List of Famous people born in Trinidad and Tobago
Nicki Minaj
Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, known professionally as Nicki Minaj, is a Trinidadian-American rapper, singer, songwriter, actress, and model. Born in the Saint James district of Port of Spain and raised in the Queens borough of New York City, she gained public recognition after releasing the mixtapes Playtime Is Over (2007), Sucka Free (2008), and Beam Me Up Scotty (2009).
Dwayne Bravo
Dwayne John Bravo is a Trinidadian cricketer who is a former captain of the West Indies cricket team. A genuine all-rounder, Bravo bats right-handed and bowls right-arm medium-fast pace. He is particularly known for his aggressive batting in the middle order, and for his death bowling. He is also known for his variety of lengths he can bowl at. He also performs as a singer.
Wintley Phipps
Wintley Augustus Phipps, Sr. is a Trinidadian-American singer, songwriter, record producer, and minister, and founder of the U.S. Dream Academy, Songs of Freedom Publishing Company, and Coral Records Recording Company. He features a booming baritone voice, usually singing inspirational gospel music. He is an ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister.
Billy Ocean
Leslie Sebastian Charles,, known professionally as Billy Ocean, is a Trinidadian-British recording artist who had a string of R&B international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s. He was the most popular Trinidad–British R&B singer-songwriter of the early to mid-1980s. After scoring his first four UK Top 20 successes, seven years passed before he accumulated a series of transatlantic successes, including three US No. 1's. His 1985 hit "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" reached No. 1 in the UK and No. 2 in the US. In 1985, Ocean won the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his worldwide hit "Caribbean Queen " and in 1987 was nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male Artist. His 1988 hit "Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car" reached No. 1 in the US and No. 3 in the UK. His 1986 hit "There'll Be Sad Songs " also reached No. 1 in the US.
Annie Dookhan
Annie Dookhan is an American convicted felon who formerly worked as a chemist at Massachusetts Department of Public Health Drug of Abuse lab and admitted to falsifying evidence, affecting up to 34,000 cases.
Kieron Pollard
Kieron Adrian Pollard is a Trinidadian cricketer. He captains the West Indies cricket team in limited overs cricket. An aggressive all-rounder, Pollard is a medium-pace bowler and big-hitting batsman in the middle-order. After shining during the 2009 Champions League, he was signed by both the Southern Redbacks and Somerset for their domestic Twenty20 campaigns. He was the joint highest paid player in the 2010 Indian Premier League, playing for Mumbai Indians.
Floella Benjamin
Floella Karen Yunies Benjamin, Baroness Benjamin, is a Trinidadian-British actress, author, television presenter, singer, businesswoman and politician. She is known as presenter of children's programmes such as Play School, Play Away and Fast Forward. On 28 June 2010, Lady Benjamin was introduced to the House of Lords as a life peer nominated by the Liberal Democrats.
Claudia Jones
Claudia Jones, née Claudia Vera Cumberbatch, was a Trinidad and Tobago-born journalist and activist. As a child, she migrated with her family to the US, where she became a Communist political activist, feminist and black nationalist, adopting the name Jones as "self-protective disinformation". Due to the political persecution of Communists in the US, she was deported in 1955 and subsequently lived in the United Kingdom. She founded Britain's first major black newspaper, West Indian Gazette (WIG), in 1958.
Heather Headley
Heather Headley is a Trinidadian-American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the titular role of Aida. She also won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album for her album Audience of One. In 2018, she recurred as Gwen Garrett on the NBC medical drama television series Chicago Med.
Trevor McDonald
Sir Trevor McDonald is a Trinidadian-British newsreader and journalist, best known for his career as a news presenter with ITN.
Ato Boldon
Ato Jabari Boldon is a former track and field athlete and politician from Trinidad and Tobago and four-time Olympic medal winner. He holds the Trinidad and Tobago national record in the 50, 60 and 200 metres events with times of 5.64, 6.49 and 19.77 seconds respectively, and also the Commonwealth Games record in the 100 m. He also held the 100m national record at 9.86s, having run it four times until Richard Thompson ran 9.85s on 13 August 2011.
Brian Lara
Brian Charles Lara, is a Trinidadian former international cricketer, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds several cricketing records, including the record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket, with 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in 1994, which is the only quintuple-hundred in first-class cricket history.
Joel Wilson
Joel Sheldon Wilson is an international cricket umpire from Trinidad and Tobago. Wilson is currently a member of the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires, representing the West Indies. He stands in matches of all the three formats of international cricket – Tests, One Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). He is famous for being the first International Cricket Umpire with severe vision impairment. This has only slightly altered his performance.
Kerron Clement
Kerron Stephon Clement is a Trinidadian-born American track and field athlete who competes in the 400-meter hurdles and 400-meter sprint. He held the indoor world record in the 400-meter sprint, having broken Michael Johnson's mark in 2005.
Kenwyne Jones
Kenwyne Joel Jones CM is a Trinidadian retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He began his football career with Joe Public in his native Trinidad and Tobago. He moved to W Connection in 2002, and he was a utility player in the Trinidad and Tobago team in 2003 against Finland. In 2004, he joined Southampton, where he was converted to a striker. He was later loaned to Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke City during the 2004–05 season.
Haddaway
Nestor Alexander Haddaway is a Trinidadian-German singer best known for his 1993 hit single "What Is Love", which reached number 1 in 13 countries.
Samuel Badree
Samuel Badree is a Trinidadian cricketer who plays internationally for the West Indies. He is a right-arm leg-spin bowler.
Jevon King
Miss Universe 2014, the 63rd Miss Universe pageant, was held on 25 January 2015 at the American Airlines Arena at the Florida, United States. Gabriela Isler of Venezuela crowned her successor Paulina Vega of Colombia at the end of the event. This is the second time that Colombia has won the title.
Lendl Simmons
Lendl Mark Platter Simmons is a Trinidadian cricketer who plays internationally for the West Indies. He is a right-handed batsman, an occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, and a part-time wicket-keeper. His uncle is former West Indian Test cricketer Phil Simmons.
Steffon Armitage
Steffon Armitage is an English professional rugby union player who currently plays for and captains French Top 14 club Biarritz.