Field
Literature
698 figures, most prominent first.
Bob Dylan
songwriter, Nobel laureate
b. 1941
Steven Spielberg
directed Schindler's List and Jaws
b. 1946
Barbra Streisand
American singer and actress
b. 1942
Woody Allen
directed Annie Hall
b. 1935
Bernie Sanders
United States Senator from Vermont
b. 1941
Karl Marx
German-born philosopher
1818 – 1883
Noam Chomsky
American linguist and activist
b. 1928
Elizabeth Taylor
film star, early AIDS campaigner
1932 – 2011
Henry Kissinger
American statesman, endlessly disputed
1923 – 2023
Mel Brooks
American comedian, filmmaker, and actor
b. 1926
Paul Simon
American singer-songwriter
b. 1941
Pink
American singer, songwriter, and actress
b. 1979
Stanley Kubrick
directed 2001 and Dr. Strangelove
1928 – 1999
Adam Sandler
American actor and comedian
b. 1966
Amy Winehouse
English singer-songwriter
1983 – 2011
Stan Lee
American comic book writer, editor, publisher
1922 – 2018
William Shatner
Canadian actor
b. 1931
Leonard Cohen
wrote Hallelujah
1934 – 2016
Robert Downey Jr.
the comeback, and Iron Man
b. 1965
Chuck Schumer
American politician
b. 1950
Franz Kafka
wrote The Trial
1883 – 1924
Natalie Portman
actor; Harvard-trained
b. 1981
Neil Gaiman
English writer
b. 1960
Rob Reiner
American filmmaker and actor
1947 – 2025
- GP
Gwyneth Paltrow
American actress, entrepreneur, writer and singer
b. 1972
Isaac Asimov
wrote the Three Laws of Robotics
1920 – 1992
James Franco
American actor
b. 1978
Kirk Douglas
American actor
1916 – 2020
Michael Bloomberg
American businessman and politician; 108th Mayor of New Y
b. 1942
Richard Rodgers
American composer of songs and Broadway musicals
1902 – 1979
Stephen Fry
British comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist
b. 1957
Stephen Sondheim
American composer and lyricist
1930 – 2021
Burt Bacharach
American pianist, composer, producer
1928 – 2023
George Gershwin
American composer and pianist
1898 – 1937
Lou Reed
American rock musician
1942 – 2013
Phil Spector
American record producer
1939 – 2021
Arthur Miller
American playwright and essayist
1915 – 2005
Barry Manilow
American singer
b. 1943
Hailee Steinfeld
American actress and singer
b. 1996
Jack Black
American actor, comedian, and musician
b. 1969
Jon Stewart
American comedian, writer, producer, activist
b. 1962
Kate Hudson
American actress and singer
b. 1979
Sacha Baron Cohen
British comedian and actor
b. 1971
Seth Rogen
Canadian actor, comedian, and filmmaker
b. 1982
Ayn Rand
Russian-born American writer and public philosopher
1905 – 1982
Bill Maher
American stand-up comedian and television host
b. 1956
Carl Reiner
American actor
1922 – 2020
Doja Cat
American singer and rapper
b. 1995
- GS
George Soros
Hungarian-American investor and philanthropist
b. 1930
Irving Berlin
American composer and lyricist
1888 – 1989
J. J. Abrams
American filmmaker
b. 1966
Allen Ginsberg
American poet and writer
1926 – 1997
Benjamin Disraeli
British statesman
1804 – 1881
Billy Crystal
American actor, comedian, writer, producer
b. 1948
Carl Sagan
brought the cosmos to television
1934 – 1996
- JA
Jack Antonoff
American songwriter, singer and record producer
b. 1984
Linda McCartney
American photographer
1941 – 1998
Sam Raimi
American filmmaker
b. 1959
Taika Waititi
New Zealand filmmaker, actor, and comedian
b. 1975
Tom Stoppard
Czech–English playwright
1937 – 2025
Aaron Sorkin
American filmmaker
b. 1961
Billy Wilder
Austrian and American filmmaker
1906 – 2002
Bobby Fischer
American chess player
1943 – 2008
Gene Simmons
Israeli-American musician and songwriter
b. 1949
Harlan Ellison
American writer
1934 – 2018
Jennifer Jason Leigh
American actress
b. 1962
Jerry Lewis
American comedian, actor and film director
1926 – 2017
Jerry Seinfeld
American comedian and actor
b. 1954
Jesse Eisenberg
American actor
b. 1983
Neil Sedaka
American singer
1939 – 2026
Paul Rudd
American actor
b. 1969
Paula Abdul
American singer, dancer, choreographer, actress
b. 1962
Shia LaBeouf
American actor
b. 1986
Shimon Peres
Israeli president who changed his mind
1923 – 2016
Emma Goldman
anarchist agitator
1869 – 1940
Eugene Levy
Canadian actor and comedian
b. 1946
Gloria Steinem
American feminist activist and journalist
1934 – 2026
Larry David
American comedian, writer and actor
b. 1947
Liev Schreiber
American actor
b. 1967
Maggie Gyllenhaal
American actress, singer and filmmaker
b. 1977
- MP
Marcel Proust
French novelist, critic and essayist
1871 – 1922
Richard Dreyfuss
American actor
b. 1947
- AS
Adam Schiff
American politician
b. 1960
Alan Arkin
American actor, filmmaker
1934 – 2023
Alan Menken
American composer
b. 1949
Andy Samberg
American comedian and actor
b. 1978
Cecil B. DeMille
American film director, producer and actor
1881 – 1959
Darren Aronofsky
American filmmaker
b. 1969
- ET
Edward Teller
Hungarian-American Jewish nuclear physicist
1908 – 2003
- GK
Garry Kasparov
Russian chess grandmaster and activist
b. 1963
Harvey Keitel
American actor
b. 1939
Henry Winkler
American actor
b. 1945
James L. Brooks
American director, writer, and producer
b. 1940
Joan Rivers
American comedian, actress, and television host
1933 – 2014
Jon Favreau
American actor and filmmaker
b. 1966
Lena Dunham
American writer, director, actress, and producer
b. 1986
Leonard Nimoy
American actor
1931 – 2015
Mandy Moore
American actress and singer
b. 1984
Mayim Bialik
American actress, television personality
