List of Famous people who born in 1961

Karl-Heinz Steffens is a German clarinetist and conductor.

Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C. is a Kazakhstani Roman Catholic bishop, the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan. He is a member of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra. He is known for championing the traditional pre-Vatican II liturgy and practices of the Church and for protesting certain policies associated with Pope Francis.

Maarten de Rijke is a Dutch computer scientist. His work initially focused on modal logic and knowledge representation, but since the early years of the 21st century he has worked mainly in information retrieval. His work is supported by grants from the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), public-private partnerships, and the European Commission.

Brian Slagel is an American music executive. He is the founder and CEO of Metal Blade Records. Slagel is known for having initiated the Metal Massacre series of compilation albums in 1982, the first of which included the first commercial recording by Metallica. Metal Blade has since released seminal albums by Slayer, Mercyful Fate, Cannibal Corpse, Fates Warning, Amon Amarth and The Black Dahlia Murder, among others.