List of Famous people born in Bulgaria

Christo Grozev is a Bulgarian investigative journalist, media expert and media investor, the lead Russia investigator with Bellingcat, focusing on security threats, extraterritorial clandestine operations, and the weaponization of information. His investigations into the identity of the suspects in the 2018 Novichok agent poisonings in the UK earned him and his team the European Press Prize for Investigative Journalism. Grozev is known for using open-source, social media, other available data for investigations. Based in Vienna, Austria, he authored investigations identifying, among others, two senior Russian officers linked to the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014, GRU officers involved with the 2016 Montenegrin coup plot, the three poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal suspects in 2018 and poisoning of Alexei Navalny in 2020.

Moni Ovadia is an Italian actor, musician, singer and theatrical author. "Moni" is short for "Salomone" (Solomon).

Asen Zlatev is a former Bulgarian weightlifter. Zlatev is an Olympic champion from the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games in Russia, in the category of up to 75 kg. At the age of 11 he joined the first group of weight lifting trainees in the Vasil Levski Sports School under the leadership of Gancho Karushkov. Zlatev has won three gold medals at World Championships and five at European Championships. From World Championships he has 7 medals, and from European Championships – 8 medals. He is ranked second with the number of medals won in total and leads the ranking among Bulgarians by the number of medals won in Olympic Games, World Championships and European Championships in snatch, clean and jerk and total – 22 gold, 19 silver, 4 bronze. For seven years Zlatev improved 20 world and 6 Olympic records. He is one of the three Bulgarians who has not received a “zero” in an official competition. Zlatev was awarded the Golden Kilo award for best achievement at the World Championships in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1982. He was captain of the national team for 8 years and did not lost national competition for 13 seasons. He competed in the categories up to 75 kg and up to 82.5 kg and was trained for several Olympic Games, but for various reasons he participated only in one – in Moscow, Russia. From September 1989 until the end of 1994 Zlatev competed for the German teams Limen and Chemnitz. Asen Zlatev was declared honorary citizen of Plovdiv in 2001. He was elected Athlete of the Year for Bulgaria in 1986.

Boyan Radev is a former Greco Roman wrestler from Bulgaria. He was the first Bulgarian two-time Olympic Games champion and one-time world champion. Boyan Radev is also a well-known art collector and artist sponsor.

Victoria Wright is a former Bulgarian badminton player, and later represented France. She competed for Bulgaria at the first edition of the badminton at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona. In Bulgaria, she won nine times National Championships title, 4 in the women's singles and 5 in the women's doubles event. She competed for France at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the mixed doubles event partnered with the former Bulgarian player Svetoslav Stoyanov. They lost to Jens Eriksen and Mette Schjoldager of Denmark in the round of 32. Wright won the French National Championships title, 2 times in the women's doubles event partnered with Tatiana Vattier, and 3 in the mixed doubles event with Stoyanov.

Ivan Venkov Kolev is a Bulgarian former football player and current manager of Lokomotiv Sofia.

Iliana Malinova Iotova is a Bulgarian politician who has been serving as Vice President of Bulgaria since 2017. She was the running mate of Rumen Radev, who defeated GERB nominee Tsetska Tsacheva in the second round of the 2016 presidential election. She was a Member of the European Parliament from 2007 until her resignation on 16 January 2017. She speaks Bulgarian, French and English.

Yordan Bikov is a retired Bulgarian middleweight weightlifter. He won the clean and jerk event at the 1971 World Championships. In 1972 he won the European title and Olympic gold medal, setting a new world record in the total. He retired next year after placing second at the European championships, and became a weightlifting coach.

Daniel Bozhilov Petrov is a Bulgarian boxer. He won a silver medal at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and a gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 in the category Light Flyweight.