b. 1975
Sarah Silverman
American comedian, actress, and writer
b. 1970
Sidney Lumet
American director, producer and screenwriter
1924 – 2011
André Previn
German-American conductor, pianist, and composer
1929 – 2019
Arnold Schoenberg
Austrian-Jewish American composer
1874 – 1951
Art Garfunkel
American singer
b. 1941
David Benioff
American writer and producer
b. 1970
David Mamet
American playwright, filmmaker and author
b. 1947
Ed Asner
American actor
1929 – 2021
Frank Gehry
Canadian and American architect
1929 – 2025
George Burns
American comedian, actor, writer and singer
1896 – 1996
Hank Azaria
American actor
b. 1964
Harold Pinter
British playwright
1930 – 2008
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
American actor and filmmaker
b. 1981
Karl Popper
Austrian-British philosopher of science and social and po
1902 – 1994
- MA
Madeleine Albright
United States Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001
1937 – 2022
Paul Krugman
American economist
b. 1953
Peter Singer
Australian moral philosopher
b. 1946
Serge Gainsbourg
French singer, songwriter, composer, writer
1928 – 1991
Theodor W. Adorno
German philosopher, sociologist and theorist
1903 – 1969
Tony Curtis
American actor
1925 – 2010
Adam Levine
American singer
b. 1979
Al Franken
American comedian and politician
b. 1951
Amy Schumer
American comedian and actress
b. 1981
- AB
Antony Blinken
American lawyer and diplomat and former United States Sec
b. 1962
Barry Levinson
American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer
b. 1942
Charlie Kaufman
American filmmaker and novelist
b. 1958
Henry Rollins
American musician
b. 1961
Jacques Derrida
French philosopher
1930 – 2004
Jon Ossoff
American politician and filmmaker
b. 1987
Jonah Hill
American actor
b. 1983
Judd Apatow
American comedian and filmmaker
b. 1967
- JB
Judith Butler
American feminist gender studies philosopher
b. 1956
Marvin Hamlisch
American composer and conductor
1944 – 2012
Michael Bay
American film director and producer
b. 1965
Neil Simon
American playwright, writer, and academic
1927 – 2018
Norman Mailer
American writer
1923 – 2007
Peter Bogdanovich
American film director
1939 – 2022
Roseanne Barr
American actress and comedian
b. 1952
Susan Sontag
American writer and filmmaker, professor
1933 – 2004
Walter Benjamin
German cultural critic
1892 – 1940
Albert Brooks
American actor and comedian
b. 1947
Andy Kaufman
American entertainer
1949 – 1984
David Lee Roth
American singer
b. 1954
Elie Wiesel
wrote Night; witness to the Shoah
1928 – 2016
Gene Wilder
American actor
1933 – 2016
Gracie Abrams
American singer-songwriter
b. 1999
Larry King
American television and radio host
1933 – 2021
Lily Collins
British-American actress
b. 1989
Man Ray
American and French visual artist
1890 – 1976
Matt Stone
American actor, animator and filmmaker
b. 1971
Michael Mann
American film director, screenwriter
b. 1943
Paul Stanley
American rock musician
b. 1952
Philip Roth
American novelist
1933 – 2018
Rashida Jones
American actress, writer, and producer
b. 1976
Saul Bellow
wrote Augie March
1915 – 2005
Simone Weil
French philosopher, writer, and social activist
1909 – 1943
Yair Lapid
leader of the Opposition in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament)
b. 1963
David Arquette
American actor, director and professional wrestler
b. 1971
Fran Drescher
American actress
b. 1957
Harvey Fierstein
American actor and playwright
b. 1954
Heinrich Heine
Germany's sharpest poet
1797 – 1856
Howard Stern
American radio and television personality
b. 1954
Howard Zinn
American historian, playwright
1922 – 2010
Jason Segel
American actor
b. 1980
Jerome Kern
American composer of musical theater and popular music
1885 – 1945
John Landis
American film director, screenwriter and producer
b. 1950
Joseph Stiglitz
American economist, professor
b. 1943
Josh Shapiro
American politician
b. 1973
Ludwig von Mises
Austrian-American economist
1881 – 1973
Michael Landon
American actor and filmmaker
1936 – 1991
Murray Rothbard
American economist
1926 – 1995
Naomi Klein
Canadian author and activist
b. 1970
Shelley Winters
American actress
1920 – 2006
Wallace Shawn
American actor
b. 1943
William Friedkin
American director and producer
1935 – 2023
Zach Braff
American actor and filmmaker
b. 1975
Ally Sheedy
American actress
b. 1962
Ashley Tisdale
American actress and singer
b. 1985
Bob Saget
American stand-up comedian
1956 – 2022
Boris Pasternak
wrote Doctor Zhivago
1890 – 1960
Dave Franco
American actor
b. 1985
Ed Koch
former mayor of New York City
1924 – 2013
Elaine May
American screenwriter, film director, actress
b. 1932
- ÉD
Émile Durkheim
French sociologist
1858 – 1917
Erich Fromm
German-American sociologist and psychoanalyst
1900 – 1980
Harold Arlen
American composer of popular music
1905 – 1986
Harold Ramis
American actor, comedian, and filmmaker
1944 – 2014
Isaiah Berlin
Russo-British-Latvian Jewish social and political theorist
1909 – 1997
J. D. Salinger
American author
1919 – 2010
James Newton Howard
American composer and music producer
b. 1951
Madison Beer
American singer
b. 1999
Paul Reubens
American actor and comedian
1952 – 2023
Peter Lorre
Hungarian and American actor
1904 – 1964
Rodney Dangerfield
American stand-up comedian
1921 – 2004
Shel Silverstein
American poet, cartoonist, songwriter
1930 – 1999
Steven Pinker
Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, linguist
b. 1954
Tony Kushner
American playwright and screenwriter
b. 1956
Adam Brody
American actor
b. 1979
Art Spiegelman
American cartoonist and writer
b. 1948
Ben Foster
American actor
b. 1980
Brad Garrett
American actor and stand-up comedian
b. 1960
Claudia Winkleman
British television presenter
b. 1972
Dyan Cannon
American film and television actress, director, screenwriter
b. 1937
Edith Stein
Jewish-German Catholic nun
1891 – 1942
Gilbert Gottfried
American stand-up comedian
1955 – 2022
Henri Bergson
French philosopher
1859 – 1941
Jason Reitman
Canadian-American film director
b. 1977
Jenny Slate
American actress and comedian
b. 1982
Jerry Springer
American television personality and politician
1944 – 2023
- JL
Jonathan Larson
American composer and playwright
1960 – 1996
Josh Gad
American actor
b. 1981
László Krasznahorkai
Hungarian novelist and screenwriter
b. 1954
Lee Grant
American actress
b. 1927
Louis B. Mayer
Canadian-American film producer
1884 – 1957
Milton Berle
American comedian and actor
1908 – 2002
Nora Ephron
American film director and writer
1941 – 2012
Stefan Zweig
Austrian writer
1881 – 1942
Amanda Peet
American actress
b. 1972
David Ricardo
British classical economist and politician
1772 – 1823
Eli Roth
American filmmaker and actor
b. 1972
Erik Erikson
American German-born psychoanalyst & essayist
1902 – 1994
Gina Gershon
American actress
b. 1962
György Lukács
Hungarian marxist philosopher and literary critic
1885 – 1971
Jared Diamond
American scientist, historian, and author
b. 1937
Jerry Stiller
American actor and comedian
1927 – 2020
Marlee Matlin
American actress
b. 1965
Nick Kroll
American comedian and actor
b. 1978
Nigella Lawson
English food writer and television cook
b. 1960
Rhea Perlman
American actress
b. 1948
Richard Kind
American actor
b. 1956
Rick Moranis
Canadian actor, comedian and musician
b. 1953
Robert Bloch
American fiction writer
1917 – 1994
William Goldman
American novelist, screenwriter and playwright
1931 – 2018
- A
Ad-Rock
American rapper, guitarist, and actor
b. 1966
Anthony Horowitz
English novelist and screenwriter
b. 1955
Dorothy Parker
American poet, short story writer
1893 – 1967
Franz Boas
German-American anthropologist
1858 – 1942
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
American film director, screenwriter
1909 – 1993
Michael Chabon
American novelist, short story writer, essayist
b. 1963
Oliver Sacks
British neurologist and writer
1933 – 2015
Paul Reiser
American actor
b. 1956
Paul Samuelson
American economist
1915 – 2009
R. L. Stine
American novelist
b. 1943
Samuel Goldwyn
Polish-American film producer
1882 – 1974
Stephen Jay Gould
American biologist and historian of science
1941 – 2002
Tim Blake Nelson
American actor, director and writer
b. 1964
Todd Haynes
American film director and screenwriter
b. 1961
Topher Grace
American actor
b. 1978
Wilhelm Reich
Austrian-American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst
1897 – 1957
Alex Borstein
American actress
b. 1971
Bill Finger
American comic strip and comic book writer
1914 – 1974
Harlan Coben
American writer
b. 1962
Jonathan Glazer
British film director
b. 1965
Joseph Brodsky
exiled poet, Nobel laureate
1940 – 1996
Karl Polanyi
Hungarian economist, philosopher and historian
1886 – 1964
Kenneth Lonergan
American film director, playwright, and screenwriter
b. 1962
Lee Strasberg
American theatre director
1901 – 1982
Martin Buber
German Jewish Existentialist philosopher and theologian (
1878 – 1965
Paddy Chayefsky
American playwright, screenwriter and novelist
1923 – 1981
Robert Silverberg
American speculative fiction writer and editor
b. 1935
Steven Weinberg
American theoretical physicist
1933 – 2021
Zygmunt Bauman
Polish philosopher and sociologist
1925 – 2017
B. J. Novak
American actor
b. 1979
Chris Claremont
American comic book writer
b. 1950
Cynthia Weil
American songwriter
1940 – 2023
David O. Selznick
American film producer
1902 – 1965
Garry Shandling
American comedian
1949 – 2016
Harry Turtledove
American author
b. 1949
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Nobel laureate in Yiddish
1903 – 1991
Jack Klugman
American actor
1922 – 2012
Magnus Hirschfeld
German physician and sexologist
1868 – 1935
Peggy Lipton
American actress and singer
1946 – 2019
Richard Schiff
American actor
b. 1955
Sara Gilbert
American actress
b. 1975
Steve Guttenberg
American actor
b. 1958
Viktor Frankl
Austrian Holocaust survivor, psychiatrist
1905 – 1997
Andrea Dworkin
American feminist writer
1946 – 2005
Anna Freud
austrian-British psychoanalyst
1895 – 1982
Eric Carmen
American singer-songwriter
1949 – 2024
Ernst Lubitsch
German-American actor and film director
1892 – 1947
Erving Goffman
Canadian-American sociologist
1922 – 1982
James Mangold
American film director, screenwriter
b. 1963
Jeff Garlin
American comedian and actor
b. 1962
John Houseman
Romanian-born British–American actor and film producer
1902 – 1988
Lake Bell
American actress, director and screenwriter
b. 1979
Lev Landau
Soviet theoretical physicist
1908 – 1968
Marty Feldman
British author, actor, comedian and director
1934 – 1982
Mike Wallace
American journalist, game show host and actor
1918 – 2012
Nicholas Meyer
American screenwriter, producer, author, and director
b. 1945
Paul Auster
