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

Fabian Hambüchen is a retired German gymnast who was Olympic, World and European champion. Fabian also won gold medals at European Games and at 2015 Summer Universiade. He has a full set of Olympics medals, one in each colour, as he is the 2016 Olympic champion, 2012 Olympic silver medalist and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist on the individual horizontal bar event. He became World champion on horizontal bars in 2007 Stuttgart.

Oscar Otte is a German tennis player.

Konstanze "Koko" Klosterhalfen is a German athlete who competes in middle-distance running and the 5000 metres. She is the 2019 IAAF World Championship bronze medalist in the 5000m event. In February 2020, she set a European record in the indoor 5000m with 14:30.79, the fourth fastest time ever.

Inka Grings is a retired German international footballer. She played sixteen years as a striker for FCR 2001 Duisburg. Afterwards she played for FC Zürich Frauen. She also played for the German national team. Grings is the second all-time leading goalscorer in Germany's top division, the Fußball-Bundesliga (women), with 195 goals and claimed the league's top-scorer award for a record six seasons. Playing for Germany, she has also been the top-scorer at two UEFA European Championships. Grings was named Women's Footballer of the Year (Germany) in 1999, 2009 and 2010.

Anja Maria-Antonia Karliczek is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as Minister of Education and Research in Chancellor Angela Merkel's fourth cabinet since 14 March 2018.

Ramin Djawadi is a Iranian/German score composer. He is known for his scores for the 2008 Marvel film Iron Man and the HBO series Game of Thrones, which were nominated for Grammy Awards in 2009, 2018, and 2020. He has scored films such as Clash of the Titans, Pacific Rim, Warcraft and A Wrinkle in Time, television series including Prison Break, Person of Interest, Jack Ryan, and Westworld, and video games such as Medal of Honor, Gears of War 4, and Gears 5. He won two consecutive Emmy Awards for Game of Thrones, in 2018 for the episode "The Dragon and the Wolf" and in 2019 for "The Long Night".

Jens Gerhard Lehmann is a German former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He was voted UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year for the 1996–97 and 2005–06 seasons, and was selected for three World Cup squads. He was a member of Arsenal's 'Invincibles', playing every match of their unbeaten title-winning season in 2003–04. He also holds the UEFA Champions League record for the most consecutive clean sheets, not conceding a single goal in 10 consecutive matches while he played for Arsenal.

Thomas Karl Leonard Kemmerich is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who served as the Minister President of Thuringia from 5 February to 4 March 2020. With a tenure of only 28 days, he was the shortest-serving head of a state government in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Maria Rosalia Auguste Nitribitt, better known as Rosemarie Nitribitt, was a German luxury call girl whose violent death caused a scandal in the Germany of the Wirtschaftswunder years. The case gave rise to a novel, three movies and a musical.

Cornelia Neuhaus is a German writer. She is best known for her crime thrillers set in the Taunus near Frankfurt.