List of Famous people born in Southern Province, Sri Lanka

Separamadu Lasith Malinga is a former Sri Lankan cricketer. He captained the Sri Lankan 2014 T20 World Cup winning side. He was considered as one of the best bowlers of his time. He is the only bowler to have taken 4 wickets in 4 consecutive balls in international cricket. He is a right-arm fast bowler that is commonly used as a specialist death bowler, and is well known for his distinctive round-arm action, sometimes referred to as a sling action, which leads to his nicknames, 'Slinga Malinga'.

Lieutenant Colonel Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa, RWP, RSP, psc, GR is a Sri Lankan politician and former military officer currently serving as the 8th President of Sri Lanka since 2019. He has previously served as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development from 2005 to 2015 under the administration of his elder brother former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, leading the Sri Lankan Armed Forces to the military defeat of the Tamil Tigers, which ended the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Percy Mahinda Rajapaksa, commonly known as Mahinda Rajapaksa, is the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and Minister of Finance since 2019. He previously served as the Prime Minister from 2004 to 2005 and as the President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015. Rajapaksa was the Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2004, then again from 2018 to 2019. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kurunegala since the 2015 parliamentary elections.

Deshabandu Sanath Teran Jayasuriya is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and a former captain of the Sri Lankan national team. Considered as one of the greatest attacking batsmen of his era, Jayasuriya is well known for his powerful striking and match-winning all-round performances in ODI cricket. Jayasuriya is credited for having revolutionized one-day international cricket with his explosive batting with Romesh Kaluwitharana in the mid 1990s, which initiated the hard-hitting modern-day batting strategy of all nations. Jayasuriya was an all-rounder, who had an international cricket career that spread over four decades. He is the only player to score over 10,000 runs and capture more than 300 wickets in One Day International cricket, and hence regarded as one of the best all-rounders in the history of limited-overs cricket. He was named the Most Valuable Player of 1996 Cricket World Cup and Wisden Cricketers' Almanack broke an age-old tradition by naming him one of Five Cricketers' of the Year 1997 despite not playing the previous season in England. Jayasuriya was also the captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team from 1999 to 2003.

Hewa Kaluhalamullage Suraj Randiv Kaluhalamulla, formerly Mohamed Marshuk Mohamed Suraj, known popularly as Suraj Randiv, is a former professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who played all formats of the game. He plays first-class cricket for Sinhalese Sports Club. Suraj was educated at Rahula College Matara. He currently resides in Australia and works as a bus driver.

Pinnaduwage Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer who plays for the national team in all three formats of the game. His elder brother, Chaturanga de Silva, has also represented the national team.

Edirimuni Dinuka Nishan Perera Karunaratne is a Sri Lankan badminton player.

Sawan Serasinghe is a badminton player from Australia. He won seven Oceania Championships titles, five in the men's doubles and two in the mixed doubles. Serasinghe competed in the men's doubles event at the 2016 Summer Olympics alongside Matthew Chau.

Niluka Karunaratne is a Sri Lankan Olympic badminton player who compete in 2012 and 2016. He was selected to captain the Sri Lankan contingent to the 2012 Summer Olympics. Karunaratne competed in five consecutives Commonwealth Games from 2002–2018.