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
1947 – 2024
Primo Levi
Italian chemist, partisan, Holocaust survivor
1918 – 1987
Raymond Aron
French philosopher, sociologist, journalist
1905 – 1983
Regina Spektor
American musician
b. 1980
Sidney Lee
English biographer and critic
1859 – 1926
Thomas Kuhn
American historian, physicist and philosopher
1922 – 1996
Vanessa Carlton
American singer-songwriter
b. 1980
Will Eisner
American cartoonist, writer and entrepreneur
1917 – 2005
Alan J. Pakula
American film director, writer and producer
1928 – 1998
Carroll Baker
American actress
b. 1931
Dan Fogler
American actor, musician and filmmaker
b. 1976
Daniel Stern
American actor, artist, director and screenwriter
b. 1957
David Frum
American political commentator
b. 1960
Edna Ferber
American novelist, short story writer and playwright
1885 – 1968
Elfriede Jelinek
Austria's unforgiving novelist
b. 1946
Emily Ratajkowski
American model and actress
b. 1991
Emma Lazarus
American poet
1849 – 1887
Judy Blume
American children's writer
b. 1938
- LG
Larry Gelbart
American comedy writer and playwright
1928 – 2009
Louise Glück
U.S. poet and Nobel laureate
1943 – 2023
Max Horkheimer
German philosopher and sociologist
1895 – 1973
Michael Rosenbaum
American actor
b. 1972
Mikhail Tal
Soviet-Latvian chess player
1936 – 1992
Murray Gell-Mann
American physicist
1929 – 2019
Nadine Gordimer
wrote apartheid from inside
1923 – 2014
Nina Hartley
American pornographic film actress
b. 1959
Richard Lewis
American stand-up comedian
1947 – 2024
Scott Caan
American actor
b. 1976
Simon Helberg
American actor and comedian
b. 1980
- SL
Stanisław Lem
Polish science fiction author, philosopher and futurologist
1921 – 2006
Ted Levine
American actor
b. 1957
Todd Phillips
American filmmaker
b. 1970
- WL
Winona LaDuke
author and activist
b. 1959
Arthur Schnitzler
Austrian writer
1862 – 1931
Carlos Alazraqui
American actor
b. 1962
Chaim Herzog
6th President of Israel –
1918 – 1997
Hilary Putnam
American philosopher and mathematician
1926 – 2016
Joel Mokyr
American-Israeli economic historian
b. 1946
John Corbett
American actor and country music singer
b. 1961
Julian Schwinger
American theoretical physicist
1918 – 1994
- LK
Larry Kramer
American screenwriter, novelist, essayist, playwright
1935 – 2020
Lev Vygotsky
Soviet psychologist
1896 – 1934
Lisa Edelstein
American actress
b. 1966
Mara Wilson
American actress
b. 1987
Maureen Lipman
British actress, columnist and comedian
b. 1946
Max Steiner
Austrian-born American music composer and conductor
1888 – 1971
Peter Shaffer
English playwright and screenwriter
1926 – 2016
Ze'ev Jabotinsky
Russian Jewish poet, founder of Revisionist Zionist movem
1880 – 1940
A. J. Ayer
English philosopher
1910 – 1989
Arthur Penn
American producer and director
1922 – 2010
Benjamin N. Cardozo
United States federal judge
1870 – 1938
Benoit Mandelbrot
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
1924 – 2010
D. B. Weiss
American writer and producer
b. 1971
David Brin
American scientist and science fiction author
b. 1950
Elias Canetti
Bulgarian-born Swiss and British Jewish modernist novelist
1905 – 1994
Erich von Stroheim
Austrian actor and director
1885 – 1957
Ernst Cassirer
German philosopher
1874 – 1945
George S. Kaufman
American writer
1889 – 1961
H. Jon Benjamin
American actor
b. 1966
Jane Yolen
author, editor, narrator of audiobook
1939 – 2026
Jonathan Haidt
American social psychologist
b. 1963
Jules Dassin
American film director
1911 – 2008
Lillian Hellman
American dramatist and screenwriter
1905 – 1984
- MS
Martin Seligman
American psychologist and writer
b. 1942
Mitch Albom
American author
b. 1958
Moses Mendelssohn
German-Jewish philosopher and theologian
1729 – 1786
Moss Hart
American playwright, librettist
1904 – 1961
Paul Celan
French-Romanian poet and translator
1920 – 1970
Richard Brooks
American screenwriter
1912 – 1992
- SS
Sidney Sheldon
American writer
1917 – 2007
Simon Baron-Cohen
British psychologist and author
b. 1958
Tristan Tzara
Romanian-French poet
1896 – 1963
Allan Bloom
American philosopher, classicist, and academician
1930 – 1992
Ben Hecht
American writer, director, and producer
1894 – 1964
Ben Stein
American actor, writer, commentator, lawyer, teacher
b. 1944
Bernard-Henri Lévy
French film director and philosopher
b. 1948
Harry Harrison
American science fiction author
1924 – 2012
Herman Wouk
American writer
1915 – 2019
Immanuel Wallerstein
American sociologist and economic historian
1930 – 2019
Irving Thalberg
American film producer
1899 – 1936
Josh Radnor
American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
b. 1974
- LB
Leigh Bardugo
Israeli-American author
b. 1975
Louis Slotin
Canadian physicist and chemist
1910 – 1946
Mervyn LeRoy
American film director and producer
1900 – 1987
Naomi Novik
American writer
b. 1973
Nikki Reed
American actress
b. 1988
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
German-born British-American author
1927 – 2013
Barbara Barrie
American actress and author
b. 1931
Bernard Malamud
American author
1914 – 1986
Cornel Wilde
Hungarian-American actor and film director
1912 – 1989
Daniel Bell
American sociologist
1919 – 2011
- DK
Daniel Keyes
American author
1927 – 2014
E. L. Doctorow
novelist, editor, professor
1931 – 2015
Imre Kertész
Hungarian author
1929 – 2016
James Lapine
American stage director and librettist.
