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

Michael Schumacher is a retired German racing driver who competed in Formula One for Jordan, Benetton, Ferrari and Mercedes. Schumacher has a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles and, at the time of his retirement from the sport in 2012, he held the records for the most wins (91), pole positions (68) and podium finishes (155)—which have since been broken by Lewis Hamilton—while he maintains the records for the most fastest laps (77) and the most races won in a single season (13), amongst others.

Christian Wolfgang Lindner is a German politician, member of the Bundestag and leader of the liberal Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP).

Anis Mohamed Youssef Ferchichi, better known by his alias Bushido, is a German rapper, hip-hop producer, and entrepreneur of Tunisian descent. He is the co-founder of the record label ersguterjunge. Born in Bonn and raised by a single mother in Berlin-Tempelhof, Ferchichi came in contact with hip-hop through graffiti and his friend and fellow rapper Fler. In 2001, Ferchichi released his demo King of KingZ, which later led him to sign a record label deal with Aggro Berlin. Ferchichi's first official release was Carlo Cokxxx Nutten in 2002, a collobaration with Fler.

Heidi Klum is a German-American model, television host, producer, and businesswoman. She appeared on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 1998 and was the first German model to become a Victoria's Secret Angel.

Jens Spahn is a German politician currently serving as Federal Minister of Health in the fourth Merkel cabinet. He is a member of the lower house of the federal parliament, the Bundestag for Steinfurt I – Borken I and is a member of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), which governs in partnership with the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

Alice Elisabeth Weidel is a German politician and has been the Leader of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the Bundestag since October 2017. She has been a member of the Bundestag (MdB) since the 2017 federal election during which she was the AfD's lead candidate together with Alexander Gauland. Since November 30, 2019, she has been the deputy federal spokeswoman for her party and, since February 2020, chairwoman of the AfD state association in Baden-Württemberg.

Bärbel Bas is a German politician (SPD) from Duisburg. Since the federal election in 2009, she is a member of the German Bundestag. She has been serving as deputy chairwoman of the SPD parliamentary group under the leadership of chairman Rolf Mützenich since 2019.

Bastian Pastewka is a German actor and comedian.

Udo Lindenberg is a German singer, drummer, and composer.

Hans Peter Wilhelm "Hape" Kerkeling is a German actor, presenter and comedian of Dutch descent.