List of Famous people born in Panama

John Sidney McCain III was an American statesman and United States Navy officer who served as a United States Senator for Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms in the United States House of Representatives and was the Republican nominee for president of the United States in the 2008 election, which he lost to Barack Obama.

Jordana Brewster is an American actress and model. She made her acting debut in an episode of All My Children in 1995 and next took on the recurring role as Nikki Munson in As the World Turns, garnering a nomination for Outstanding Teen Performer at the 1997 Soap Opera Digest Award. Her first role in a feature film was in Robert Rodriguez's horror science fiction The Faculty (1998).

Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna, known professionally as Rubén Blades, is a Panamanian musician, singer, composer, actor, activist, and politician, performing musically most often in the salsa, and Latin jazz genres. As a songwriter, Blades brought the lyrical sophistication of Central American nueva canción and Cuban nueva trova as well as experimental tempos and politically inspired Son Cubano salsa to his music, creating "thinking persons' (salsa) dance music". Blades has written dozens of hit songs, including "Pedro Navaja" and "El Cantante". He has won nine Grammy Awards out of seventeen nominations and five Latin Grammy Awards.

Roberto Durán Samaniego is a Panamanian former professional boxer who competed from 1968 to 2001. He held world championships in four weight classes: lightweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight, as well as reigns as the undisputed and lineal lightweight champion, and the lineal welterweight champion. He is also the second boxer to have competed over a span of five decades, the first being Jack Johnson. Durán was known as a versatile, technical brawler and pressure fighter, which earned him the nickname of "Manos de Piedra" for his formidable punching power and excellent defense.

Luis Miguel González Bosé, usually known as Miguel Bosé, is a Spanish pop new wave musician and actor.

Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno was a Panamanian politician and military officer who was the de facto ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. An authoritarian ruler who amassed a personal fortune through drug trafficking operations, he had longstanding ties to United States intelligence agencies before the U.S. invasion of Panama removed him from power.

Mariano Rivera is a Panamanian-American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, from 1995 to 2013. Nicknamed "Mo" and "Sandman", he spent most of his career as a relief pitcher and served as the Yankees' closer for 17 seasons. A thirteen-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion, he is MLB's career leader in saves (652) and games finished (952). Rivera won five American League (AL) Rolaids Relief Man Awards and three Delivery Man of the Year Awards, and he finished in the top three in voting for the AL Cy Young Award four times. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of its class of 2019 in his first year of eligibility, and was the first player ever to be elected unanimously by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA).

Edgardo Armando Franco, better known as El General, is a Panamanian former reggae artist considered by some to be one of the fathers of "Reggae Español". During the early 1990s, he was one of the artists who initiated the Spanish-language dancehall variety of reggae music. Early examples of this were the international and somewhat mainstream songs, "Te Ves Buena" and "Tu Pum Pum". Both songs, performed in Spanish deejaying style, were very successful in North America. After getting his foot in the door of the commercial market, many other Spanish-language dancehall reggae artists became famous in the mainstream as well. He has a unique, easy to listen to style of dance music and has produced many well-known songs all over Latin America. His musical works have become popular in Latin America over the last few years. This style is called reggae en Español, because he makes dancehall reggae music with Spanish-language lyrics and is an early precursor to reggaeton.

Román Aureliano Torres Morcillo is a Panamanian footballer who last played as a defender for Seattle Sounders in MLS, and captains the Panama national team.

Cristian Jesús Martínez is a Panamanian footballer who plays as a midfielder for C.D. Plaza Amador.

Daphne Rubin-Vega is a Panamanian-American dancer, singer-songwriter, and actress. She is best known for originating the roles of Mimi Marquez in the Broadway musical Rent and Lucy in the Off-Broadway play Jack Goes Boating.

Ramón Fonseca Mora is a Panamanian novelist and lawyer, the co-founder of Mossack Fonseca, a former law firm based in Panama with more than 40 offices worldwide. He was minister-counselor of Juan Carlos Varela, and president of the Panameñista Party until he was dismissed in March 2016, due to the Brazilian Operation Car Wash. In 2016, the law firm he owned was raided by police on suspicion of money-laundering, bribery and corruption. Fonseca and his partner Jürgen Mossack were arrested and jailed on 10 February 2017. They were initially refused bail because the court saw a flight risk, but were released on 21 April 2017 after a judge ruled they had cooperated with the investigation and ordered them each to pay $500,000 in bail. Numerous lawsuits including serious allegations of collusion with despotic regimes, mafia, and global criminals are ongoing.

Gabriel Arturo Torres Tejada is a Panamanian footballer who plays for Universidad de Chile and the Panama national football team.

Blas Antonio Pérez Ortega is a former Panamanian footballer who played as a forward.

Amílcar Henríquez Espinosa was a Panamanian footballer.

Felipe Abdiel Baloy Ramírez is a Panamanian former professional footballer who played as a defender. He scored Panama’s first ever goal in a FIFA World Cup, against England at the 2018 edition.

Laurentino "Nito" Cortizo Cohen is a Panamanian politician who has served as President of Panama since 2019. Cortizo Cohen is the former President of the National Assembly and Minister of Agricultural and Livestock Development. He was also a member of the National Assembly between 1994 and 2004, serving a year as chamber president.

Edgardo Díaz is the creator of the "boy band" Menudo. The son of Puerto Ricans "Nacho" Diaz and his wife "Panchi", Díaz grew up in Caguas, Puerto Rico.

Fernando Alfredo Seguignol Garcia is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and outfielder. Seguignol also played 8 years in Nippon Professional Baseball. A switch hitter, Seguignol is regarded as the best switch-hitter ever to play in Japan, along with Orestes Destrade.

Victoria Ann Toensing is an American attorney, Republican Party operative and with her husband, Joseph diGenova, a partner in the Washington law firm diGenova & Toensing. Toensing and diGenova frequently appeared on Fox News and Fox Business channels, until diGenova used a November 2019 appearance to spread conspiracy theories about George Soros, leading to widespread calls for him to be banned from the network. In 2019, Toensing and diGenova were embroiled in the Trump–Ukraine scandal. The couple have worked with Rudy Giuliani in support of President Donald Trump beginning in 2018, and were named to join a legal team led by Giuliani to overturn the results of the 2020 United States presidential election in which Trump was defeated.