b. 1949
Judith Malina
German-born American theater and film actress
1926 – 2015
Melissa Rauch
American actress
b. 1980
- NE
Nissim Ezekiel
indian poet
1924 – 2004
Patrick Modiano
French writer
b. 1945
Paul Lukas
Hungarian-American actor
1894 – 1971
Peter S. Beagle
American writer
b. 1939
Roald Hoffmann
Polish-American Nobel laureate chemist and playwright
b. 1937
Ruth Handler
American businesswoman
1916 – 2002
- SF
Shelby Foote
American novelist, historian
1916 – 2005
Alan Guth
American theoretical physicist and cosmologist
b. 1947
Brian Greene
American physicist
b. 1963
Daniel Handler
American novelist, also known by the pseudonym Lemony Sni
b. 1970
Emmanuel Levinas
Jewish-French-Lithuanian philosopher
1906 – 1995
Geraldine Brooks
Australian-American journalist and author
b. 1955
Ilya Prigogine
Russian-Belgian physical chemist
1917 – 2003
Ira Levin
American novelist, playwright
1929 – 2007
Janusz Korczak
Polish-Jewish educator and physician
1878 – 1942
Jonathan Lethem
American novelist, essayist, short story writer
b. 1964
Joseph Heller
American writer
1923 – 1999
- LK
Lawrence Kohlberg
American psychologist
1927 – 1987
Leo Szilard
Hungarian-American Jewish physicist and inventor
1898 – 1964
Mikhail Botvinnik
Soviet chess player
1911 – 1995
- RF
Rebecca Front
English comedian and actress
b. 1964
Roman Jakobson
Russian linguist
1896 – 1982
Simon Sebag Montefiore
British historian
b. 1965
Steve Schirripa
American actor
b. 1957
Victoria Coren Mitchell
British writer, presenter and poker player
b. 1972
Zac Goldsmith
British politician and journalist
b. 1975
- AB
Abe Burrows
American dramatist and playwright
1910 – 1985
Abraham ibn Ezra
12th-century Sephardic rabbi and astrologer
c. 1089 – 1167
Amber Benson
American actress
b. 1977
- AW
André Weil
French mathematician
1906 – 1998
Ann Druyan
American author and producer
b. 1949
Anthony Mann
American film director
1906 – 1967
Arthur Laurents
American playwright, theatre director and screenwriter
1917 – 2011
Bob Einstein
American comedian, actor
1942 – 2019
Carl Djerassi
American chemistry professor, inventor, author
1923 – 2015
Chuck Schuldiner
American musician
1967 – 2001
Clifford Odets
American playwright, screenwriter, and actor
1906 – 1963
David Deutsch
British physicist
b. c. 1953
Estelle Harris
American actress
1928 – 2022
Ethan Coen
American film director, screenwriter, producer
b. 1957
Franz Werfel
Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright and poet
1890 – 1945
Hélène Cixous
French philosopher and writer
b. 1937
Howard Fast
American novelist
1914 – 2003
Jerzy Kosiński
Polish-American novelist
1933 – 1991
Jules Feiffer
American cartoonist, screenwriter and playwright
1929 – 2025
Klaus Mann
German writer
1906 – 1949
Lawrence Krauss
American particle physicist and cosmologist
b. 1954
Mark Lewisohn
English author and historian
b. 1958
Martin Gilbert
English historian
1936 – 2015
Nelly Sachs
Jewish German poet and playwright
1891 – 1970
- SG
Saadia Gaon
rabbi, translator, Jewish philosopher and theologian acti
882 – 942
Sholem Aleichem
Jewish writer and playwright of Yiddish
1859 – 1916
Walter Mosley
American novelist
b. 1952
Arthur Kornberg
American biochemist
1918 – 2007
Dan Ariely
Israeli-American professor of psychology and behavioral e
b. 1967
David D. Friedman
American economist, physicist, legal scholar
b. 1945
- EP
Eve Pollard
English author and journalist
b. 1945
Evgeny Kissin
Russian classical pianist
b. 1971
Harold Abrahams
British sprinter
1899 – 1978
- IN
Iddo Netanyahu
Israeli physician, author and playwright
b. 1952
Irvin D. Yalom
American psychotherapist and writer
b. 1931
- JR
Joanna Russ
American author
1937 – 2011
Joe Dassin
French-American musician
1938 – 1980
Joseph Weizenbaum
German-American computer scientist
1923 – 2008
Judah Halevi
Spanish-Jewish philosopher, poet and physician
c. 1075 – c. 1141
Justin Bartha
American actor
b. 1978
- LS
Leonard Susskind
American physicist
b. c. 1940
- LF
Leslie Feinberg
American transgender activist and writer
1949 – 2014
- ME
Marek Edelman
Jewish resistance member
1922 – 2009
- NP
Neil Postman
American writer and academic
1931 – 2003
Paul Adelstein
American actor and screenwriter
b. 1969
Sabina Spielrein
Russian physician and one of the first female psychoanalysts
1885 – 1942
- SU
Stanisław Ulam
Polish-American mathematician
1909 – 1984
- AB
Alfred Bester
American author
1913 – 1987
Budd Schulberg
American writer
1914 – 2009
David Gerrold
American science fiction screenwriter and novelist
