Venezuelan and Cuban descent
  • Orlando Urdaneta – Venezuelan actor
  • Wilmer Valderrama – Venezuelan actor
  • Franklin Virgüez – actor
  • Henry Zakka – Venezuelan actor and producer
  • Eglantina Zingg – actress, model and television host

    • Models

  • Consuelo Adler- Venezuelan top model, Miss International 1997.
  • Carmen María Montiel- Venezuelan pageant titleholder and journalist. She lives in USA since 1985.
  • Jennifer Rovero – Playboy's Playmate of the Month for July 1999 and has appeared in numerous Playboy videos
  • Rita Verreos – Venezuelan-born beauty pageant contestant, image consultant, model, actress, and reality television contestant
  • Patricia Velásquez – Venezuelan actress and fashion model

    • Musicians

  • Aldo Abreu – Venezuelan baroque flutist
  • María Conchita Alonso – three time Grammy Award–nominated singer/songwriter and actress. Cuban-born, Venezuelan-raised, she is an American citizen
  • Devendra Banhart – Singer and songwriter
  • Augusto Brandt – Violinist and composer
  • Andrea Burns – singer
  • Ed Calle – saxophonist and composer from Miami, Florida, born in Venezuela. He has four nominations for Grammy Awards
  • Mariah Carey – singer; her father Alfred Roy Carey was born in Venezuela
  • Randy Carlos – Composer and Orchestra director named el "Rey de la Pachanga"
  • Teresa Carreño – Venezuelan-born pianist and composer
  • Sylvia Constantinidis – Venezuelan-born pianist, conductor, writer, music educator and composer. Former President of the Southeast Chapter of NACUSA (National Association of Composers of The United States of America)
  • Tulio Cremisini – Venezuelan percussionist, composer and orchestra conductor
  • Majandra Delfino – Alma Award-nominated Venezuelan-born American actress and singer
  • Yasmin Deliz – American singer-songwriter, model and actress. She is daughter of Dominican father and a Colombian-Venezuelan mother
  • Paul Desenne – Venezuelan cellist and resident composer at Alabama Symphony Orchestra
  • Gustavo Dudamel – Orchestra conductor and violinist. He is the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Los Angeles, California
  • Pedro Eustache – flautist – "World Music" woodwinds-reeds-wind synthesizers and composer
  • Lorenzo Herrera – Former Venezuelan singer
  • Hernan Hermida – vocalist of rock band Suicide Silence
  • Enrique Hidalgo – Venezuelan composer
  • Judith Jaimes – pianist
  • Raphael Jiménez – associate professor of conducting and director of Oberlin College orchestras
  • Pablo Manavello – Italian-born Venezuelan composer, guitarist, singer and songwriter
  • Manu Manzo – Venezuelan-born singer and songwriter
  • Eduardo Marturet – composer, music director and principal conductor of The Miami Symphony Orchestra
  • Gustavo Matamoros – composer-sound artist
  • Fernando Michelena – Venezuelan tenor. In US Michelena toured with the Emma Abbott Grand Opera Company. He was the father of Beatriz and Vera Michelena .
  • Alfredo del Monaco – Venezuelan composer
  • Silvano Monasterios – jazz pianist and composer
  • Ricardo Montaner – Venezuelan singer and composer
  • Gabriela Montero – pianist and composer
  • Chris Moy – singer and a former member of the Menudo teen group
  • Luis Perdomo – jazz pianist and composer
  • Mario Campani – Italo-Venezuelan American guitar player born in Caracas. Campani is currently performing with the hard rock band The White Wagon
  • Alejandro Enrique Planchart – Venezuelan-American musicologist, conductor, and composer
  • Edward Pulgar – Venezuelan violinist and conductor
  • Rudy Regalado – Venezuelan Latin music leader, percussionist and composer
  • Jose Luis Rodríguez "El Puma" – singer and actor
  • Otmaro Ruiz – pianist and composer
  • Juan Carlos Salazar – Singer, Cuatro-player and songwriter/composer in addition to being an engineer with an MBA, and university instructor
  • Marger Sealey – Singer, composer and actress
  • Alberto Šlezinger – Venezuelan-born singer, songwriter and composer
  • Carmen Helena Téllez – Venezuelan-American music conductor
  • Yva Las Vegass – Venezuelan-born singer and composer radicated in Seattle since 1980
  • Zamora – Venezuelan pianist and composer nominated on Grammy Award 2010 in the "New Age" music category

