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

Richard Lynn Scott is an American politician and businessman serving as the junior United States senator from Florida, serving in that office since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019.

Patricia Lee Smith is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and poet who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses.

Marcus James Jordan is an American former college basketball player who played for the UCF Knights men's basketball team of American Athletic Conference. He is the second oldest son of retired Hall of Fame basketball player Michael Jordan.

Taurus Tremani Bartlett, known professionally as Polo G, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. He rose to prominence in 2018 with his single "Finer Things". In 2019, he gained mainstream fame with his single "Pop Out" featuring Lil Tjay which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The singles were included on his debut studio album, Die a Legend (2019), which peaked at number 6 on the US Billboard 200 and went on to be certified RIAA Platinum. Bartlett's second studio album, The Goat (2020), peaked at number 2 on the US Billboard 200 and included ten Hot 100 charting singles.

Quamdeen "Ayo" Dosunmu is an American college basketball player for the Illinois Fighting Illini of the Big Ten Conference.

Rahm Israel Emanuel is an American politician who served as the 55th mayor of Chicago from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 23rd White House Chief of Staff from 2009 to 2010, and as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Chicago between 2003 and 2009.

Jerry McCord Van Dyke was an American actor, musician and comedian. He was the younger brother of Dick Van Dyke.

Michael Thomas Gargiulo is a convicted American serial killer and rapist. He moved to Southern California in the 1990s and has been nicknamed The Hollywood Ripper.

George Demetrios Papadopoulos is an author and former member of the foreign policy advisory panel to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. On October 5, 2017, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to a felony charge of making false statements to FBI agents about the timing and the possible significance of his contacts in 2016 relating to U.S.–Russia relations and the Donald Trump presidential campaign. He served twelve days in federal prison, then was placed on a 12-month supervised release. During his supervised release from prison, he participated in the filming of a still-unreleased docuseries. In March 2019, Papadopoulos released his book, Deep State Target: How I Got Caught in the Crosshairs of the Plot to Bring Down President Trump. He was later pardoned by Trump in December 2020.

James Dewey Watson KBE is an American molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material". In subsequent years, it has been recognized that Watson and his colleagues did not properly attribute colleague Rosalind Franklin for her contributions to the discovery of the double helix structure.