The following is a list of notable people who have been born or lived in Indianapolis, Indiana. Organized alphabetically by field of study and last name.
Business and philanthropy
Steve Bellamy, sports media entrepreneur, founder of The Ski Channel and The Tennis Channel
Steve Ells, founder, CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill
John Geisse, businessman, founder of Target Stores
Bob Glenalvin, first manager of Detroit Tigers
Sid Grauman, founder of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, former home of the Academy Awards
Scott A. Jones, co-founder of ChaCha
Eli Lilly, founder, president of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company
Josiah K. Lilly, Sr., president of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company
Ruth Lilly, philanthropist
Kim Ng, Major League Baseball executive
Freeman Ransom, lawyer, businessman, civic leader
Madam C.J. Walker, pioneering African-American businesswoman, first female self-made millionaire in America
Rupert Boneham, reality show contestant, Survivor: Pearl Islands, Survivor: All-Stars, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, "Survivor: Blood vs. Water; politician
June Cochran, model, Miss Indiana USA 1960, Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Year 1963
Ken Hixon, screenwriter
David Letterman, television personality, former host of The Late Show (1993-2015)
Ryan Murphy, film and television screenwriter, director, and producer, notably Nip/Tuck, 'American Horror Story and Glee
Marc Summers, game show host, television personality
Dan Wakefield, screenwriter, novelist
Marjorie Wallace, Miss World 1973
Roy Blount, Jr., journalist, author
Louis McHenry Howe, reporter for the New York Herald, political advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Jack Olsen, journalist and author
Jane Pauley, television personality, journalist
Myrta Pulliam, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Thomas A. Morris, railroad executive, civil engineer, Union General in the Civil War
Norris W. Overton, U.S. Air Force Brigadier General
Raymond A. Spruance, commander of the U.S. Fifth Fleet (1944–1945)
Mark Battles, rapper-songwriter, founder of record label Fly America
Scrapper Blackwell, blues legend, writer of the earliest version of "Sweet Home Chicago"
Darrell Clanton, singer
Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, R&B music producer/performer
Jan Garber, bandleader
Blind Leroy Garnett, boogie-woogie and ragtime pianist and songwriter
Billy Henderson, singer
John Hiatt, musician
Freddie Hubbard, jazz trumpeter
J. J. Johnson, jazz trombonist
Josh Kaufman, singer-songwriter, contestant on The Voice (U.S. Season 6)
Adam Lambert, singer, runner-up of American Idol (Season 8)
Ted Leo, musician
Charles Scott Leonard, member of the a cappella group Rockapella
Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, indie rock band formed in Indianapolis
Tim McIlrath, musician
Wes Montgomery, jazz guitarist
Hal Rayle, voice artist
Larry Ridley, jazz bassist
George Shirley, operatic tenor
Noble Sissle, composer
Tiara Thomas, singer-songwriter
Albert Von Tilzer, composer, notably "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"
Keke Wyatt, R&B singer
Maria Cantwell, U.S. Senator from Washington
André Carson, member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Indiana, second Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress (2008)
Charles W. Fairbanks, 26th Vice President of the United States (1905–09)
William T. Francis, United States Ambassador to Liberia (1927–29)
Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (1889–93); lived and died in Indianapolis
Thomas A. Hendricks, 21st Vice President of the United States (1863–69)
Richard Lugar, U.S. Senator from Indiana
Frank E. McKinney, Democratic Party chairman
Dan Quayle, 44th Vice President of the United States (1989-1993)
Ted Stevens, former U.S. Senator from Alaska
Mark Warner, U.S. Senator from Virginia
Margaret C. Anderson, critic, editor and publisher
Allan Bloom, philosopher and essayist
Jared Carter, poet
Janet Flanner, Paris correspondent of The New Yorker
Hildegarde Flanner, poet
John Green, award-winning author of The Fault in Our Stars; vlogger
Joseph Hayes, author
Charles Major, author
Booth Tarkington, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Kurt Vonnegut, author
James Whitcomb Riley, poet
Frank J. Anderson, former Sheriff of Marion County, Indiana (2003-2011)
Kent Brantly, physician, author, speaker, first American to be treated for the Ebola virus in 2014, TIME Person of the Year 2014
John P. Donohue, professor, doctor, pioneered treatments for testicular cancer
John Dillinger, bank robber
Jared Fogle, Subway restaurant endorser, motivational speaker, and convicted child pornographer
Ruth M. Gardiner, first nurse killed in action during World War II
Michael Graves, architect
Peter Kassig, aid worker, taken hostage and ultimately beheaded by The Islamic State
Justin Knapp, Wikipedia editor
Irvine Page, physiologist, former president of the American Heart Association (1956–57)
Bill Shirk, escape artist, president of Hoosier Broadcasting Corp.
Avriel Shull, architect
Ryan White, poster child for AIDS
David A. Wolf, astronaut
List of people from Indianapolis Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