b. 1944
Erica Jong
American novelist, poet, memoirist, critic
b. 1942
Helen Shapiro
British singer and actress
b. 1946
- JP
Jodi Picoult
American author
b. 1966
Karl Kraus
Austrian playwright and publicist
1874 – 1936
Karl Mannheim
Hungarian-German philosopher and sociologist
1893 – 1947
Kathy Acker
American novelist, playwright, essayist
1947 – 1997
Lev Grossman
American novelist, journalist
b. 1969
Lewis Gompertz
English philosopher and social reformer
c. 1783 – 1861
- MP
Marge Piercy
American novelist and poet
b. 1936
Molly Jong-Fast
American author & pundit
b. 1978
Nelson Algren
American novelist, short story writer
1909 – 1981
Osip Mandelstam
Russian poet and essayist
1891 – 1938
Paul Goodman
American writer and public intellectual
1911 – 1972
Rashid al-Din Hamadani
Persian physician and historian
c. 1247 – 1318
- RH
Ronald Harwood
South African dramatist and playwright
1934 – 2020
- SJ
Sarah J. Maas
American fantasy writer
b. 1986
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Ukrainian-born Israeli Hebrew writer
1887 – 1970
- WW
Wendy Wasserstein
American playwright
1950 – 2006
Władysław Szpilman
Polish pianist, composer, Holocaust survivor
1911 – 2000
Albert Ellis
American psychologist
1913 – 2007
Alfred Uhry
American screenwriter
b. 1936
- AB
Andrew Bergman
American film director and screenwriter
b. 1945
Cassandra Clare
American author
b. 1973
Dore Schary
Screenwriter, playwright, film director
1905 – 1980
Eve Ensler
American playwright, performer, feminist
b. 1953
Hugo Gernsback
American inventor, writer, editor and publisher
1884 – 1967
- IH
Israel Horovitz
American writer
1939 – 2020
Israel Zangwill
British Zionist author
1864 – 1926
Jamaica Kincaid
Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener
b. 1949
Jonathan Safran Foer
American novelist
b. 1977
Joseph Jacobs
Australian folklorist, historian and writer
1854 – 1916
Michael Rosen
British children's author and poet
b. 1946
- NE
Norbert Elias
German sociologist
1897 – 1990
Robert Kagan
American historian
b. 1958
Samuel Reshevsky
American chess player
1911 – 1992
- WH
Winnie Holzman
American librettist, screenwriter and poet
b. 1954
- AS
Anthony Shaffer
writer, barrister and advertising executive from England
1926 – 2001
Aryeh Eldad
Israeli physician, military officer and politician
b. 1950
Ferenc Molnár
Hungarian-born dramatist and novelist
1878 – 1952
Gayle Rubin
American cultural anthropologist, activist, and feminist
b. c. 1949
Graham Moore
screenwriter
b. 1981
Herbert C. Brown
American chemist
1912 – 2004
Julia Quinn
American novelist
b. c. 1970
- LG
Larry Geller
American writer and speaker
b. 1939
Leon Uris
American author
1924 – 2003
Lev Shestov
Russian existentialist philosopher
1866 – 1938
Norman Taurog
American film director
1899 – 1981
Richard Davidson
American psychologist
b. 1951
- RV
Rudolf Vrba
Slovak-Jewish Auschwitz escapee, Canadian biochemist
1924 – 2006
Seymour Martin Lipset
American sociologist
1922 – 2006
Simon Amstell
English comedian
b. 1979
Solomon ibn Gabirol
11th-century Andalusian poet and Jewish philosopher
c. 1021 – c. 1058
- AA
André Aciman
Italian-American writer and professor
b. 1951
- AD
Avram Davidson
American writer
1923 – 1993
Daniel Goleman
American psychologist and journalist
b. 1946
David Abulafia
English historian
1949 – 2026
David Belasco
American theatrical producer, impresario
1853 – 1931
Elliot Aronson
American psychologist, psychology teacher
b. 1932
- EB
Ernest Becker
American cultural anthropologist
1924 – 1974
- GM
Gabor Maté
Hungarian-Canadian physician
b. 1944
Gar Alperovitz
American historian, economist
b. 1936
George Steiner
American writer
1929 – 2020
Ilya Ehrenburg
Soviet writer, Bolshevik revolutionary
1891 – 1967
Jane Goldman
English screenwriter, author and producer
b. 1970
Jay Rayner
English journalist and food critic
b. 1966
Joshua Cohen
American writer
b. 1980
- JK
Justin Kuritzkes
American playwright
b. 1990
- LL
Leslie Lamport
American computer scientist
b. 1941
Ottessa Moshfegh
American author and novelist
b. 1981
Paul Heyse
German writer
1830 – 1914
- PG
Philip G. Epstein
American screenwriter
1909 – 1952
- RP
Rachel Pollack
American science fiction author, comic book writer
1945 – 2023
Robert Fogel
American economist and historian
1926 – 2013
Siegfried Kracauer
German writer, journalist, sociologist, cultural critic
1889 – 1966
Susan Choi
American novelist
b. 1969
Theodore Dalrymple
cultural critic and author
b. 1949
- WM
Walter Mischel
