This is a list of notable people that were born in, or who have lived in, Berkeley, California. It includes people who attended Berkeley High School, but not people that attended University of California, Berkeley unless they achieved notoriety while at UC Berkeley, and were also residents of the city at the time.
- This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.
- John Coolidge Adams – Composer
- Ben Affleck – Actor, Academy Award-winning screenwriter, and movie director
- Eric Allman – Computer programmer, author of sendmail
- Billie Joe Armstrong – guitarist and vocalist of punk rock band Green Day
- Tim Armstrong – Member of punk rock bands Rancid, Transplants and Operation Ivy
- Anastasia Ashman – Writer/producer
- Craig Barron – Filmmaker and Visual Effects Supervisor
- Lowell Bergman – Award-winning journalist, former producer of CBS 60 Minutes
- Elmer Bischoff – Painter
- Harrod Blank – Documentary filmmaker and son of Les Blank
- Les Blank – Documentary filmmaker
- Emit Bloch – Songwriter, Guitarist, Journalist
- Bruce Bolt – Seismologist
- Richard Bozulich – Journalist, Author, Publisher, go expert
- Marion Zimmer Bradley – Author
- Lenni Brenner – Author, Lecturer
- David Brower – Environmentalist
- Peter Buck – Guitarist for R.E.M.
- John Buckman – Internet entrepreneur
- Fritjof Capra – author of "The Tao of Physics" and other works
- Emilio Castillo – musician
- Michael Chabon – Author
- Sheldon Warren Cheney – Author and art critic
- Alan Chin – Artist
- Frank Chin – Author
- Eldridge Cleaver – Political activist
- Daniel Clowes – Cartoonist
- Aaron Cometbus – documentarian of the Punk rock music world
- Tre Cool – Drummer for punk rock band Green Day
- Francis Ford Coppola – Academy Award-winning movie producer, director, screenwriter, and vintner
- A. Scott Crossfield – Aviator
- Robert Crumb – Cartoonist
- Robert Culp – Actor
- Jay DeFeo – Painter
- Richard Diebenkorn – Painter
- Rosebud Denovo, People's Park activist killed by police during a break-in at the Chancellor's Mansion
- Philip K. Dick – Author
- Mike Dirnt – Bassist of Green Day
- Rockmond Dunbar – Actor
- Robert Duncan – Poet
- Adam Duritz – Singer/songwriter, Counting Crows
- Dave Eggers – Writer
- Daniel Ellsberg – Military analyst, publisher of the Pentagon Papers
- John Fahey – Noted guitarist
- John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival Singer/songwriter
- Tom Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival Singer/songwriter
- C.S. Forester – Author, Horatio Hornblower series and The African Queen
- Rodney Franklin Jazz Pianist
- Matt Freeman – Member of punk rock bands Rancid and Operation Ivy
- John Gage – one of the founders of Sun Microsystems
- Richard Gere – Actor
- Allen Ginsberg – Poet
- Whoopi Goldberg – Academy Award-winning actress and comedian
- Benny Green, jazz pianist
- Nina Hartley – Pornographic actress
- Glenn Hauser – Nationally known DXer
- Davey Havok – Singer for AFI
- Patty Hearst – Newspaper heiress and famous kidnap victim
- Michael Heizer, earth artist, sculptor
- Stanley Hiller, helicopter pioneer
- Gregory Hoblit – Film and television director
- Hans Hofmann – Painter, teacher
- Ken Hom – Chef
- David Horowitz – 1960s radical turned conservative activist
- Eddie House — NBA player for the Miami Heat, Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Charlotte Bobcats, Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns, New Jersey Nets, and the Boston Celtics
- Charlie Hunter – Jazz musician
- David Immerglück – Guitarist, Counting Crows
- Ishi – Last of the Yahi
- Candido Jacuzzi – Inventor of submersible pump
- Bill Joy – Developer of BSD UNIX and co-founder of Sun Microsystems
- June Jordan, Caribbean American poet, novelist, journalist, biographer, dramatist, teacher and committed activist
- Pauline Kael – Movie critic
- William Keith – Landscape artist
- Theodore Kaczynski – aka the Unabomber
- Molly Katzen – Cookbook author, chef
- Josh Kornbluth – Monologist and talk show host
- Stephen "Doc" Kupka – musician
- Jack LaLanne – Health and fitness enthusiast, born in San Francisco
- Ronnie Landfield – Painter
- Dorothea Lange – photographer
- Timothy Leary – LSD researcher and promoter
- Ursula K. Le Guin – Author
- Phil Lesh – Former Grateful Dead bassist
- Michael Lewis – Author
- Lil B – Rapper, Artist, Author, Fashion Designer, Composer, Producer, Director
- Larry Livermore – Writer, musician, founder of Lookout Records
- Joanna Macy – Writer, translator of Rainer Maria Rilke
- Billy Martin – Baseball player and manager
- Andrew Martinez – Social activist