    • Sports

  • Bob Abreu – Venezuelan baseball player
  • Luis Aparicio – Baseball player. Hall of Fame of MLB
  • Nestor Aparicio – Sportswriter and radio personality
  • Junior Alvarado – jockey
  • José de Armas – professional tennis player
  • Manuel Azpurua Sosa – thoroughbred racehorse trainer
  • Josh Barfield – Venezuelan-born American major league Baseball player
  • Gregor Blanco – Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
  • Jesus Armando Bracho – Venezuelan jockey winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey in 1992 but was suspended, then surrendered his award to Rosemary Homeister, Jr. for falsifying his racing papers
  • Miguel Cabrera – Baseball player. In 2012 became the first player since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 to win the Triple Crown in batting
  • Alfonso Carrasquel – Venezuelan-born Major League Baseball player
  • Abel Castellano Jr. – Venezuelan jockey
  • Javier Castellano – Venezuelan jockey, recipient of three Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey in the row (2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016)
  • Eibar Coa – Venezuelan jockey winner of the Breeder's Cup Sprint 2010
  • Daniel Dhers – World Champion BMX cycle ryder
  • Milka Duno – Venezuelan-born Indycar driver
  • Juan Pablo Galavis – professional footballer
  • Ozzie Guillén – former major league professional baseball player and manager of Chicago White Sox and Miami Marlins
  • Ramon Dominguez – jockey, recipient of three Eclipse Award in the row (2010, 2011 and 2012)
  • Marcy Hinzmann – American pairs figure skater. Her mother was born in Venezuela
  • Carlos Hernández (catcher) – Venezuelan baseball player
  • Gonzalo López Silvero – Cuban-born sports narrator of Venevision
  • AnnMaria De Mars – American judoka
  • Richard Mendez – Football narrator of ESPN Deportes
  • Amleto Monacelli – Professional ten-pin bowler, member of American Bowlers Association Halls of Fame
  • Julianna Peña – American mixed martial artist
  • Eddie Pérez – Venezuelan-American former professional baseball player and current coach
  • C.J. Perry – American professional wrestling valet, professional wrestler, model, actress, dancer, and singer. Her mother was born in Venezuela
  • Alex Popow – Venezuelan racing driver
  • Enzo Potolicchio – Venezuelan racing driver and businessman
  • Ronda Rousey – American mixed martial artist, judoka and actress
  • Antonio Sano – thoroughbred racehorse trainer.
  • Sam Shepherd – American naturalized as a Venezuelan, in order to be able to play with the Venezuelan national basketball team
  • Giovanni Savarese – Venezuelan head coach of the newly formed New York Cosmos soccer club
  • Donta Smith – American naturalized as a Venezuelan, in order to be able to play with the Venezuelan national basketball team
  • Rafael Suárez – Venezuelan Olympian fencer and US international team fencer
  • Edwin Valero – Undefeated southpaw Venezuelan boxer and former two weight world champion who fought up to light welterweight
  • María Alejandra Vento-Kabchi – former professional tennis player
  • Cheche Vidal – Venezuelan American soccer player and businessman

    • Journalists, TV hosts and anchors

  • Luis Alfredo Alvarez – TV host ESPN Latin America
  • Fernando Alvarez – TV host ESPN Latin America
  • José Aristimuño – journalist, press sub secretary of Democratic Party
  • Eli Bravo – journalist, TV host
  • Carlos López Bustamante – journalist spent part of his life in US, where he died in Chicago
  • Nelson Bustamante – Venezuelan-born TV host and writer
  • Chiquinquirá Delgado – Venezuelan TV host, model, and actress of Univision network in the United States
  • George Duran – Venezuelan-born restaurateur, TV personality, TV producer, and published author
  • Lorena Garcia – Venezuelan-born restaurateur, philanthropist, TV personality, TV producer, and published author
  • Raúl González – TV host and actor. In Venezuela, he hosted a kids' TV show Supercrópolis. He became one of the hosts on TV show Despierta América of Univisión television network
  • Eva Golinger – Attorney, RT Network TV host and editor of the Correo del Orinoco International
  • Alejandra Oraa – Venezuelan television anchor currently working for CNN en Español
  • Reinaldo Herrera – former director of Vanity Fair magazine
  • Elizabeth Pérez – Cuban-Venezuelan Emmy – winning television journalist and presenter working for CNN en Español
  • Ana Julia Jatar – Venezuelan journalist owner of MasMedia Boston
  • Rafael Poleo – a Venezuelan journalist and politician
  • Beatrice Rangel – Venezuelan politician analyst
  • Carolina Sandoval – Journalist, broadcaster, writer, TV presenter, and actress
  • Daniel Sarcos – Venezuelan TV host, model, and actor of Telemundo network in the United States
  • James Tahhan – Venezuelan-born restaurateur known as "Chef James", TV personality, TV producer, and published author
  • Juan Vene – Journalist
  • Patricia Zavala – Venezuelan TV host and model. She hosts E! Entertainment Television's Coffee Break

    • Military

  • Renato Beluche – Louisiana merchant and privateer at service of Simon Bolivar army who died in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela
  • José Manuel Hernández – Popular Venezuelan caudillo, army general, congressman, presidential candidate and cabinet member who was also involved in numerous insurrections. Lived in exile in US from 1911 to his death in 1921
  • Narciso López – Venezuelan soldier and adventurer, known for four filibuster expeditions aimed at liberating Cuba from Spain in the 1850s
  • José Antonio Páez – Venezuelan leader who fought the War of Independence. President of Venezuela once it was independent of the Gran Colombia (1830–1835; 1839–1843; 1861–1863). He lived in New York City during his years in exile and died there in 1873
  • Patricia Spanic – twin sister of soap opera actress Gabriela Spanic, captain in the US Army

