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

David Gruber Allen is an American television and film actor and comedian, best known for his work on the 1990 TV series The Higgins Boys and Gruber and playing guidance counselor Jeff Rosso on the Judd Apatow-produced comedy-drama Freaks and Geeks. He also played Mr. Kwest on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide and a town troubadour on Gilmore Girls. Allen had a minor role as an "Electrocuted Ghost" known as "Sparky" in the 2016 film Ghostbusters.

Cheryl Lea Bustos is an American journalist, healthcare executive and politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 17th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first woman elected to Congress from her district, located in the northwestern part of the state, anchored by the Illinois side of the Quad Cities and partially including Peoria and Rockford. In 2019, Bustos assumed a leadership position among House Democrats as Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

Robert Joseph Slimbach is Principal Type Designer at Adobe, Inc., where he has worked since 1987. He has won many awards for his digital typeface designs, including the rarely awarded Prix Charles Peignot from the Association Typographique Internationale, the SoTA Typography Award, and repeated TDC² awards from the Type Directors Club. His typefaces are among those most commonly used in books.

Jackie Fields was an American professional boxer who won the World Welterweight Championship twice. Statistical boxing website BoxRec lists Fields as the #19 ranked welterweight of all-time. Fields was elected to the United Savings-Helms Hall of Boxing Fame in 1972, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1979, the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1987, and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2004.

John Arnold Griffin III was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Nicknamed "the Little Giant" for his short stature and forceful playing, Griffin's career began in the early 1940s and continued until the month of his death. A pioneering figure in hard bop, Griffin recorded prolifically as a bandleader in addition to stints with pianist Thelonious Monk, drummer Art Blakey, in partnership with fellow tenor Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and as a member of the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band after he moved to Europe in the 1960s. In 1995, Griffin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.

Kevin Alexander Clark was an American actor and musician. He was best known for playing Freddy Jones, a teen drummer, in the musical comedy film School of Rock (2003). Despite the film's success, Clark chose not to pursue an acting career and instead became a professional drummer in Chicago, performing with local acts such as Dreadwolf and Robbie Gold.

Peter Maloney is an American actor. His credits include television series such as The Knick, Remember WENN, and Gotham, and films such as Greetings (1968), Capone (1975), A Little Romance (1979), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), The Children (1980), Revenge of the Stepford Wives (1980), The Thing (1982), Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Manhunter (1986), Tune in Tomorrow (1990), JFK (1991), Jeffrey (1995), Thinner (1996), Private Parts (1997), Boiler Room (2000), Requiem for a Dream (2000), and K-PAX (2001). Maloney was also in the 1979 movie Breaking Away, playing the doctor.

Percival C. Pearce was an American producer, director, and writer, best known for his work with Disney.

Paul Alter was an American television director, specializing in game shows for Mark Goodson Productions. Alter was best known as the original director of Family Feud from the show's origin in the mid-1970s until the early 1990s and the director of The Price Is Right from 1986 until 2000.

Patrick Creadon is an American filmmaker primarily known for his work in documentaries. His first film, Wordplay, profiled New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz and premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The film screened in over 500 theatres nationwide and became the second-highest grossing documentary of that year. His second film, I.O.U.S.A., is a non-partisan examination of America's national debt problem and forecast the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. I.O.U.S.A. premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and was later named one of the Top 5 Documentaries of the Year by film critic Roger Ebert.