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

Aleksandar Stevanović is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

Marc Zwiebler is a badminton player from Germany. His highest ranking is 10 in the world. He is a seven-time German national champion in men's singles. He won gold at the 2012 European Championships in Karlskrona over Henri Hurskainen 21–15, 21–13. 2010 he won bronze behind Peter Gade and Jan Ø. Jørgensen. By reaching the third round at the 2008 Olympics and the final of 2009 Denmark Open, one of premier tournament competition series BWF World Superseries, Zwiebler is considered as Germany's top badminton player of all time.

Simon Jentzsch is a German retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Helen Langehanenberg is a German dressage rider competing at Olympic level. On 7 August 2012 Langehanenberg, riding Damon Hill, was a member of the team which won the silver medal in the team dressage event.

Nadine Apetz is a German amateur boxer. She won bronze medals at the World Championships in 2016 and 2018, and gold at the 2017 EU Championships. In 2021, she became the first German woman to qualify for a boxing event at the Summer Olympic Games.

Werner Koch is a German free software developer. He is best known as the principal author of the GNU Privacy Guard. He was also Head of Office and German Vice-Chancellor of the Free Software Foundation Europe. He is the winner of Award for the Advancement of Free Software in 2015 for founding GnuPG.

René Lewejohann is a retired German footballer and manager.

Rolf Martin Schmitz is a German manager and chief executive officer (CEO) at the German utilities company RWE AG.

Kilian Kleinschmidt is a German entrepreneur and former UNHCR official who served as the director of the Zaatari refugee camp.

Felix Bastians is a German professional footballer who plays for Waasland-Beveren. He can play as either a centreback, wingback, or winger.