List of Famous people born in South Dakota, United States of America

Lester Lawrence Lessig III is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. Lessig was a candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for president of the United States in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, but withdrew before the primaries.

Dallas Clayton Goedert is an American football tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at South Dakota State, and was drafted by the Eagles in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft.

Sean Robert Doolittle is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics and Washington Nationals.

Bambi Woods is an American former pornographic actress and exotic dancer best known for her appearance as the title character in the 1978 film Debbie Does Dallas. Her meteoric success in the Golden Age of Porn and later disappearance intrigued adult industry writers and caused interest in her whereabouts, and a myth about her having met a sordid fate several years after her heyday began to be accepted as fact.

Sean Covel is an American film producer best known for being a producer of Napoleon Dynamite.

Ben Nguyen or Nguyễn Ben, is an American mixed martial artist who most recently competed as a flyweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he compiled a record of 4–3 with the organization. He is also Nitro Bantamweight Champion, K-Oz Bantamweight Champion and No. 1 Bantamweight in Australia.

Michael Martz is an American football coach. Best known for his coaching tenure with the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League (NFL), he served as the offensive coordinator for the Rams' Greatest Show on Turf offense in 1999 that led the franchise to its first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXIV. Martz subsequently served as the head coach of the Rams from 2000 to 2005, where his teams reached the playoffs four times, won two division titles, and achieved a franchise-best 14–2 record in 2001 en route to an appearance in Super Bowl XXXVI.

Julius Krein is an American conservative political writer and editor best known as the founder of the journal American Affairs.

John Randolph Thune is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from South Dakota, a seat he was first elected to in 2004. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the U.S. Representative for South Dakota's at-large congressional district from 1997 to 2003. Thune became South Dakota's senior U.S. Senator with the retirement of Tim Johnson in 2015. He served as the GOP's Chief Deputy Whip in 2006, chairman of the Republican Policy Committee in June 2009, and Republican Conference Chairman in 2011, the third-ranking position in the Senate. He has worked in politics and civic organizations since completing his MBA graduate degree. He is also the current dean of South Dakota's congressional delegation. Thune was selected by the Senate Republican Conference to become the Majority Whip for the 116th Congress, succeeding Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who was term limited in the position. He is now the Minority Whip.

Kelvin Curtis Torve is a former Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball First baseman, and current head coach of the American Legion Baseball Post 22 Hardhats in Rapid City, South Dakota. Torve batted left and threw right.