    • Politics

  • Luigi Boria – Venezuelan-born mayor of Doral, Florida
  • Peter Camejo – (1939–2008) was an American activist and politician. He is of Venezuelan descent.
  • Cipriano Castro – President of Venezuela. Expatriated by Juan Vicente Gomez regime in 1908, spent the rest of his life in exile, mostly in Puerto Rico, where he died in 1928
  • Daniel de Leon- Venezuelan american union labor dirigent in New York.
  • Philip Giordano – former Republican mayor of Waterbury, Connecticut, and a convicted sex offender. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela, to Italian parents and his family moved to the United States when he was two years old
  • P. Michael McKinley – American diplomat and the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan
  • Irene Sáez – Venezuelan politician and beauty queen who was crowned Miss Universe 1981
  • Al Santos (mayor) – Mayor of Kearny, New Jersey, and a Democrat, born in Venezuela

    • Science

  • Cristina Amon – Venezuelan-born dean of the University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering
  • Baruj Benacerraf – Venezuelan-born American immunologist, 1980 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of the major histocompatibility complex genes
  • Manuel Blum – Venezuelan-born computer scientist who received the Turing Award in 1995
  • José Luis Cordeiro – Venezuelan mechanical engineer. Futurologist at Singularity University
  • Humberto Campins – professor of Physics and Astronomy at University of Central Florida.
  • Tobias Bluzmanis – Expert in locks and locksmithing
  • Melchor Centeno Vallenilla – Electrical engineer
  • José Esparza – Venezuelan virologist known for his efforts to promote the international development and testing of vaccines against HIV/AIDS
  • Humberto Fernandez Moran – Venezuelan research NASA scientist winner of the John Scott Award, for his invention of the diamond knife
  • Hugo Gaggioni – Venezuelan electronic engineer, CTO of Sony America.
  • Niklaus Grünwald – Venezuelan-born biologist. He is currently a research scientist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service
  • Werner Hoeger – Venezuelan-born professor emeritus (active) of exercise science at Boise State University
  • Evelyn Miralles – Venezuelan engineer leader of NASA virtual reality laboratory
  • William Nazareth – Venezuelan mathematician
  • William H. Phelps, Jr. – American-born Venezuelan ornithologist and businessman
  • William H. Phelps, Sr. – Venezuelan American ornithologist and businessman
  • L. Rafael Reif – Venezuelan electrical engineer and inventor. President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Aldemaro Romero Jr. – Venezuelan biologist, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
  • Gustavo Adolfo Romero – biologist, curator of Herbarium of Harvard University
  • Gabriel A. Rincon-Mora – Venezuelan-American electrical engineer, scientist, professor, inventor, and author
  • Santiago Schnell – Venezuelan-born biophysical chemist and computational physiologist who holds an Associate Professorship in Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan
  • Jorge Falcon Sillet – Veterinary. Master of Science of University of California. 1985. CEO of Equine Performance Service, US
  • Andres Tremante – Venezuelan mechanical engineer of Florida International University
  • Eleonora Villegas-Reimers - Venezuelan Wheelock College Associate Professor of Human Development, Chair Elementary and Special Education Department

    • Economists

  • Ricardo Hausmann – economist, writer
  • Leopoldo Martínez Nucete – economist, director of Center for Democracy and Development in the Americas (Miami, Florida)
  • Moisés Naím – economist, Foreign Police chief editor, writer, TV-host
  • Francisco Monaldi – economist, professor at Harvard University
  • Laura Palacios – economist, professor at Columbia University

    • Writers

  • Antonio Arraiz – Venezuelan writer
  • Perla Farías Lombardini – Telemundo writer
  • Boris Izaguirre – Spanish Venezuelan writer and Telemundo TV host
  • T. J. MacGregor – Venezuelan-born writer
  • Susana Rotker – writer, essaist
  • Miguel Tinker Salas – Venezuelan historian, writer and professor at Pomona College (Califorrnia)

    • Activists

  • Mery Godigna Collet – Venezuelan artist, writer, philanthropist and environmental living in Austin, Texas
  • Thor Halvorssen Mendoza – Venezuelan human rights advocate and film producer
  • Nancy Navarro – Social activist. In 2010, President Obama appointed her to the Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics
  • Victor Pineda (activist) – social development scholar and disability rights advocate
  • Luis Posada Carriles – Cuban-born Venezuelan naturalized former CIA agent. Anticastrist activist
  • Jeanmarie Simpson – American peace activist and theatre artist. His father is Venezuelan.
  • Sylvia Rivera – American bisexual transgender activist and trans woman

    • Others

  • Patricia Phelps de Cisneros – Art collector and philanthropist
  • Tanya Capriles Brillembourg – Art collector and philanthropist
  • Diego Ruiz– League of Legends player based in Los Angeles

    • References

    List of Venezuelan Americans Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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