- Ed Masuga – Singer, musician, and songwriter
- Dylan Mattingly – Composer
- Country Joe McDonald – Singer/songwriter
- Dave Mello – Former drummer for ska punk band Operation Ivy
- Jesse Michaels – ska punk singer/songwriter for Operation Ivy and Common Rider
- Czesław Miłosz poet, Nobel Prize Winner in Literature
- Roger Montgomery – Urban designer, architect, Dean University of California, Berkeley
- Norman Mineta – American Transportation Secretary
- Gordon Moore – Co-founder of Intel
- Rita Moreno actress, dancer
- Markos Moulitsas blogger, author
- Huey P. Newton – Black Panther Party
- Adm. Chester Nimitz – World War II commander of U.S. Pacific forces
- Joaquin Nin-Culmell – UC professor (emeritis), composer, brother of Anaïs Nin
- Frank Norris – Author of The Octopus
- Lisa Onodera – Film producer, Picture Bride, The Debut, Americanese
- Robert Oppenheimer – Scientist and head of the Manhattan Project
- The Pack – Rap Group
- Michael Parenti – political analyst, author, lecturer, professor
- Gwydion Pendderwen, born Thomas deLong, American Wiccan folksinger
- Lenny Pickett – Saturday Night Live band leader, saxophone player
- Michael Pollan – Author
- Richard Pryor – Comedian, actor
- Joshua Redman – Jazz saxophonist
- Peter Reginato – Sculptor
- Robert Reich – Politician, academic, writer, and political commentator
- Malvina Reynolds – Singer, songwriter
- Nicole Richie – Socialite, Reality Star
- Michael Ritchie, film director
- Rosalie Ritz – Courtroom artist, reporter
- Rebecca Romijn – Model, actress
- Galen Rowell – Photographer, writer
- Jerry Rubin – Social activist, Yippie
- Andy Samberg – Saturday Night Live comedian
- Joe Satriani – heavy metal/hard rock guitarist and teacher.
- Mario Savio – 1960s Free Speech Movement icon
- Akiva Schaffer – Director and Songwriter of the The Lonely Island
- Zahara Schatz – Sculptor, artist
- Bobby Seale – co-founder, Black Panther Party
- Jeremy Shafer, origami artist
- Cindy Sheehan – Anti-war activist
- Izzy Sher – Sculptor
- Margaret Singer – Clinical psychologist and a former professor of psychology at the UC Berkeley
- Alex Skolnick – Jazz and Metal guitarist, writer
- Jeff Stevens, Major League Baseball pitcher.
- Tabitha Soren – MTV News reporter
- George R. Stewart – Author of the novels Earth Abides and Storm
- Chris Strachwitz – Founder of Arhoolie Records
- Jorma Taccone – Actor and director
- Chris Tashima – Actor and filmmaker
- Edward Teller – Nuclear physicist, thermonuclear weapons
- Chang-Lin Tien – the 8th Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley (1990–1997) who was the first Asian American and Chinese American to head a major United States university
- Nick 13 – Tiger Army vocalist/guitarist
- Adrian Tomine – Cartoonist
- Phil Tippett – Academy award winning special effects legend
- Amani Toomer – Wide Receiver for the New York Giants
- Lars Ulrich – Metallica drummer
- Kyle Vincent – Singer/Songwriter/Author
- Peter Voulkos – Ceramist, Sculptor
- Jay Ward – Creator of the animated television series Crusader Rabbit, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and George of the Jungle
- Alice Waters – Restaurateur, chef, and activist
- Wavy Gravy – professional clown, activist, Hog Farm founder
- Thornton Wilder – Playwright (Our Town, etc.)
- Helen Wills – Tennis champion
- Pete Wilson – Former governor of California
- Dave Winer – software developer and entrepreneur
- Charlie Winton – Publisher
- Daniel Wu – Hong Kong Actor
- Clement C. Young – Progressive Governor of California, 1927–1931
- Saul Zaentz – Film and music producer
- Rami Zur, Olympic sprint canoer
Aeliza Jabson, looks like a pókemon.
- Aeliza Jabson, looks like a pókemon.
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, people and/or california:
“I made a list of things I have
to remember and a list
of things I want to forget,
but I see they are the same list.”
—Linda Pastan (b. 1932)
“Modern tourist guides have helped raised tourist expectations. And they have provided the natives—from Kaiser Wilhelm down to the villagers of Chichacestenango—with a detailed and itemized list of what is expected of them and when. These are the up-to- date scripts for actors on the tourists’ stage.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“Do old people always live in the past? What yesterday was firm and true, may not be so today.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“It shone on everyone, whether they had a contract or not. The most democratic thing I’d ever seen, that California sunshine.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)