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

Peter Beuth is a German politician. He is a member of the CDU party. Beuth is an MP in the Landtag, the parliament of Hesse. Since 18 January 2014 he is State Minister of the Interior and for Sports in the government of Minister-President Volker Bouffier of Hesse. Before that he was Secretary General of CDU Hesse since 14 March 2009.

Hartmut Neven is a scientist working in quantum computing, computer vision, robotics and computational neuroscience. He is best known for his work in face and object recognition and his contributions to quantum machine learning. He is currently Director of Engineering and Distinguished Scientist at Google where he is leading the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab which he founded in 2012.

Cigdem Akyol is German journalist and author of Turkish-Kurdish ancestry.

David Behre is a German Paralympic sprint runner in the T43 class. He is a double leg amputee who lost both feet in September 2007 when his bicycle was hit by a train. While recovering in the hospital, he saw a documentary on runner Oscar Pistorius and decided to become a sprint runner.

Nina George is a German writer, best known as the author of The Little Paris Bookshop, an international bestseller, that has been translated in more than 28 languages as of 2015, and sold in more than 500.000 copies. She has published 26 books as well as over hundred short stories and more than 600 columns. George has worked as a cop reporter, columnist and managing editor for a wide range of publications, including Hamburger Abendblatt, Die Welt, Der Hamburger, as well as TV Movie and Federwelt.

Hendrik Dreekmann is a former tennis player from Germany, who turned professional in 1991. He reached the quarterfinals of the 1994 French Open and the 1997 Miami Masters.

Johannes van den Bergh is a German professional footballer who plays as a left back for Holstein Kiel.

Niklas Lomb is a German football goalkeeper who plays for Bayer Leverkusen.

Werner Hippler is a former American football tight end from Germany. He played for the Cologne Centurions, but the majority of his career has been with the Frankfurt Galaxy. Hippler is the leader with the most games played in NFL Europa history.

Monika Griefahn is a German politician and activist who was one of the co-founders of Greenpeace. She is a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).