List of Famous people born in Illinois, United States of America

Gerald Graff is a professor of English and Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received his B.A. in English from the University of Chicago in 1959 and his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Stanford University in 1963. He has taught at the University of New Mexico, Northwestern University, the University of California at Irvine and at Berkeley, as well as Ohio State University, Washington University, and the University of Chicago. He has been teaching at the University of Illinois at Chicago since 2000.

Bradley King was the pen name of Josephine McLaughlin. She was a screenwriter who wrote 56 scripts for films between 1920 and 1947. All but one of her 40 silent films are lost, but most of her 20 or so sound films still exist.

Andrea Heidi Seastrand is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives.

David Duvall Orr is an American Democratic politician who served as the Cook County Clerk from 1990 to 2018. Orr previously served as alderman for the 49th ward in Chicago City Council from 1979 to 1990. He briefly served as acting Mayor of Chicago from November 25 to December 2, 1987, following the death of Mayor Harold Washington. Orr retired from the office of Cook County Clerk in 2018, opting not to run for an eighth term.

Edmund Strother Phelps is an American economist and the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Paul Henry Ginsparg is a physicist. He developed the arXiv.org e-print archive.

Sandra Hall Magnus is an American engineer and a former NASA astronaut. She returned to Earth with the crew of STS-119 Discovery on March 28, 2009, after having spent 134 days in orbit. She was assigned to the crew of STS-135, the final mission of the Space Shuttle. She is also a licensed amateur radio operator with the call sign KE5FYE. From 2012 until 2018 Magnus was the executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Joseph Mark Siegel is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who serves as bishop of the Diocese of Evansville.

Ardo Hillar Hansson is an Estonian economist. He was the Governor of Bank of Estonia from 2012 to 2019.

John Mondy Shimkus is an American politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 15th congressional district. He served in the House from 1997 to 2021, and is a member of the Republican Party. On August 30, 2019, Shimkus announced that he would not seek re-election for his seat in 2020.