List of Portuguese Americans


This is a list of notable Portuguese Americans, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.

Art and architecture

Business

Culinary

  • Emeril Lagasse is a Portuguese-American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, and cookbook author.
  • David Leite is the Portuguese-American publisher of the two-time James Beard Award-winning website Leite's Culinaria. He has written for The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Bon Appétit, Saveur, Food & Wine, Gourmet, Food Arts, Men's Health, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Chicago Sun Times, The Washington Post, and other publications in the United States and abroad.
  • George Mendes is the Portuguese-American executive chef of Aldea, a Michelin starred restaurant in New York City.
  • Chris Santos is a New York City chef and the former executive chef and owner of The Stanton Social on New York's Lower East Side.
  • Jason Santos is a Boston-based restaurateur, cookbook author, runner-up on Hell's Kitchen season 7 and has appeared on Bar Rescue seasons 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
  • Kevin Sousa (chef) is a professional private chef and consultant. He was previously the executive chef and co-owner of Superior Motors, an American restaurant which opened in July 2017 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was previously the chef/co-owner of Salt of the Earth, Union Pig & Chicken and Station Street Food.

Film and television

Literature

  • Millicent Borges Accardi, Portuguese-American poet. She has received literary fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, Barbara Deming Foundation, Fulbright, CantoMundo, Yaddo, Creative Capacity, Fundação Luso-Americana. Accardi has served as Poet Laureate of Topanga Canyon in Souther California.
  • Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Portuguese-American poet and writer. She is a Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California Riverside and has received several literary fellowships including the Library of Congress, Fulbright, California Arts Council, Fundação Luso-Americana, [Andrew W. Andrew W. Mellon Foundation|Mellon Foundation|Mellon], Daniel and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals, Paul and Clarice Reynolds Distinguished Chair.
  • Larry Correia, Portuguese-American fantasy novelist, known for his Monster Hunter and Grimnoir Chronicles series.
  • Nancy Vieira Couto, well established Portuguese-American poet, born in 1942. She lives in Ithaca, New York.
  • John Dos Passos, major Portuguese-American novelist, journalist, playwright and artist.
  • Charles Reis Felix, writer.
  • Frank X. Gaspar, poet and novelist. Ferrol A. Sams Distinguished Chair, Writer in Residence at Mercer University and teaches in the MFA Writing Program at Pacific University, Oregon.
  • Brian Haberlin, writer and comic book artist. Co-creator of the Witchblade franchise and former editor in chief for Spawn, of Portuguese and Native Hawaiian heritage on his mother's side of the family and of Azorean Portuguese on his grandfather's Haberlin side of the family.
  • Sarah Hoyt, science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction novelist.
  • Emma Lazarus, Portuguese-American Jewish poet born in New York City. She is best known for "The New Colossus", a sonnet written in 1883; its lines appear on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty placed in 1903.
  • David Leite, Portuguese American memoirist, food writer, cookbook author, publisher of the two-time James Beard Award-winning website Leite's Culinaria, and an entrepreneur.
  • George Leite, California author, poet, publisher and bookstore owner of Portuguese descent active in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1940s and 1950s.
  • Judah Monis, North America's first college instructor of Hebrew language.
  • Mordecai Manuel Noah, playwright, diplomat, journalist, and utopian.
  • Sam Pereira, American poet.
  • Stephen Rebello, American writer, screenwriter and former clinical therapist. Born to parents of third-generation Portuguese-American and French-Portuguese American extraction in Fall River, Massachusetts, Rebello was raised in Somerset, Massachusetts.
  • Daniel Silva, American author who writes thriller/espionage novels.
  • Danielle Steel, writer.
  • Katherine Vaz, novelist, short story writer, children's story writer, a Briggs-Copeland Fellow in Fiction at Harvard University and Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study who has been awarded multiple times, including the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, Discovery Prize, Prairie Schooner Award, New York Film Academy and Writer's Store national contest for a screenplay idea based on one of her stories, and is the only Luso Writer included in the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress.
  • Richard Zimler, best-selling author who earned a 1994 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Fiction and the 1998 Herodotus Award. He has been published in many countries and translated into more than 20 languages. Zimler lives in Porto, Portugal, and was a professor of journalism at the University of Porto and College of Journalism for 16 years. He has been a naturalized Portuguese citizen since 2002.

