List of people from the United States Virgin Islands
This is a list of prominent people who were born in, lived in, or are otherwise closely associated with the United States Virgin Islands. This list does not include people from the British Virgin Islands. The list covers notable individuals who have garnered international recognition in artistic, cultural, economic, historical, notorious, and political arenas.
Actors
- Lisa Canning, television actress
- Kelsey Grammer, actor
- Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, actor
- Janelle James, actor
- Jasmin St. Claire, adult film actress
- Omari K. Chancellor, actor
Artists
- Fraser Kershaw, philanthropist, film artist
- Fritz Melbye, marine painter; born in Denmark, lived and painted in the Danish West Indies
- Camille Pissarro, artist, French Impressionist painter
Athletes
- Raja Bell, former professional basketball player
- Tombi Bell, former professional basketball player
- Aliyah Boston, professional basketball player
- Livingstone Bramble, former professional boxing champion; born on St. Kitts & Nevis, raised on St. Croix
- Jerry Browne, professional baseball player
- Joe Christopher, first baseball player born in the territory to play in Major League Baseball
- Horace Clarke, professional baseball player
- Callix Crabbe, Major League Baseball Player
- Midre Cummings, professional baseball player
- Tim Duncan, former professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs
- Brasheedah Elohim, American-Israeli women's professional basketball player
- Emile Griffith, professional boxing champion
- Elrod Hendricks, professional baseball player and coach
- Peter Holmberg, Olympic sailor; as of 2016, the only member of the USVI Olympic Team to win an Olympic medal
- John Jackson, professional boxer
- Julian Jackson, former professional boxing champion
- Julius Jackson, professional boxer
- Milt Newton, former professional basketball player; administrator for multiple NBA teams
- Calvin Pickering, professional baseball player
- "Sugar" Ray Seales, the only American boxer to win gold in the 1972 Summer Olympics
- LaVerne Jones-Ferrette, professional sprinter and Olympian
Entrepreneurs
- Sosthenes Behn, founder of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company and ITT Corporation
- Casper Holstein, numbers racketeer and philanthropist born in Saint Croix
- William Leidesdorff,, entrepreneur
- Bartholomew Sharp,, buccaneer
Historians
- Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, historian, writer, activist, namesake of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; born in Puerto Rico to a mother from St. Croix, attended school on St. Thomas
Models
- Hannah Jeter, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model; born and raised on St. Thomas
Musicians
- Alton Adams, musician, first black bandmaster in the United States Navy
- Bennie Benjamin, composer
- Delyno Brown, reggae artist
- Charles Emanuel, educator, musician, composer, and community activist
- Vanessa Daou, international singer-songwriter, dancer, writer, poet
- Jon Lucien, vocalist and musician; born on the island of Tortola and raised on Saint Thomas
- Rock City, musical duo also known as R. City and Planet VI; formed 2003 in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
- Theron Thomas, member of musical duo Rock City
- Rich Nice, first rapper signed to Motown Records
- Rashawn Ross,, trumpeter, arranger, session musician and a member of the Dave Matthews Band. Born in St Thomas.
Nurses
- Ianthe Blyden, pioneer of nursing at Knud Hansen Memorial Hospital on St. Thomas
- Myrah Keating Smith, the only health provider on St. John for two decades
Pharmacist
- Albert Heinrich Riise, often referred to as A. H. Riise, was a Danish pharmacist and Rum manufacturer from St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies.
Political leaders
- Alexander Hamilton, first United States Secretary of the Treasury, an American "founding father", economist, and political philosopher; born in Nevis, raised on St. Croix
- Archie Alexander, mathematician, engineer, former Governor of the Virgin Islands
- Judah P. Benjamin, first Jewish U.S. Senator; Secretary of State, Confederate States of America
- Edward Wilmot Blyden, Liberian educator, writer, diplomat, and politician
- Frank Rudolph Crosswaith, socialist and labor leader
- Ralph de Magne de Chabert, civic leader, educator, editor, and administrator
- Rothschild Francis, activist and newspaper editor
- Gabriel Milan, colonial governor
- Ron De Lugo, St. Croix politician and former candidate for governor
- Octavius Cato Granady, African American lawyer and politician, and Afro-Caribbean civil rights activist
- Hubert Henry Harrison, orator, political activist
- William H. Hastie, jurist, lawyer, Governor of the Virgin Islands
- Ulises Heureaux, former President of the Dominican Republic
- Casper Holstein, humanitarian
- Roy Innis, African-American activist, civil rights leader
- D. Hamilton Jackson, journalist, labor leader, attorney, judge
- J. Raymond Jones, political leader, humanitarian
- William Leidesdorff, entrepreneur
- Juan Francisco Luis, 24th Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands
- Antonio López de Santa Anna, President of Mexico
- Terence Todman, former U.S. ambassador
- Denmark Vesey, slave revolt leader
- Peter Carl Frederik von Scholten, Governor-General of the Danish West Indies from 1827 to 1848
Writers
- Barbara Christian, educator and writer
- Doris Jadan, author and environmental activist; lived on St. John from 1955 until her death
- Audre Lorde, writer, feminist, civil rights activist; born in New York, died on St. Croix
- Karrine Steffans, author
- Tiphanie Yanique, author; born and raised on St. Thomas