List of Famous people born in California, United States of America
Chris Andersen
Christopher Claus Andersen is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Birdman", Andersen was born in Long Beach, California, grew up in Iola, Texas, and played one year at Blinn College. Andersen began his professional career in the Chinese Basketball Association and the American minor leagues. He then played in the NBA for the Denver Nuggets and the New Orleans Hornets. He received a two-year ban from the NBA in 2006 for violating the league's drug policy, but was reinstated on March 4, 2008, and re-signed with the Hornets the next day. He returned to Denver later in 2008, and remained with the team until 2012. He signed with the Miami Heat in January 2013 and won a championship with them that same year. He and Oliver Lafayette are the only Blinn students to ever play in the NBA. He now plays for Power in the Big3 league.
Geraldine Chaplin
Geraldine Leigh Chaplin is an English-American actress. She is the daughter of Charlie Chaplin, the first of eight children with fourth wife Oona O'Neill. After beginnings in dance and modelling, she turned her attention to acting, and made her English-language acting debut in her portrayal of Tonya in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago (1965). She made her Broadway acting debut in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes in 1967, and received her second Golden Globe nomination for Robert Altman's Nashville (1975). She received a BAFTA nomination for her role in Welcome to L.A. (1976). She played her grandmother Hannah Chaplin in the biopic, Chaplin (1992) for which she received her third Golden Globe nomination.
Alix Klineman
Alexandra "Alix" Klineman is an American beach volleyball and former indoor volleyball player. In high school she was the 2006 Gatorade National Player of the Year. She was a four-time All-American in volleyball at Stanford University, and the 2010 Volleyball Magazine national player of the year. She won a bronze medal with Team USA at the 2011 Pan American Games. Switching to beach volleyball, she was named part of the 2018 Association of Volleyball Professionals Team of the Year, and individually honored with the 2018 and 2019 Best Blocker awards. At 6' 5", she is considerably taller than the average height for professional female volleyball players.
Alana Stewart
Alana Hamilton Stewart is an American actress and former model. She has also used her maiden name, Alana Collins, and her names from her first marriage, Alana Collins-Hamilton and Alana Hamilton, professionally.
James Paxton
James Paxton is an American actor. He is known for co-starring in the USA drama series Eyewitness as Lukas Waldenbeck. He also starred in the music video for Matt Maeson's "Beggar's Song". He is the son of actor Bill Paxton, and played a younger version of his father's character John Garrett in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Tyson Chandler
Tyson Cleotis Chandler is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Chandler was drafted directly out of high school as the second overall pick of the 2001 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Clippers, then was immediately traded to the Chicago Bulls. He has also played for the New Orleans Hornets, Charlotte Bobcats, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers. As starting center for Dallas, he played an integral role in the franchise's first NBA championship in 2011. He has been named to the NBA All-Defensive Team three times. While with New York, Chandler was voted the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2012, when he was also named to the All-NBA Third Team. He won gold medals with the US national team in the 2010 FIBA World Championship and the 2012 Summer Olympics.
William Leonard Pickard
William Leonard Pickard is one of two people convicted in the largest lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) manufacturing case in history. In 2000, while moving their LSD laboratory across Kansas, Pickard and Clyde Apperson were pulled over while driving a Ryder rental truck and a follow car. The laboratory had been stored near a renovated Atlas-E missile silo near Wamego, Kansas. Gordon Todd Skinner, one of the men intimately involved in the case but not charged due to his cooperation, owned the property where the laboratory equipment was stored.
Adia Barnes
Adia Oshun Barnes is the head women's basketball coach for the University of Arizona. She played at the collegiate level for the University of Arizona, then seven seasons of professional women's basketball with the Houston Comets, Seattle Storm, Minnesota Lynx, and Sacramento Monarchs in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She has played internationally with Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine. Barnes has also served as a TV color analyst broadcasting WNBA Seattle Storm games. Barnes is married to Salvo Coppa, a basketball coach she met in Italy. The wedding date was July 4, 2012. They have two children.
Alex Padilla
Alejandro Padilla is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from California since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Padilla served as the 32nd secretary of state of California from 2015 to 2021.
Larry Hillblom
Larry Lee Hillblom was an American businessman and co-founder of the shipping company DHL Worldwide Express. After his disappearance, his estate paid $360 million to four impoverished children that he had fathered as a result of "sex safari" trips in Southeast Asian countries, where he reportedly raped prepubescent girls and teenaged virgins.