Photography

Military

Music

  • Priscilla Ahn, Singer. She also features her knowledge of the Portuguese language on her song "I Am Strong" featuring DJ Tiesto.
  • Sara Bareilles, singer-songwriter and actress.
  • Nuno Bettencourt, Guitarist for Extreme.
  • Sarah Borges, rock and roll musician from Taunton, Massachusetts, signed to Sugar Hill Records.
  • Craig Chaquico is an American guitarist of Portuguese descent. He has had over thirty years of success in a variety of genres: in the 1970s with the post-Summer of Love Jefferson Starship, in that band's 1980s incarnation, Starship, and in the 1990s and 2000s as contemporary jazz and New Age solo artist.
  • Mary Costa, American singer and actress, who is best known for providing the voice of Princess Aurora in the 1959 Disney film, Sleeping Beauty. She is also a professional opera singer.
  • Phil Demmel, Guitar player for Metal-band Machine Head.
  • Dev, singer.
  • Dez Fafara, vocalist in the Metal-bands DevilDriver and Coal Chamber.
  • Hugo Ferreira, rock musician and singer-songwriter for the band Tantric.
  • Sky Ferreira, singer and songwriter.
  • Kevin Figueiredo, drummer for Extreme.
  • Don Ho, Hawaiian musician, of Chinese, Portuguese, Hawaiian, Dutch and German heritage.
  • Hoku, Hawaiian pop star and actress, daughter of Don Ho
  • Tynisha Keli, R&B and pop singer-songwriter.
  • Vincent Lopez, one of the top bandleaders of the Roaring Twenties.
  • Demi Lovato, American singer with half Mexican, half Irish roots. Their Mexican heritage can be traced back to Portugal.
  • Phil Madeira, is an American songwriter, producer, musician and singer.
  • Teena Marie, American singer. Father was Portuguese.
  • Glenn Medeiros, Hawaiian singer.
  • Jason C. Medeiros better known as Mr. J. Medeiros is an American rapper, record producer, and songwriter. As well as releasing music under the name, Mr. J. Medeiros, he is responsible for forming the Hip Hop group The Procussions, is one half of the Hip Hop/Electronic duo AllttA, and the lead singer of Punk-Rap group thebandknives.
  • Dave Mello, is an American musician known primarily for his work as drummer for the hardcore ska punk band Operation Ivy.
  • Mishlawi, American born hip-hop artist who grew up in Portugal.
  • O.C. Brooklyn, New York MC and member of hip hop stable Diggin' In The Crates
  • Elmar Oliveira, violinist who, in 1978, was the first American to win the gold medal in Moscow's Tchaikovsky competition.
  • Sean Paul, Grammy winner, reggae/pop.
  • Joe Perry – Lead guitarist and contributing songwriter for the rock band Aerosmith.
  • Katy Perry, singer and songwriter, of German, English and Portuguese descent, more specifically "Azorean" with roots in Horta, Faial, disclosed the HuffPost.
  • Linda Perry, songwriter, 2-time Grammy winner.
  • Steve Perry, Former lead singer of the rock band Journey and solo artist.
  • Poppy, American singer-songwriter and YouTube personality of Portuguese descent from Nashville, Tennessee.
  • Ronnie Radke, American singer, songwriter, rapper, musician, and record producer. Former Escape the Fate and current Falling in Reverse vocalist. Radke was born in 1983 in Las Vegas to a mother who is Portuguese.
  • Joe Raposo, American composer and lyricist, 5-time Grammy winner.
  • Joe Raposo, bassist for the punk rock band Lagwagon
  • John Reis, also known by the pseudonyms Speedo, Slasher, and The Swami, is an American musician, singer, guitarist, record label owner, and disc jockey. Reis was born in 1969 in the Ocean Beach area of San Diego, California to Portuguese American heritage.
  • David Lee Roth, American rock vocalist for Van Halen..
  • Curtis Salgado, American singer and harmonica player.
  • David Silveria, is an American musician, best known as the original drummer for nu metal band Korn from 1993 until leaving the band in 2006.
  • John Philip Sousa, American composer known as The March King, inventor of the Sousaphone.
  • Steve "Zetro" Souza, singer
  • Bela Sumares, singer and radio performer
  • Freddie Tavares, helped designed Fender Stratocaster and other Fender products, steel guitarist
  • Ray Toro, lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the band My Chemical Romance
  • Ramana Vieira, contemporary Portuguese-American singer of the traditional Portuguese Fado. January–February 2001 edition of Mundo Português Magazine called Vieira, "The New Voice of Portuguese World Music."