Austrian-born Jewish American psychologist
1930 – 2018
Adam Gopnik
staff writer for The New Yorker
b. 1956
- AC
Alan Coren
humorist and writer from the United Kingdom
1938 – 2007
- AB
Anita Brookner
English novelist and art historian
1928 – 2016
Arkady Martine
American science fiction author and historian
b. 1985
Benjamin Graham
American economist and investor
1894 – 1976
Brad Meltzer
writer
b. 1970
- CM
Cyril M. Kornbluth
American science fiction author
1923 – 1958
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
Russian hebrew linguist, grammarian, journalist
1858 – 1922
- EM
Erich Mühsam
German-Jewish anarchist writer
1878 – 1934
Erich Segal
American writer
1937 – 2010
Giorgio Bassani
Italian writer
1916 – 2000
- HK
Henry Kuttner
American author
1915 – 1958
Howard Jacobson
British author and journalist
b. 1942
Irwin Shaw
American writer
1913 – 1984
Isaac Abarbanel
Portuguese-Spanish Jewish businessman
c. 1437 – 1508
Jack Dann
American writer
b. 1945
Jacqueline Susann
American writer and actress
1918 – 1974
Lauren Weisberger
American author
b. 1977
Martin David Kruskal
American mathematician
1925 – 2006
- NW
Nathaniel Weyl
American politician
1910 – 2005
Samson Raphael Hirsch
Jewish theologian, Germany 19th century
1808 – 1888
Abba Kovner
Jewish Hebrew poet, writer, and partisan leader
1918 – 1987
Ariel Durant
Russian-Jewish American writer
1898 – 1981
- CD
Crescent Dragonwagon
American children's and food writer
b. 1952
David Seidler
British-American playwright, film, and television writer
1937 – 2024
Else Lasker-Schüler
Jewish German poet
1869 – 1945
George Lakoff
American linguist
b. 1941
- JR
Jack Rosenthal
British playwright
1931 – 2004
Jacob Bronowski
Polish-born British mathematician
1908 – 1974
Jacob M. Appel
American author, bioethicist, physician
b. 1973
Jared Bernstein
American economist
b. 1955
Joe Weisberg
American television writer
b. c. 2000
Melanie Phillips
British journalist
b. 1951
Michael Berry
British physicist
b. 1941
Michael Oren
Israeli historian, military officer and diplomat
b. 1955
Nick Sagan
American writer
b. 1970
- PE
Peter Eisenman
American architect
b. 1932
- RP
Richard Price
American novelist and screenwriter
b. 1949
Robert Sheckley
American writer
1928 – 2005
Yitzhak Navon
Israeli politician, 5th President of Israel
1921 – 2015
Adam Kay
British physician and comedy writer
b. 1980
- AS
Adin Steinsaltz
Israeli rabbi and educator
1937 – 2020
Arnold Wesker
British dramatist
1932 – 2016
- BA
Ben Aaronovitch
British author, game designer, and screenwriter
b. 1964
Charles Bettelheim
French historian and economist
1913 – 2006
- CO
Cynthia Ozick
American writer
b. 1928
Daniel Silva
American writer
b. 1960
Donald Margulies
American playwright
b. 1954
Eleazar of Worms
German rabbi
c. 1176 – c. 1238
Ellen Kushner
American writer
b. 1955
Elmer Rice
American playwright
1892 – 1967
Esther Freud
British actress and novelist
b. 1963
- GV
Géza Vermes
British scholar
1924 – 2013
James Hillman
American psychologist
1926 – 2011
- JM
Judith Merril
American science fiction writer and editor
1923 – 1997
- NA
Naomi Alderman
English author, novelist
b. c. 1974
- NW
Nathanael West
American writer and screenwriter
1903 – 1940
Richard A. Lupoff
American writer
1935 – 2020
Richard Sennett
American sociologist and academic
b. 1943
Robert Jay Lifton
American psychiatrist and author
1926 – 2025
Sarah Schulman
American writer
b. 1958
Seth Klarman
American investor, author and philanthropist
b. 1957
- SL
Steven Levenson
American playwright and television writer
b. 1984
Alice Hoffman
American novelist, young-adult writer
b. 1952
Andrew Klavan
American novelist
b. 1954
Calvin Trillin
American journalist
b. 1935
- DK
David Kimhi
rabbi
c. 1160 – c. 1235
- ES
Edward S. Herman
American journalist
1925 – 2017
Emma Barnett
British journalist
b. 1985
Ernest Gellner
Czech anthropologist, philosopher and sociologist
1925 – 1995
George Packer
American journalist and writer
b. 1960
- GP
Grace Paley
American writer and activist
1922 – 2007
Harold Robbins
American novelist
1916 – 1997
- HH
Helene Hanff
American screenwriter and writer
1916 – 1997
Julian Tuwim
Polish poet
1894 – 1953
Lee Goldberg
American author and television producer
b. 1962
Mary Doria Russell
American novelist
b. 1950
Michael Mayer
American actor and director
b. 1960
- PC
Phyllis Chesler
Psychotherapist, college professor, and author
b. 1940
Rebecca Goldstein
American novelist, short story writer, biographer
b. 1950
Rose Friedman
American economist
1911 – 2009
