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

Robert Bruce Zoellick is an American public official and lawyer who was the eleventh president of the World Bank, a position he held from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2012. He was previously a managing director of Goldman Sachs, United States Deputy Secretary of State and U.S. Trade Representative, from February 7, 2001 until February 22, 2005. Zoellick has been a senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs since ending his term with the World Bank. He is currently a Senior Counselor at Brunswick Group.

Richard Price was co-founder of the Esalen Institute in 1962 and a veteran of the Beat Generation. He ran Esalen in Big Sur for many years, sometimes virtually single-handed. He developed a practice of hiking the Santa Lucia Mountains and developed a new form of personal integration and growth that he called Gestalt Practice, partly based upon Gestalt therapy and Buddhist practice.

Aaron Vincent McGruder is an American writer, lecturer, producer, screenwriter and cartoonist best known for writing and drawing The Boondocks, a Universal Press Syndicate comic strip and its animated TV series adaptation for which he was the creator, executive producer, and head writer.

Joe Axelson was an American sports executive who won the first NBA Executive of the Year Award in 1973 while serving as general manager of the Kansas City–Omaha Kings. He was partly responsible for the shifting of the original Cincinnati Royals franchise to Kansas City–Omaha, and then on to Sacramento, California.

Herbert Dickens Ryman Jr. was an artist and Disney Imagineer. Ryman worked in watercolor, oils, and pen & ink sketches. In 1953 Ryman drew the first illustrations of Walt Disney's vision of a theme park that eventually became Disneyland.

Gail Mancuso is an American film and television director.

Howard B. Zieff was an American director, television commercial director, and advertising photographer.

Matthew Paul Walsh is an American comedian and actor, best known for his role as Mike McLintock in Veep for which he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He is a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, with which he co-starred in the original television series and the 2015 reboot. He also previously starred in short-lived comedy programs such as Dog Bites Man and Players, and was a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He has also co-starred in films such as Ghostbusters, Life of the Party, Ted, Into the Storm, Brigsby Bear, and Old School.

Joan Elizabeth Higginbotham is an electrical engineer and a former NASA astronaut. She flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-116 as a mission specialist and is the third African American woman to go into space, after Mae Jemison and Stephanie Wilson.

Lynn Morley Martin is an American businesswoman and former United States politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois from 1981 to 1991, representing the 16th congressional district, and as U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1991 to 1993.