List of Famous people born in Honolulu County, United States of America
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician and attorney who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.
Jason Momoa
Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa is an American actor. He is widely known for portraying Arthur Curry / Aquaman in the DC Extended Universe films Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Justice League (2017), and Aquaman (2018).
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman is an Australian actress, singer, and producer. She has received an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards. She was ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses in 2006, 2018 and 2019. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and again in 2018. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her fifth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century up to that point.
Bruno Mars
Peter Gene Hernandez, known professionally as Bruno Mars, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, and dancer. He is known for his stage performances, retro showmanship, and for performing in a wide range of musical styles, including pop, R&B, funk, soul, reggae, hip hop, and rock. Mars is accompanied by his band, the Hooligans, who play a variety of instruments, such as electric guitar, bass, piano, keyboards, drums, and horns, and also serve as backup singers and dancers.
Max Holloway
Jerome Max Keli'i Holloway is an American professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Featherweight division for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is a former UFC Featherweight Champion. As of December 14, 2020, he is #8 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings and #1 in the UFC featherweight rankings.
Nicole Scherzinger
Nicole Scherzinger is an American singer and television personality. Born in Honolulu, Hawai'i, and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Scherzinger initially performed in plays throughout her adolescence and went to study at Wright State University, before dropping out to pursue a musical career with American rock band Days of the New and later found modest success in 2001 upon winning a place in Eden's Crush, a girl group created through The WB's Popstars.
Kelly Preston
Kelly Kamalelehua Smith, better known by her stage name Kelly Preston, was an American actress and model. She appeared in more than 60 television and film productions, including Mischief (1985), Twins (1988), Jerry Maguire (1996), and For Love of the Game (1999). She was married to John Travolta, with whom she collaborated on the comedy film The Experts (1989) and the biographical film Gotti (2018). She also starred in the films SpaceCamp (1986), The Cat in the Hat (2003), What a Girl Wants (2003), Sky High (2005), and Old Dogs (2009).
Tua Tagovailoa
Tuanigamanuolepola "Tua" Tagovailoa is an American football quarterback for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). Born and raised in Hawaii to Samoan parents, he attended Saint Louis School in Honolulu. Following that, he attended the University of Alabama to play college football. He helped to lead the Crimson Tide to back-to-back National Championship Game appearances during the 2017 and 2018 seasons, winning the former and being named MVP.
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, songwriter, actress, author, and comedian. In a career spanning over half a century, Midler has won four Golden Globe Awards, three Grammy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award.
Timothy Olyphant
Timothy Olyphant is an American actor. He made his acting debut in an off-Broadway theater in 1995, in The Monogamist, and won the Theatre World Award for his performance, and then originated David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries in 1996. He then branched out to film; in the early years of his career, he was often cast in supporting villainous roles, most notably in Scream 2 (1997), Go (1999), A Man Apart (2003), and The Girl Next Door (2004). He came to the attention of a wider audience with his portrayal of Sheriff Seth Bullock in HBO's western Deadwood (2004–2006), later reprising the role in Deadwood: The Movie (2019). He had starring roles in such films as Catch and Release (2006), Hitman (2007), A Perfect Getaway (2009), and The Crazies (2010), and he played the main antagonist, Thomas Gabriel, in Live Free or Die Hard (2007). Olyphant was a recurring guest star in season two of the FX legal thriller Damages (2009).
Nia Jax
Savelina Fanene is an American professional wrestler and model signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Nia Jax and is one half of the current WWE Women's Tag Team Champions with Shayna Baszler in their record-tying second reign.
Travis Browne
Travis Kuualiialoha Browne is an American mixed martial artist who last competed as a Heavyweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Marcus Mariota
Marcus Ardel Taulauniu Mariota is an American football quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Tennessee Titans second overall in the 2015 NFL Draft. He played college football at Oregon, where he was the starting quarterback from 2012 to 2014. As a Junior in 2014, Mariota became the first University of Oregon player, as well as the first Hawaii-born athlete, to win the Heisman Trophy.
Lauren Graham
Lauren Helen Graham is an American actress and author. She is best known for her roles as Lorelai Gilmore on the television series Gilmore Girls, for which she received nominations for Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe and Satellite Awards, and as Sarah Braverman on the NBC television drama Parenthood (2010–2015).
Janel Parrish
Janel Meilani Parrish Long is an American actress and singer, who is best known for starring as Mona Vanderwaal in the mystery-drama franchise Pretty Little Liars and as Margot Covey in the To All the Boys film series (2018–present). She also portrayed Young Cosette in the Broadway production of Les Misérables (1996), and Jade in the teen comedy film Bratz (2007).
Maggie Q
Margaret Denise Quigley, professionally known as Maggie Q, is an American actress and model.
B.J. Penn
Jay Dee "B.J." Penn III is an American professional mixed martial artist and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. Penn competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and in K-1. Penn was the first American Gold medalist of the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship. In mixed martial arts, Penn has competed in the Featherweight, Lightweight, Welterweight, and Middleweight divisions. A former UFC Lightweight Champion and UFC Welterweight Champion, he is the second of seven fighters in UFC history to win titles in multiple weight classes. Penn fought to a draw against Caol Uno in the UFC 41 Lightweight Tournament. Through his tenures as champion, Penn unofficially unified the UFC Lightweight Championship and broke the all-time lightweight title defense record. In 2015, Penn was made the inaugural inductee into the Modern- Era Wing of the UFC Hall of Fame.
Manti Te'o
Manti Malietau Louis Teʻo is an American football linebacker who is a free agent.
Ron Darling
Ronald Maurice Darling Jr. is an American former professional baseball player and current television sports color commentator. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right-handed pitcher from 1983 to 1995, most notably as a member of the New York Mets team that won the 1986 World Series against the Boston Red Sox. Darling also played for the Montreal Expos and the Oakland Athletics.
Carrie Ann Inaba
Carrie Ann Inaba is an American television personality, dancer, choreographer, actress, and singer. She is best known for her work on ABC TV's Dancing with the Stars. She is a current co-host and moderator of the CBS Daytime talk show, The Talk. She started her career as a singer in Japan, but became best known for her dancing, first introducing herself to American audiences as one of the original Fly Girls on the Fox sketch comedy series In Living Color from 1990 to 1992.