Greek Macedonians - Notable Modern Macedonians

Notable Modern Macedonians

See also: List of Macedonians (Greek)
  • Athanasios Christopoulos, poet.
  • Stamatios Kleanthis, architect.
  • Emilios Riadis, composer.
  • George Zorbas, the character upon which Nikos Kazantzakis based the fictional protagonist of his novel Zorba the Greek.
  • Panagiotis Fasoulas and Dimitris Diamantidis, prominent basketball players and European champions with Greece in 1987 and 2005 respectively. Fasoulas is the current mayor of Piraeus, while Diamantidis was announced European Player of the Year in 2007. Other basketball players include Giannis Ioannidis, Nikos Hatzivrettas, Kostas Tsartsaris and Nikolaos Zisis.
  • Theodoros Zagorakis, captain of the Greek national football team that won the UEFA Euro 2004, and other players of the 2004 Euro team such as Vassilios Tsiartas, Traianos Dellas, Vassilis Lakis, Pantelis Kafes, Nikos Dabizas, Zisis Vryzas, Georgios Samaras (from his father's side) and Angelos Charisteas. Other notable figures of the Greek football include Giorgos Koudas and Alketas Panagoulias.
  • Several Greek Olympic medalists: Georgios Roubanis (Melbourne 1956, bronze medal), Voula Patoulidou (Barcelona 1992, gold medal), Ioannis Melissanidis (Atlanta 1996, gold medal), Dimosthenis Tampakos (Athens 2004, gold medal), Alexandros Nikolaidis (Athens 2004, silver medal) and Elisavet Mystakidou (Athens 2004, silver medal).
  • Konstantinos Karamanlis, former President and Prime Minister of Greece, as well as his nephew Kostas Karamanlis who also served as Prime Minister.
  • Christos Sartzetakis, former President of Greece.
  • Stephanos Dragoumis and his son Ion Dragoumis, politicians with contribution in the Macedonian Struggle, with Macedonian descent.
  • Herbert von Karajan (originally Karajanis) (1908–1989), an Austrian born orchestra and opera conductor who was descended paternally from Greek-Macedonian ancestors who migrated centuries earlier from Kozani to Chemnitz, Germany and then to Saxony and subsequently to Vienna where they held key academic, medical, and administrative posts.
  • Vassilis Vassilikos, writer.
  • Giannis Dalianidis, Costas Hajihristos, Zoe Laskari, Kostas Voutsas: notable figures of the Greek cinema.
  • Patrick Tatopoulos, movie production designer and is a French-Greek with Macedonian descent on his father's side.
  • Manolis Chiotis, considered one of the greatest bouzouki soloists of all time.
  • Dionysis Savvopoulos, music composer, lyricist and singer.
  • Despina Vandi, singer.

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