List of Famous people born in North Karelia, Finland

Rolf Herman Nevanlinna was a Finnish mathematician who made significant contributions to complex analysis.

Yrjö Väisälä [ˈyrjø ˈʋæisælæ] (listen) was a Finnish astronomer and physicist.

Vilho Väisälä was a Finnish meteorologist and physicist, and founder of Vaisala.

Heikki Ilmari Savolainen was a Finnish artistic gymnast. He competed in five consecutive Olympics from 1928 to 1952 and won at least one medal in each of them. In 1928, he won a bronze on pommel horse, which was the first-ever medal in gymnastics for Finland. Winning his last medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, he became the oldest gymnastics medalist, at 44 years old; he delivered the Olympic Oath in the opening ceremony of those games. In 1932, Savolainen and his teammate Einari Teräsvirta had the same score on horizontal bar, but the Finnish team voted to give the silver medal to Savolainen. In 1948, he again had the same score as teammates Veikko Huhtanen and Paavo Aaltonen on pommel horse, and the gold medal was shared between the three.

Matti Rönkä is a Finnish TV journalist and novelist. He received the Glass Key award in 2007 for the crime novel Ystävät kaukana and the Deutscher Krimi Preis third prize in 2008 for the German translation of his novel Tappajan näköinen mies (2002). He has been the anchor of the daily news program 20:30 National Report since 2003 on Yle, thus inheriting the nickname "Suomen ääni" from the program's old host Arvi Lind.

Amanda Pilke is a Finnish film actress.

Timo Lavikainen is a Finnish actor. He lives in Joensuu.

Jukka Antero "Julius" Nevalainen is the former drummer in the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish.