List of Famous people born in Beirut Governorate, Lebanon
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, Reeves began acting in theatre productions and in television films before making his feature film debut in Youngblood (1986). He had his breakthrough role in the science fiction comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), and he later reprised his role in its sequels. He gained praise for playing a hustler in the independent drama My Own Private Idaho (1991), and established himself as an action hero with leading roles in Point Break (1991) and Speed (1994).
Mia Khalifa
Mia Khalifa is a Lebanese-American media personality, webcam model, and former pornographic actress. She began acting in pornography in October 2014, becoming the most viewed performer on Pornhub in two months. Her career choice was met with controversy in the Middle East, especially for a video in which she performed sexual acts while wearing a hijab.
Amal Clooney
Amal Clooney is a Lebanese-born British barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, specialising in international law and human rights. Her clients include Maria Ressa, co-founder of Rappler; Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, in his fight against extradition; the former prime minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko; Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy; and Nobel Prize laureate Nadia Murad.
Léa Salamé
Hala Salamé, known as Léa Salamé, is a Lebanese-born French journalist.
Steve Kerr
Stephen Douglas Kerr is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is an eight-time NBA champion, having won five titles as a player as well as three with the Warriors as a head coach. Kerr has the highest career three-point field goal percentage (45.4%) in NBA history for any player with at least 250 three-pointers made. He also held the NBA record for highest three-point percentage in a season at 52.4% until the record was broken by Kyle Korver in 2010.
Ardem Patapoutian
Ardem Patapoutian is an American molecular biologist, neuroscientist, and Nobel Prize laureate of Armenian descent. He is known for his work in characterizing the PIEZO1, PIEZO2, and TRPM8 receptors that detect pressure, menthol, and temperature. Patapoutian is a neuroscience professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2021 jointly with David Julius.
Josef Fares
Josef Fares is a Swedish-Lebanese film director and game designer. His brother is the actor Fares Fares, who has appeared in many of his films. He is the founder of Hazelight Studios.
Mika
Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr., known by his stage name Mika, is a Lebanese-born British singer-songwriter.
Hovik Keuchkerian
Hovik Keuchkerian is a Spanish-Armenian actor best known for the role of Bogotá in Money Heist.
Fairuz
Nouhad Wadie' Haddad, known as Fairuz, also spelled Fairouz, Feyrouz or Fayrouz, is a Lebanese singer. She is considered by many as one of the leading vocalists and most famous singers in the history of the Arab world. Fairuz is considered the musical icon of Lebanon, and popularly known as "the soul of Lebanon"[9], comparable to Edith Piaf in France, Elvis Presley in the United States and Lys Assia in Switzerland.
Fiammetta Venner
Fiammetta Venner is a French political scientist, a writer and an editor. She is director of the Prochoix journal and Ikhwan Info. She wrote in Charlie Hebdo from 1995 to 2009, then again after the terrorist attack of January 2015. Since 2007, she directs a series of documentary called 100 muslim women speak for themselves
Nadine Nassib Njeim
Nadine Nassib Njeim is a half Lebanese and Tunisian actress and beauty pageant titleholder who was elected Miss Lebanon 2004. She represented her home country in Miss Universe 2005 in Lebanon.
Etel Adnan
Etel Adnan is a Syrian-American poet, essayist, and visual artist. In 2003, Adnan was named "arguably the most celebrated and accomplished Arab American author writing today" by the academic journal MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States.
Nancy Ajram
Nancy Nabil Ajram is a Lebanese singer, television judge and businesswoman. She was born and raised in Achrafieh, Beirut, Lebanon. With the support of her father, she began performing as a child and appeared on several television shows in her early years. By the age of 15, Ajram signed a recording contract with EMI and released her debut studio album Mihtagalak (1998). In spite of being under the legal age, Ajram was exceptionally accepted to the Syndicate of Professional Artists in Lebanon. The following year, she released her second album Sheel Oyoonak Anni (2001).
MoTrip
Mohamed El Moussaoui, known by the stage name MoTrip, is a German rapper of Lebanese descent. His stage name uses the first syllable of his name and plays off the Arabic word for "singer" or "lyricist". MoTrip came into his own with hits such as 2013's "Guten Morgen NSA" and his 2015 song "So wie du bist". Since 2011, he has been under contract with Universal Music.
Samir Geagea
Samir Farid Geagea is a Lebanese politician and militia commander who serves as the executive chairman of the Lebanese Forces since 1986.
Marcus Lemonis
Marcus Anthony Lemonis is a Lebanese-born American businessman, television personality, philanthropist and politician. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Camping World, Good Sam Enterprises, Gander Outdoors and The House Boardshop, in addition to being the star of The Profit, a CNBC reality show about saving small businesses.
Rula Ghani
Rula F. Saadah Ghani [Pashto-ژړا ژړا] is a former First Lady of Afghanistan, the wife of former President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani.
Ibrahim Maalouf
Ibrahim Maalouf is a French-Lebanese jazz trumpeter and composer.
Hassan Diab
Hassan Diab is a Lebanese politician, engineer and academic who has been serving as the Prime Minister of Lebanon since 21 January 2020. He submitted his resignation on 10 August 2020 in wake of the 2020 Beirut explosion and has since served as Caretaker Prime Minister until a successor forms a new government. He was appointed by Lebanese President Michel Aoun on 19 December 2019 to succeed Saad Hariri, amidst the 2019–20 Lebanese protests that had caused Hariri's resignation. Prior to his premiership, he served as the Minister of Education from June 2011 to February 2014 under President Michel Suleiman.