List of Famous people born in Wisconsin, United States of America
Stacey Abrams
Stacey Yvonne Abrams is an American politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, and author who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017, serving as minority leader from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Abrams founded Fair Fight Action, an organization to address voter suppression, in 2018. Her efforts have been widely credited with boosting voter turnout in Georgia, including in the 2020 presidential election, where Joe Biden won the state, and in Georgia's 2020–21 U.S. Senate election and special election, which gave Democrats control over the Senate. In 2021, Abrams was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, for her efforts in the 2020 election.
Elizabeth Cheney
Elizabeth Lynne Cheney is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Wyoming's at-large congressional district since 2017. Cheney is the House Republican Conference Chair, the third-highest position in the House Republican leadership. She is the third woman elected to that position after Deborah Pryce and Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
Chris Farley
Christopher Crosby Farley was an American actor and comedian. Farley was known for his loud, energetic comedic style, and was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and later a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live between 1990 and 1995. He then went on to pursue a film career, appearing in films such as Coneheads, Tommy Boy, Black Sheep, Beverly Hills Ninja, Billy Madison, Dirty Work, and Almost Heroes (1998). He died of a drug overdose at the age of 33.
Ed Gein
Edward Theodore Gein, also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American convicted murderer and body snatcher. Gein's crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety in 1957 after authorities discovered he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. Gein also confessed to killing two women: tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954 and hardware store owner Bernice Worden in 1957.
Chris Noth
Christopher David Noth is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his television roles as NYPD Detective Mike Logan on Law & Order (1990–95), Big on Sex and the City (1998–2004), and Peter Florrick on The Good Wife (2009–16). He reprised his role of Mike Logan on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2005–08), and reprised his role of Big in the films, Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010). He was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television for Sex and the City in 1999 and for The Good Wife in 2010.
Danica Patrick
Danica Sue Patrick is an American former professional racing driver. She is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel racing—her victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 is the only win by a woman in an IndyCar Series race.
Jordan Poole
Jordan Anthony Poole is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Michigan Wolverines. He attended Rufus King High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin through his junior year. Then, he transferred to play his senior season for La Lumiere School in La Porte, Indiana. He was 2016 first team All-Wisconsin selection as a junior and a member of the 2017 Dick's National High School Championship winner as a senior. At Michigan he was a member of the 2018 Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament championship 2017–18 team. He is best known for a game-winning buzzer beater three-point shot that he made as a true freshman to help the 2017–18 Wolverines advance to the Sweet Sixteen round of the 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament as part of their road to the 2018 NCAA Championship Game.
Rachel Brosnahan
Rachel Elizabeth Brosnahan is an American actress. She stars as aspiring stand-up comedian Miriam "Midge" Maisel in the critically acclaimed Prime Video period comedy series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017–present), for which she has won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2018 and two consecutive Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 2018 and 2019. She also had a recurring role in the Netflix political thriller series House of Cards (2013–2015), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and played a lead role in the WGN drama series Manhattan (2014–15).
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor and producer. He began acting in the early 1990s and first gained recognition for his work in Kenneth Lonergan's play This Is Our Youth (1998) and drama film You Can Count On Me (2000). He went on to star in the romantic comedies 13 Going on 30 (2004) and Just like Heaven (2005) and the thrillers Zodiac (2007) and Shutter Island (2010); and received a Tony Award nomination for his supporting role in the Broadway revival of Awake and Sing! in 2006. Ruffalo gained international recognition for playing Bruce Banner / Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Also in 2019, Ruffalo starred in and co-produced Dark Waters.
Paul Ryan
Paul Davis Ryan is a retired American politician who served as the 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from October 2015 to January 2019. He was also the 2012 vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party, running unsuccessfully alongside Mitt Romney.