Entertainers
- Juanita Hansen, silent film actress and anti drug spokeswoman
- Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins of TLC, Grammy winning R&B Singer
- Roger Williams (pianist), pianist with many hit songs
- Stephen Collins, actor
- Bill Daily, actor best known as Capt. Roger Healey on I Dream of Jeannie, and Howard Borden on The Bob Newhart Show
- Sarah Darling, country music singer-songwriter
- Rory Freeman, star on television show Survivor: Vanuatu
- Tana Goertz, star on television show The Apprentice 3
- Peter Hedges, writer of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Also the director of the movie "Pieces of April"
- David Anthony Higgins, actor, Malcolm in the Middle
- Harriet Hilliard, TV actress, singerThe Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra
- Frank Jenks, actor
- Cloris Leachman, Academy Award, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning actress
- Brandon Routh, actor, best known for the lead role in Superman Returns
- Chris Pirillo, television personality and technology figure
- Ronald Reagan worked as a disc jockey (radio d.j.) in Des Moines
- Bill Stewart, well known jazz drummer, who has worked with Pat Metheny.
- Stephen Stucker, actor, best known for his role as the air traffic controller in the 1980 movie Airplane!
- Bangladesh, (Shondrae Crawford), music producer
- Gregory Alan Williams, actor
- Jason Momoa, Baywatch Hawaii, Stargate, New Conan the Barbarian
- Bruce Brubaker, pianist and faculty member at Juilliard School
- Holly Flax Human Resources Representative at Dunder Mifflin Paper (a division of Sabre) in Scranton, PA
- India Summer Adult Film Actress
Read more about this topic: List Of People From Des Moines, Iowa