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

Jack Leon Ruby was an American nightclub owner. He fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, while Oswald was in police custody after being charged with both the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the incumbent United States President, and the murder of Dallas policeman J. D. Tippit. A Dallas jury found Ruby guilty of murdering Oswald, and he was sentenced to death.

Yvette Marie Stevens, better known by her stage name Chaka Khan, is an American musician, singer and songwriter. Her career has spanned nearly five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. Known as the "Queen of Funk", Khan was the first R&B artist to have a crossover hit featuring a rapper, with "I Feel for You" in 1984. Khan has won ten Grammy Awards and has sold an estimated 70 million records worldwide.

Sebastian Maniscalco is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Born in the Chicagoland area in Arlington Heights, Illinois, Maniscalco began his career in 1998 performing at open mics. He has since released five comedy specials. Maniscalco has also had supporting acting roles in the films Green Book (2018) and The Irishman (2019), playing mobster Joe Gallo in the latter.

Andre Tyler Iguodala is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The swingman was an NBA All-Star in 2012 and has been named to the NBA All-Defensive Team twice. He won three NBA championships with the Golden State Warriors and was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2015. He was also a member of the United States national team at the 2010 FIBA World Championship and 2012 Summer Olympics, winning the gold medal both times.

Lauren Keyana "Keke" Palmer is an American actress, singer, and television personality. Palmer made her acting debut in the film Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), and soon received recognition for her starring role in Akeelah and the Bee (2006), for which she won a Chicago Film Critics Association Award and a Young Artist Award. Her career progressed with roles in the films Madea's Family Reunion (2006), The Longshots (2008), and Shrink (2009), as well as the television films The Wool Cap (2004) and Jump In! (2007), earning a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for her performance in The Wool Cap.

Jerome "Jerry" Richard Krause was an American sports scout and executive who was the general manager of the Chicago Bulls in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1985 to 2003.

Garry Emmanuel Shandling was an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, writer, and producer. Two of his best-known works were It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show.

Aaron Hillel Swartz was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist. He was involved in the development of the web feed format RSS, the Markdown publishing format, the organization Creative Commons, and the website framework web.py, and joined the social news site Reddit six months after its founding. He was given the title of co-founder of Reddit by Y Combinator owner Paul Graham after the formation of Not a Bug, Inc.. Swartz's work also focused on civic awareness and activism. He helped launch the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in 2009 to learn more about effective online activism. In 2010, he became a research fellow at Harvard University's Safra Research Lab on Institutional Corruption, directed by Lawrence Lessig. He founded the online group Demand Progress, known for its campaign against the Stop Online Piracy Act.

James Earl Ray was an American fugitive and felon convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty plea—thus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentence—and was sentenced to 99 years of imprisonment. At the time of his death, he had served twenty-nine years of his sentence.

Samuel Shepard Rogers III was an American actor, playwright, author, screenwriter, and director whose career spanned half a century. He won ten Obie Awards for writing and directing, the most won by any writer or director. He wrote 58 plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs. Shepard received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film The Right Stuff. He received the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award as a master American dramatist in 2009. New York magazine described Shepard as "the greatest American playwright of his generation."