List of Famous people born in Iran

Qasem Soleimani was an Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and, from 1998 until his death in 2020, commander of its Quds Force, a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations. In his later years, he was considered by some to be the second most powerful person in Iran behind Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his right-hand man.

Beneil Khobier Dariush is an Iranian-born American professional mixed martial artist who competes in the Lightweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. As of January 25, 2021, he is #13 in the UFC lightweight rankings.

Alireza Firouzja is an Iranian chess player. He won the Iranian Chess Championship at the age of 12, and earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 14. He is the second-youngest player ever to reach a rating of 2700, accomplishing this at the age of 16 years and 1 month. As of November 2019, Firouzja was the No. 1 ranked Iranian player and the No. 1 U16 player in the world with a FIDE rating of 2720. In December 2019, Firouzja announced that he would no longer play under the Iranian flag, after Iran withdrew its players from the 2019 World Rapid and Blitz Championship to uphold their ban against Iranians playing against Israelis. He is currently based in France and announced in early 2020 his intention to play under the French flag.

Valerie June Jarrett is an American businesswoman and former government official. She served as the senior advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama and assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs from 2009 to 2017. Before that, she served as a co-chair of the Obama–Biden Transition Project.

Saltaneh or Tāj al-Salṭanah was a princess of the Qajar Dynasty. She was the daughter of Naser al-Din Shah, the King of Persia from 1848 to May 1896 by his wife Turan es-Saltaneh. She was the love interest of the Persian poet Aref Qazvini who wrote his poem Ey Taj for her.

Manizeh Karimi, known professionally as Mandana Karimi is an Iranian actress and model based in India. After working on several successful modelling projects around the world, she appeared as a lead in the Bollywood film, Bhaag Johnny. She participated in the popular reality TV show, Bigg Boss 9 and became the 2nd runner up in 2015.

Nasim Pedrad is an American actress and comedian best known for her five seasons as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2009 to 2014. She has since gone on to co-star in sitcoms such as Mulaney, People of Earth, and New Girl, and the live-action remake of Aladdin. She also starred in the slasher series Scream Queens.

Sayyid Abolhassan Banisadr is an Iranian politician. He was the first President of Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution abolished the monarchy, serving from 4 February 1980 until he was impeached by parliament on 20 June 1981. Prior to his presidency, he was the minister of foreign affairs in the interim government. He has resided for many years in France where he co-founded the National Council of Resistance of Iran. At age 87, Banisadr is currently the oldest living former Iranian President.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei is a Twelver Shia Marja' and the second and current supreme leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously President of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei is the longest serving head of state in the Middle East, as well as the second-longest serving Iranian leader of the last century, after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Omid Nouripour is a German politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens who currently serves as a member of the Bundestag, representing the state of Hesse. He is his party's spokesman on foreign affairs, and is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and a deputy member of the Defence Committee. He is of Iranian background and moved to Germany as a child.

Ramin Karimloo is an Iranian-Canadian actor, singer and composer recognised mainly for his work in London's West End. He has played the leading male roles in both of the West End's longest running musicals: the Phantom and Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny in The Phantom of the Opera, and Jean Valjean, Enjolras, and Marius Pontmercy in Les Misérables. He also originated the roles of Gleb in Anastasia and the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies, which continues the story of Phantom. He's also known to many Phantom fans for playing the role of the Phantom during The Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary Performance at the Royal Albert Hall, which was shown live in movie theaters around the world in October 2011, appearing opposite Sierra Boggess and Hadley Fraser as Christine Daaé and Raoul de Chagny, respectively. He made his Broadway debut as Jean Valjean in the 2014 revival production of Les Misérables, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. and can be heard as mega hunk Stavros in As The Curtain Rises, Broadway's first original podcast soap opera.

Enissa Amani is an Iranian-German comedian and television presenter. Her comedy often focuses on the subjects of relationships, integration, and ethnicity.

Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet. He was born in Nishapur, in northeastern Persia, and was contemporary with the rule of Seljuks around the same time the First Crusade unfolded.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, also known as Mohammad Reza Shah, was the last Shah (King) of Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow in the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979. Due to his status as the last Shah of Iran, he is often known as simply the Shah.

Ali Daei is an Iranian former professional footballer, football manager and businessman. A striker, he was captain of the Iran national football team between 2000 and 2006, and played in the German Bundesliga for Arminia Bielefeld, Bayern Munich and Hertha Berlin.

Hossein Vafaei is an Iranian professional snooker player. He was the first Iranian professional snooker player in the history of the game. His attempts to travel to the United Kingdom to qualify for the major tournaments on the snooker calendar were denied due to visa problems, but he gained a UK visa in February 2015.

Golshifteh Farahani is an Iranian actress. She has appeared in 35 films, many of which have received international recognition. She was nominated for the Most Promising Actress Award for The Patience Stone at the 2014 Cesar Awards in France, and won the Best Actress Award for Boutique from the 26th Nantes Three Continents Festival (France). In recent years, she has had prominent roles in movies by well-known Iranian and international directors, including Asghar Farhadi, Bahman Ghobadi, Rasool Mollagholipoor, Jim Jarmusch, Ridley Scott, Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg.

Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician and a professor of mathematics at Stanford University. Her research topics included Teichmüller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory, and symplectic geometry. In 2005, as a result of her research, she was honored in Popular Science's fourth annual "Brilliant 10" in which she was acknowledged as one of the top 10 young minds who have pushed their fields in innovative directions.

Makwan Amirkhani is a Finnish mixed martial artist competing in the Featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Amirkhani is perhaps best known for his first-round eight-second knockout of Andy Ogle, which is one of the fastest knockouts in UFC history.

Hassan Yazdani Charati is an Iranian wrestler. Yazdani is an Olympic and World Champion in freestyle wrestling in two weight categories. He became Olympic champion in the 74kg category at the 2016 Summer Olympics after defeating Russian wrestler Aniuar Geduev in the final. The following year he became World Champion at the 2017 World Wrestling Championships in the men's Men's freestyle 86 kg category. He won his second world title at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships in Kazakhstan.