List of Famous people born in Gauteng, South Africa
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk is a business magnate, industrial designer and engineer. He is the founder, CEO, CTO and chief designer of SpaceX; early investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink; and co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI. In 2018, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and ranked 25th on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People, and was ranked joint-first on the Forbes list of the Most Innovative Leaders of 2019. A centi-billionaire, Musk became the richest person in the world in January 2021, surpassing Jeff Bezos.
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron is a South African and American actress and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actresses, Theron is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award. In 2016, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
F. W. de Klerk
Frederik Willem de Klerk is a South African retired politician, who served as State President of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as Deputy President from 1994 to 1996. As South Africa's last head of state from the era of white-minority rule, he and his government dismantled the apartheid system and introduced universal suffrage. Ideologically a conservative and an economic liberal, he led the National Party from 1989 to 1997.
Cameron Norrie
Cameron Norrie is a British tennis player.
David Wiese
David Wiese is a South African/Namibian cricketer who plays in franchise leagues. Wiese became eligible to play international cricket for Namibia due to his father having been born in Namibia. Wiese played international cricket for South Africa from 2013 to 2016, before making his international debut for Namibia in 2021.
AB de Villiers
Abraham Benjamin de Villiers commonly known as AB de Villiers is a South African cricketer. He was named as the ICC ODI Player of the Year three times during his 15-year international career and was one of the five Wisden cricketers of the decade at the end of 2019.
Oscar Pistorius
Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius is a South African former professional sprinter who was convicted of murder in 2015. Both of his feet were amputated when he was 11 months old due to a congenital defect. He was born missing the outside of both feet and both fibulae. Pistorius ran in both non-disabled sprint events and in sprint events for below-knee amputees. He was the tenth athlete to compete at both the Paralympic Games and Olympic Games.
Kimbal Musk
Kimbal Musk is a South African-born restaurateur, chef, and entrepreneur. He owns The Kitchen Restaurant Group, a family of community restaurant concepts located in Colorado, Chicago, Cleveland, Memphis, and Indianapolis. He is the co-founder and Chairman of Big Green, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has built hundreds of outdoor classrooms called "Learning Gardens" in schoolyards across America. Musk is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of Square Roots, an urban farming company in Brooklyn, N.Y., growing food in hydroponic, indoor, climate controlled shipping containers. Musk currently sits on the boards of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX. He was on the board of Chipotle Mexican Grill from 2013–2019. He is the younger brother of billionaire businessman Elon Musk and a major Tesla shareholder.
Quinton de Kock
Quinton de Kock is a South African international cricketer and current captain of the Proteas in all three formats. Playing for the Titans at the domestic level, Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League and South Africa at international level. He was named the Cricketer of the Year at Cricket South Africa's 2017 Annual Awards.
Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah is a South African comedian, television host, producer, writer, political commentator, and actor. He is the host of The Daily Show, an American satirical news program on Comedy Central.
Oti Mabuse
Otlile "Oti" Mabuse is a South African dancer and Latin American champion currently based in the United Kingdom. She is best known as a professional dancer on the British television series, Strictly Come Dancing, and its German equivalent, Let's Dance. She was a judge on The Greatest Dancer.
Tabraiz Shamsi
Tabraiz Shamsi is a South African cricketer. He has played first-class cricket for teams such as Dolphins, Gauteng, Gauteng Under-19s, KwaZulu Natal, KwaZulu-Natal Inland, Lions, and Titans. His batting style is right-handed and he is known for his left-arm unorthodox spin bowling.
Marike de Klerk
Marike de Klerk was the First Lady of South Africa, as the wife of State President Frederik Willem de Klerk, from 1989–1994. She was also a politician of the former governing National Party in her own right. De Klerk was murdered in her Cape Town home in 2001.
Damon Galgut
Damon Galgut is a South African playwright and novelist. He was awarded the 2021 Booker Prize for his novel The Promise. He was previously shortlisted in 2003 and 2010 for the Booker Prize.
Glynis Johns
Glynis Johns is a retired British actress, dancer, musician, and singer.
Kevin Anderson
Kevin Anderson is a South African professional tennis player who is ranked world No. 91 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) as of 04 November 2019.
Behati Prinsloo
Behati Prinsloo is a Namibian model. In 2008, she became a Pink contract model, and moved on to become a Victoria's Secret Angel in 2009. She has walked in nine consecutive Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows. She opened consecutive Victoria's Secret Fashion shows in 2014 and 2015.
Faf du Plessis
Francois "Faf" du Plessis is a South African international cricketer and former captain of the South Africa national cricket team.
Justin Rose
Justin Peter Rose, is an English professional golfer who plays most of his golf on the PGA Tour, while keeping his membership on the European Tour. He won his first major championship at the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club, becoming the first English player to win a major since Nick Faldo in 1996 and the first to win the U.S. Open since Tony Jacklin in 1970. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Rose won gold at the men's individual tournament. With that victory, Rose joined Hall of Fame members Gary Player, David Graham, Hale Irwin and Bernhard Langer as one of only five golfers to win official tournaments on all six continents on which golf is played. Rose has also twice been runner-up at the Masters Tournament, in 2015 and 2017.
Troye Sivan
Troye Sivan Mellet is a South African-born Australian singer-songwriter, actor, and YouTuber. After gaining popularity as a singer on YouTube and in Australian talent competitions, Sivan signed with EMI Australia in 2013 and released his third extended play, TRXYE (2014), which peaked at number five on the U.S. Billboard 200. Its lead single, "Happy Little Pill", reached number ten on Australian music charts. In 2015, he released his fourth extended play Wild followed by his debut studio album Blue Neighbourhood, whose lead single "Youth" became Sivan's first single to enter the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 23. His second studio album Bloom (2018) reached number three in Australia, and number four on the Billboard 200 chart. Its lead single, "My My My!", became Sivan's second number-one single on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. "Take Yourself Home" served as the first single from his EP In a Dream (2020).