List of Famous people born in United States of America
Karan Armstrong
Karan Armstrong was an American operatic soprano, who was celebrated as a singing actress. After winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1966, she was given small roles at the Metropolitan Opera, and appeared in leading roles at the New York City Opera from 1969, including Conceptión in Ravel's L'heure espagnol, Blonde in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and the title roles in Verdi's La traviata, Offenbach's La belle Hélène and Puccini's La fanciulla del West. After she performed in Europe from 1974, first as Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen, and then as a sensational Salome at the Opéra du Rhin, she enjoyed a career at major opera houses, appearing in several opera recordings and films. Armstrong was for decades a leading soprano at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where her husband Götz Friedrich was director. She appeared in world premieres, including Gottfried von Einem's Jesu Hochzeit, Luciano Berio's Un re in ascolto and York Höller's Der Meister und Margarita. She was awarded the title Kammersängerin twice.
Grace Hopper
Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first linkers. Hopper was the first to devise the theory of machine-independent programming languages, and the FLOW-MATIC programming language she created using this theory was later extended to create COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today.
Whitney Wolfe Herd
Whitney Wolfe Herd is an American entrepreneur. She is founder and CEO of Bumble, a social and dating app, launched in 2014. In 2016 and 2017 respectively, Bumble launched BumbleBFF, an app for finding friends, and BumbleBizz, a professional networking app. According to Forbes, the company is valued at more than $1 billion.
Deborah Ann Woll
Deborah Ann Woll is an American actress. She is known for her roles as the vampire Jessica Hamby on the HBO drama series True Blood (2008–2014) and Karen Page in the Netflix shows Daredevil (2015–2018), The Defenders (2017), and The Punisher (2017–2019). She has also starred in the films Mother's Day (2010), Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You (2011), Catch .44 (2011), Ruby Sparks (2012), Meet Me in Montenegro (2014), The Automatic Hate (2015), and Escape Room (2019).
Gloria E. Anzaldúa
Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa was an American scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. She loosely based her best-known book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, on her life growing up on the Mexico–Texas border and incorporated her lifelong experiences of social and cultural marginalization into her work. She also developed theories about the marginal, in-between, and mixed cultures that develop along borders, including on the concepts of Nepantla, Coyoxaulqui imperative, new tribalism, and spiritual activism.
Jared Padalecki
Jared Tristan Padalecki is an American actor. He is best known for playing the role of Sam Winchester in the TV series Supernatural. He grew up in Texas and rose to fame in the early 2000s after appearing on the television series Gilmore Girls as well as the films New York Minute (2004) and House of Wax (2005).
Barry Bonds
Barry Lamar Bonds is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants. He received a record seven NL MVP awards, eight Gold Glove awards, a record 12 Silver Slugger awards, and 14 All-Star selections. He is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
Eric Berry
Eric Berry is a former American football safety. He played college football at Tennessee, where he was a two-time unanimous All-American and recognized as the best collegiate defensive back in the country. He was then drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs fifth overall in the 2010 NFL Draft. Berry has been voted to the Pro Bowl five times and has been named to the First Team All-Pro three times.
Virginia Roberts Guiffre
Virginia Louise Giuffre is an American advocate of justice for sex trafficking victims. She is one of the most prominent and outspoken survivors of the sex trafficking ring that was operated by convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. She founded the nonprofit organization Victims Refuse Silence in 2015 and has been widely featured in interviews with American and British media describing her alleged experiences of being trafficked by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, to individuals including Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, and Jean-Luc Brunel.
Justin Townes Earle
Justin Townes Earle was an American singer-songwriter and musician. After his debut, EP Yuma (2007), he released eight full-length albums. He was recognized with an Americana Music Award for Emerging Artist of the Year in 2009 and for Song of the Year in 2011 for "Harlem River Blues". His father is alternative country artist Steve Earle.