Patriots

  • Peter Francisco, American Revolution patriot.
  • Emma Lazarus, poet and essayist, best known for a sonnet about the Statue of Liberty, "The New Colossus", which was engraved on the statue's pedestal, welcoming immigrants to the United States: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
  • John Philip Sousa, composer of many marching band songs. Wrote "Stars and Stripes Forever" aboard a steam freighter while traveling from Terceira to the U.S.

Politics

Religion

Science and medicine

  • Goncalo R. Abecasis – geneticist at the University of Michigan. One of the world's most cited scientists in 2009.
  • Robert L. Carneiro – prominent anthropologist and curator of the American Museum of Natural History
  • António Damásio – Portuguese-American neuroscientist/neurobiologist. He is a University Professor and David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute and the author of several books describing his scientific thinking.
  • Gregg Gonsalves – Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Yale University and a recipient of a 2018 MacArthur Fellowship
  • Craig C. Mello – winner of 2006 Nobel Prize for Medicine.
  • George Perry – Alzheimer's disease researcher noted for his discovery of the role of oxidative stress in Alzheimer's disease.
  • Manuela Maria Veloso – Head of the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University & Herbert A. Simon University Professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.
  • Paul Silva, was a phycologist, marine biologist, and algal taxonomist considered to be the world's leading expert in the chlorophyte green algal genus Codium. Silva completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Southern California, though his education was interrupted by World War II. He served in the US Navy on the USS Darby, participating in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
  • John D. Silva, was the chief engineer for KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, California and is most famous for inventing the first telecopter, or a helicopter fitted with a TV camera in 1958. In 1942 he joined the Navy as a radar operator and was among the 91 wounded when the destroyer Shea was attacked by Japanese bombers during World War II.
  • Milton Silveira, was an American aerospace engineer, pilot and academic, serving as NASA's Chief Engineer between 1983 and 1986.
  • Robert Freitas, is an American nanotechnologist.
  • Herbert S. Eleuterio, was an American industrial chemist noted for technical contributions to catalysis, polymerization, industrial research management, and science education.
  • Wayne Sousa, s a well-known biologist and ecologist. He works at the University of California, Berkeley as a professor and chair of the Department of Integrative Biology.

Sports

Baseball

Basketball

Golf

  • Billy Andrade, pro golf player.
  • Tony Lema, winner of numerous professional golf tournaments; at the time of his death he ranked tenth in all-time earnings in the PGA.

Mixed martial arts

Boxers

  • Al Mello, was an American Olympic and professional boxer who was a contender for the world middleweight title in 1929–30. He held the New England Welterweight title during his career. Al enlisted in the Army during World War II, and was involved in the Italian Campaign.
  • Babe Herman (boxer), was an American featherweight boxer.
  • Bobo Olson, was an American boxer. He was the World Middleweight champion between October 1953 and December 1955, the longest reign of any champion in that division during the 1950s.
  • Harold Gomes, is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1951 and 1963.
  • Billy Murray (boxer), was an American boxer in the early 20th century.

Soccer

  • Kimberly Maria Brandão, professional women's soccer player who is currently a captain of the full Portugal Women's National Team and also the team captain of professional franchise, Buffalo Flash, a western New York state team which is the most recent winner of the United Soccer Leagues' W-League.
  • Altino "Tino" Domingues, retired soccer defender. He played professionally in the United States and earned four caps with the U.S. national team in 1976.
  • Adelino William ("Billy") Gonsalves, soccer player, sometimes described as the "Babe Ruth of American Soccer". He spent over 25 years playing in various American professional leagues and was a member of the U.S. squad at the FIFA World Cup in 1930 and 1934. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
  • Manuel "Manny" Matos, retired soccer midfielder from New Bedford, Massachusetts who played professionally in the North American Soccer League and American Soccer League.
  • Manuel "Manny" Matos, retired soccer player from Mineola, New York who played professionally in the North American Soccer League and Major Indoor Soccer League.
  • Carlos Mendes, soccer manager and former player currently serving as head coach of New York Cosmos B.
  • Fred "Fredy" Pereira, former soccer forward who spent three seasons in the North American Soccer League and earned six caps with the U.S. national team in 1977.
  • Telmo Pires, retired Portuguese-American soccer player professionally in the North American Soccer League, American Soccer League and Major Indoor Soccer League. He earned one cap with the United States men's national soccer team in 1975.
  • Claudio Reyna, former captain of the U.S. national soccer team.
  • Giovanni Reyna, son of Claudio Reyna, is a footballer, who plays attacking midfield for Borussia Dortmund. Although born in England, He has represented the United States at the Under 15, Under 16, and Under 17 level and is expected to play for the United States Men's National Team.
  • Andrew Sousa, Portuguese American football player from Fall River, Massachusetts; Sousa was drafted in 2011 by the New England Revolution.
  • Ed Souza, soccer player.
  • John Souza, soccer player.
  • Frank Moniz, soccer player.

Wrestling

Other sports

  • Scott Mendes, is an American former professional rodeo cowboy who specialized in bull riding.
  • Jimmy Pedro, is an American retired World Championship and Olympic judoka and current judo coach.
  • James Pedro Sr., is a former national level judoka from the United States and an alternate for the US 1976 Olympic judo team.
  • Dennis Alexio, former world champion kickboxer in the light heavyweight, cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions.
  • Nate Costa, football quarterback for the University of Oregon Ducks. He is of Portuguese descent.
  • Juliana "Juli" Furtado, mountain biker, who began her sports career in skiing. From 1980 to 1987, she was the youngest member of the U.S. National ski team. Although American by birth, Furtado is of partial Portuguese ancestry.
  • Kurt Gouveia, football player who played 13 season in the NFL with the Washington Redskins Philadelphia Eagles and San Diego Chargers and was a member of both their 1987 and 1991 Super Bowl Championship teams. Gouveia was born in Hawaii.
  • Augie Cabrinha, was an American football wingback for the Dayton Triangles of the National Football League. He played college football at Dayton. During World War II, Cabrinha served in the United States Army and attained the rank of captain. He participated in the Battle of Saipan.
  • Vic Seixas, Jr.,, E. Victor Seixas, Jr. Hall of Fame tennis star who won Wimbledon in 1953 and the U.S. Open Championship in 1954.
  • Jamie Silva, football player for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League. He was signed by the Colts as an undrafted free agent in 2008. He played college football at Boston College.
  • Ollie Silva, was an American auto racing driver. Silva served in the United States Army from February 1951 to February 1953, during the Korean War. He later worked as a carpenter and roofer.
  • Ralph Neves, was an American Hall of Fame jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. His long career was interrupted only by several injuries and service in the United States Army Cavalry during World War II; a serious back injury suffered in the war bothered him during the rest of his career.He retired in 1964.
  • Alex Ferreira, is an American halfpipe skier. He competed in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, winning the silver medal in the halfpipe event. He competed in the 2019 Winter X Games XXIII and 2020 Winter X Games XXIV, placing first in the Men's Ski Superpipe.
  • Joe Lopes, was an American former professional skateboarder.
  • Fred Silva, was an American football official in the National Football League for 21 seasons from 1968 to 1988. After completing high school, Silva joined the United States Marine Corps and was honorably discharged a year later in 1946.
  • Jim Mello, was an American football player. As the Second World War continued to rage, Mello served in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1945.

Non-athletes

Others