Yehuda Amichai
Israeli poet
1924 – 2000
Amy Levy
British poet, novelist, writer
1861 – 1889
- AG
Andrew Goldberg
American writer
b. 1978
Aryeh Kaplan
American rabbi and physicist
1934 – 1983
- BB
Bruno Bettelheim
Austrian-American child psychologist and writer
1903 – 1990
Chaim Potok
American rabbi and author
1929 – 2002
- DN
Denis Norden
British comedy scriptwriter and television presenter
1922 – 2018
Ernestine Rose
American feminist activist
1810 – 1892
- EL
Evgeny Lifshitz
Soviet physicist
1915 – 1985
Gary Shteyngart
American journalist and writer
b. 1972
- HB
Henry Bean
American film director, actor
b. 1945
Irving Wallace
American writer
1916 – 1990
Isaac D'Israeli
British writer
1766 – 1848
Itamar Moses
American writer
b. c. 1977
- JN
Jacob Neusner
American scholar of Judaism and Rabbinic literature
1932 – 2016
- JR
Jon Robin Baitz
American dramatist
b. 1961
Jonathan Tropper
American writer
b. 1970
Laurie Penny
English journalist, columnist and author
b. 1986
Lisa Kron
American actress and playwright
b. 1961
- MH
Mark Helprin
American author, journalist, and commentator
b. 1947
Russell Hoban
American expatriate writer and illustrator
1925 – 2011
Sophie Hannah
British poet and novelist
b. 1971
Suzy McKee Charnas
American writer
1939 – 2023
Vernon Bogdanor
British political scientist
b. 1943
- AG
Arthur Golden
American novelist
b. 1956
Benjamin Fondane
Romanian-French writer
1898 – 1944
Jeremy Dyson
British screenwriter
b. 1966
Jonathan Ames
American novelist, memoirist
b. 1964
- JS
Julian Symons
British writer
1912 – 1994
Kate Bornstein
American author, playwright, performance artist
b. 1948
- MM
Merton Miller
American economist
1923 – 2000
- MR
Michael Rudman
American theatre director
1939 – 2023
- MS
Miriam Stoppard
British journalist
b. 1937
- MR
Morrie Ryskind
American activist and entertainer
1895 – 1985
- MF
Moses Finley
American-born British academic and classical scholar
1912 – 1986
Otto Weininger
Austrian philosopher and writer
1880 – 1903
- PR
Paul Rudnick
American playwright and screenwriter
b. 1957
- RA
Renata Adler
American author, journalist and film critic
b. 1938
- RA
Robert Alter
American professor
b. 1935
- SK
Sidney Kingsley
American writer
1906 – 1995
- YD
Yuli Daniel
Soviet writer and poet
1925 – 1988
Alexander Galich
Soviet musician and writer
1918 – 1977
- AB
Alvah Bessie
American politician
1904 – 1985
Bruce Jay Friedman
American novelist, screenwriter, and playwright
1930 – 2020
Bryan Fogel
American laywright, author and film director
b. c. 2000
Carol Gilligan
American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist
b. 1936
- CR
Claire Rayner
British writer
1931 – 2010
- CS
Curt Siodmak
German-American writer
1902 – 2000
- EW
Eric Wolf
American anthropologist
1923 – 1999
Fannie Hurst
American novelist
1889 – 1968
Harriet Wistrich
British lawyer and radical feminist
b. c. 1960
- HG
Herb Gardner
American commercial artist, cartoonist
1934 – 2003
Irving Finkel
British archaeologist
b. 1951
Itzhak Katzenelson
Jewish teacher, poet and dramatist
1886 – 1944
James Salter
American novelist and short-story writer
1925 – 2015
Joe Klein
American journalist
b. 1946
Jordan Mechner
American video game designer
b. 1964
Joyce Maynard
American writer
b. 1953
Judith Kerr
British writer and illustrator
1923 – 2019
Maxine Kumin
American poet and author
1925 – 2014
Norman Corwin
American radio producer and screenwriter
1910 – 2011
Norman Lebrecht
English author, broadcaster, music critic
b. 1948
Robert Kaplow
American novelist
b. c. 1954
Rona Barrett
American gossip columnist and businesswoman
b. 1936
- UB
Urie Bronfenbrenner
Russian American developmental psychologist
1917 – 2005
- WC
William Chomsky
American Hebrew grammarian
1896 – 1977
- AM
Abraham Maimonides
Egyptian rabbi
c. 1186 – 1237
Abraham Sutzkever
Russian-born Yiddish poet and Holocaust survivor
1913 – 2010
- AH
Anthony Haden-Guest
British writer and artist
b. 1937
Jeremy Zucker
American singer-songwriter
b. 1996
Alejandra Pizarnik
argentinian poet
1936 – 1972
Alfréd Hajós
Hungarian swimmer, footballer, and architect
1878 – 1955
Alfred Hermann Fried
Austrian Jewish pacifist, publicist
1864 – 1921
- AS
Alfred Schütz
American sociologist
1899 – 1959
Samuil Marshak
Russian and Soviet poet, playwright, translator
1887 – 1964
Ágnes Heller
Hungarian philosopher and academic
1929 – 2019
Eric Berne
Canadian psychiatrist
1910 – 1970
Casimir Funk
Polish-American biochemist
1884 – 1967
- IS
Irving Stone
American writer
1903 – 1989