List of Famous people born in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Georg Nolte is a German jurist and Judge-Elect of the International Court of Justice. He is professor of public international law at the Humboldt University of Berlin and has been a member of the UN's International Law Commission since 2007, serving as its chairman in 2017. In November 2020 he was elected Judge of the International Court of Justice by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council, and he takes office on 6 February 2021.

Marcel Meisen is a German cyclo-cross and road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam Alpecin–Fenix. He represented his nation in the men's elite event at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder.

Jan Schlaudraff is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder and striker. He is currently the sporting director of Hannover 96.

Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger FBA is a German historian. She mainly researches the early modern period and has held the chair for early modern period and has held the chair for early modern history at the University of Münster. Stollberg-Rilinger is one of the leading representatives of research that examines the constitutional history of the Holy Roman Empire on the basis of symbolic-ritual forms of communication. Her work on rituals, symbolic communication and ceremonial influenced research on the exercise of power in the pre-modern era.

Horst Heese is a German former professional football player and manager. Heese had 149 Bundesliga appearances for Eintracht Frankfurt and HSV. After his retirement he managed Offenbach, Nürnberg and Frankfurt. After being sacked in 1993 in Frankfurt he moved back to Eupen in Belgium, where he still lives.

Blendi Idrizi is a Kosovan professional footballer who plays as a attacking midfielder for the German club Schalke 04 and the Kosovo national team.

Rebecca Gablé is a German author of historical fiction. Gablé is best known for her medieval chivalry romances. She also works as a literary translator from English. The commercial breakthrough came in 1997 with her first historical novel "Das Lächeln der Fortuna", of which in the first year after publication about 200,000 copies were sold. From 1999 to 2000, she was a lecturer at the Heinrich Heine University in Old English literature. In 2000 she published "Das zweite Königreich", another history novel. Since then, Gablé has turned to the writing of historical novels, all of which went up in the bestseller lists. In addition to the ongoing series about the history of the (fictional) Waringham family, which is closely linked to the English ruling houses of the Middle Ages and the early modern period, Gablé wrote other novels, which also play in the Middle Ages.

Dan van Husen was a German actor. He started his career in the 1960s, playing in a number of Spaghetti Westerns, and also performed in Italian and German films by renowned directors including Frederico Fellini and Werner Herzog and in German TV series. Starting in the 2000s he performed in Hollywood films, and in 2008 had a role in a Dutch World War 2 movie, Winter in Wartime. He died in 2020 of COVID-19.

Marian Sarr is a German footballer who plays as a centre back for Bonner SC in the Regionalliga West. He is the older brother of Wilfried Sarr.

Udo Schiefner is a German politician. Born in Kempen, North Rhine-Westphalia, he represents the SPD. Udo Schiefner has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2013.