List of Famous people who born in 1961

Hamid Al-Shaeri is a Libyan-Egyptian singer, songwriter, and musician resident in Cairo. He is known as Egypt's leading representative of westernized synthesizer pop, or Arabic pop. His best known songs include "Law laki", sung by Ali Hemeida, and "Jaljili", which he sang himself.

Pavel Valeryevich Basinsky is a Russian writer, literary critic and literary critic. Member of the Union of Russian Writers (1993), academician of the Academy of Russian Literature (1997). Member of the permanent jury of the Solzhenitsyn Prize (1997). The author of the most complete uncensored biography of Maxim Gorky, published in 2005. Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation (2018).

Akira Kuroiwa is a former speed skater from Japan, who represented his native country at two consecutive Winter Olympics, starting in 1984 in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. In 1988, he won the bronze medal in the men's 500 metres, after having captured two world titles at the Sprints Championships. At the 1984 Winter Olympics, Kuroiwa placed 10th in the men's 500 m.

Aleksei Alekseyevich Veselkin is a Russian actor and TV game show presenter and Honoured Artist of Russia. He was a visible personality on television and in society magazines during the 1980s and 1990s, making a popular comeback in 2006 as the host of Sdelka?, the Russian version of the American gameshow Deal or no Deal. During 2012 he was also a radio host on Radio Mayak show of Sergei Stillavin, but he and co-presenter Victoria Kolosova were dismissed after government watchdog Roskomnadzor upheld complaints against a controversial article by the presenters on cystic fibrosis. Veselkin returned to his previous position as a staff actor at the Russian Academic Youth Theater.

Sergei Nikolayevich Chikishev is a Russian football manager and a former player. He is an assistant coach with FC Krasava Odintsovo.

Sona MacDonald is an Austrian-American actress and singer.

Mine Şenhuy Teber is a Turkish Cypriot actress.

Dania Madiqyzy Espaeva is a Kazakh politician and a member of the Mazhilis from 24 March 2016. She was the first ever Kazakh women to be a presidential candidate during the 2019 Kazakh presidential election.

Valerie Toranian is a French journalist and the editor-in-chief of the fashion magazine Elle in France. She is also the founder of Nouvelles d'Arménie, a French-Armenian journal. She is the head of the Elle Foundation in France and the general manager of the Revue des deux Mondes.

Josefina Eugenia Vázquez Mota is a businessperson and politician who was the presidential candidate of the National Action Party (PAN) for the 2012 elections. Vázquez Mota was trained as an economist and began her working career in family businesses and with various business organizations and conferences, also working as a journalist and writing books. She began her political career with the  PAN organization, becoming involved in Mexico’s federal Chamber of Deputies of Mexico and then in the administrations of Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón. She was PAN's first female candidate for president.