List of Famous people who born in 1961

Vahur Kraft is an Estonian banker.

Jōji Matsuoka is a Japanese film director. After studying filmmaking in the College of Art at Nihon University, he won an award for his independent short Inaka no hōsoku at the Pia Film Festival in 1984. He directed his first commercial feature, Bataashi kingyo, in 1990 and received a number of awards for best new director, including the Hochi Film Award. He won the Japan Academy Prize for best director for his film Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad. Matsuoka is known for his delicate depictions of complicated romantic and familial relationships, including a homosexual triangle in Kirakira Hikaru, a daughter caring for an abusive but now senile mother in Akashia no Michi, and a son caring for a cancer-stricken mother in Tokyo Tower. He has also shot many television commercials. His best known and most successful TV show is the Midnight Diner - Tokyo Stories.

Luis Doreste Blanco is a Spanish sailor who won gold medal both in the 1984 Summer Olympics, and in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

Carolyn Widney "Carol" Greider is an American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate. She joined the University of California, Santa Cruz as a Distinguished Professor in the department of molecular, cell, and developmental biology in October, 2020.

Stefan Arndt is a German film producer and managing partner of X-Filme Creative Pool, which he started with fellow friends Tom Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker and Dani Levy. X-Filme is one of Germany's most prosperous and famous production companies. Arndt produces many X Filme productions and acts as head manager of the company. He produced the films Cloud Atlas, Alone in Berlin and Frantz.