List of Famous people with last name Rao

Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and choreographer, known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema and a few Hindi and Kannada films. He has garnered eight state Nandi Awards, the IIFA Award, the SIIMA Award, five Filmfare Awards South and two CineMAA Awards. In a film career spanning more than five decades, Rao has directed more than a hundred feature films, of which around ninety were box office hits, across multiple genres such as romantic comedy, fantasy, melodrama, action thriller, biographical and romance films.

Dileep A. Rao is an American actor who has appeared in feature films and television series. He starred in Sam Raimi's horror film Drag Me to Hell (2009), James Cameron's science fiction film Avatar (2009), and Christopher Nolan's thriller Inception (2010).

Poonam Mahajan alias Poonam Vajendla Rao is an Indian politician who serves as the Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Mumbai North Central, constituency, Maharashtra. She is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. She also served as the National President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party, since December 2016 to September 2020. Poonam was also the President of the Basketball Federation of India, the first female to hold this position. Apart from that she currently serves as Chairman of the Maharashtra State Animal Welfare Board and is the only Member of Parliament on CM of Maharashtra's War Room.

Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao FRS, is an Indian chemist who has worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry. He has honorary doctorates from 83 universities from around the world, and has authored around 1,770 research publications and 53 books. He is described as a scientist who had won all possible awards in his field except the Nobel Prize.

Namrata Rao is an Indian film editor, who works in Hindi cinema, where starting with Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008), she edited films like Ishqiya (2010), Band Baaja Baaraat (2010), Ladies vs Ricky Bahl (2011) and Kahaani (2012). She is most famous for editing and acting in the film Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010) for which she received the Filmfare Award for Best Editing in 2011. She received National Film Award for Best Editing and Filmfare Award for Best Editing for the critically acclaimed Kahaani (2012).

Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao,, commonly known as C. R. Rao, is an Indian-American mathematician and statistician. He is currently professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University and Research Professor at the University at Buffalo. Rao has been honoured by numerous colloquia, honorary degrees, and festschrifts and was awarded the US National Medal of Science in 2002. The American Statistical Association has described him as "a living legend whose work has influenced not just statistics, but has had far reaching implications for fields as varied as economics, genetics, anthropology, geology, national planning, demography, biometry, and medicine." The Times of India listed Rao as one of the top 10 Indian scientists of all time. In 2023, Rao was awarded the International Prize in Statistics, an award often touted as the "statistics’ equivalent of the Nobel Prize". Rao is also a Senior Policy and Statistics advisor for the Indian Heart Association non-profit focused on raising South Asian cardiovascular disease awareness.

Jaithirth Rao, popularly known as Jerry Rao, is an Indian businessman and entrepreneur. He is the founder and former CEO of the software company Mphasis. He is the founder of Value and Budget Housing Corporation (VBHC), an affordable housing venture which he founded in 2008. He was also a founder and director of Home First Finance Company, a Housing Finance company focused on providing housing finance to first time home buyers. He was also a member of the editorial advisory board of the Swarajya magazine.

S. V. Krishnamoorthy Rao was an Indian Politician belonging to the Indian National Congress. He was a member of the Upper House of the Indian Parliament the Rajya Sabha from 1952 to 1962.He was also the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.He was elected to the Lower House of Parliament the Lok Sabha from the Shimoga, Mysore State in 1962 and was the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1962 to 1967.

Mosalikanti Thirumala Rao was an Indian freedom activist and Parliament member.

Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao is a mechanical engineer, billionaire industrialist, the founder chairman of GMR Group, a global infrastructure developer and operator based in India. Started in 1978, GMR Group is now present in 7 countries, active in energy, highways, large urban development and airports sectors, known for building and operating world class national assets.