Famous People from Canada

99 notable historical figures from Canada, including leaders, artists, scientists, and other influential people.

Elon Musk

1971 – Present

businessman and entrepreneur (born 1971)

Born June 28

Justin Bieber

1994 – Present

Canadian singer (born 1994)

Born March 1

Céline Dion

1968 – Present

Canadian singer (born 1968)

Born March 30

Justin Trudeau

1971 – Present

23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025

Born December 25

Avril Lavigne

1984 – Present

Canadian singer and songwriter (born 1984)

Born September 27

Leonard Cohen

1934 – 2016

Canadian singer, songwriter and poet (1934–2016)

Born September 21

Jim Carrey

1962 – Present

Canadian-American actor and comedian (born 1962)

Born January 17

Alice Munro

1931 – 2024

Canadian writer (1931–2024)

Born July 10

Keanu Reeves

1964 – Present

Canadian actor and musician (born 1964)

Born September 2

James Cameron

1954 – Present

Canadian and New-Zealander filmmaker (born 1954)

Born August 16

Dwayne Johnson

1972 – Present

American actor and professional wrestler (born 1972)

Born May 2

Jessica Alba

1981 – Present

American actress (born 1981)

Born April 28

Stephen Harper

1959 – Present

22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015

Born April 30

Pamela Anderson

1967 – Present

Canadian actress and model (born 1967)

Born July 1

Margaret Atwood

1939 – Present

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pépiniériste and inventor (born 1939)

Born November 18

Mary Pickford

1892 – 1979

Canadian actress and producer (1892–1979)

Born April 8

Donald Sutherland

1935 – 2024

Canadian actor (1935–2024)

Born July 17

Matthew Perry

1969 – 2023

American-Canadian actor (1969–2023)

Born August 19

Bryan Adams

1959 – Present

Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and photographer

Born November 5

Nelly Furtado

1978 – Present

Portuguese-Canadian singer and songwriter

Born December 2

Marshall McLuhan

1911 – 1980

Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar (1911–1980)

Born July 21

Pierre Trudeau

1919 – 2000

Prime Minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and 1980 to 1984 (1919–2000)

Born October 18

Brie Larson

1989 – Present

Canadian-American actress and singer

Born October 1

Mark Carney

1965 – Present

24th prime minister of Canada since 2025

Born March 16

Ryan Reynolds

1976 – Present

Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer

Born October 23

Mike Myers

1963 – Present

Canadian actor, comedian and filmmaker

Born May 25

Donna Strickland

1959 – Present

Canadian physicist, Nobel laurate

Born May 27

Michael J. Fox

1961 – Present

Canadian-American actor, comedian, author, film producer, and activist

Born June 9

Frank Gehry

1929 – 2025

Canadian and American architect (1929–2025)

Born February 28

Brendan Fraser

1968 – Present

Canadian-American actor (born 1968)

Born December 3

Conrad Bain

1923 – 2013

Canadian-American actor, personality, entertainer, and activist (1923–2013)

Born February 4

Alanis Morissette

1974 – Present

Canadian-American singer

Born June 1

Jordan Peterson

1962 – Present

Canadian clinical psychologist, author, and political commentator and manosphere activist

Born June 12

Evangeline Lilly

1979 – Present

Canadian actress (born 1979)

Born August 3

Lester B. Pearson

1897 – 1972

14th Prime Minister of Canada, from 1963 to 1968 (1897–1972)

Born April 23

Neil Young

1945 – Present

Canadian singer, songwriter and filmmaker (born 1945)

Born November 12

William Shatner

1931 – Present

Canadian actor (born 1931)

Born March 22

Leslie Nielsen

1926 – 2010

European-Canadian/American businessman, entrepreneur, actor, producer and comedian (1926–2010)

Born February 11

Kiefer Sutherland

1966 – Present

British-Canadian actor (born 1966)

Born December 21

Frederick Banting

1891 – 1941

Canadian medical scientist and doctor (1891-1941)

Born November 14

John Kenneth Galbraith

1908 – 2006

Canadian-American economist and diplomat (1908–2006)

Born October 15

Shania Twain

1965 – Present

Canadian country music singer and songwriter

Born August 28

Sunny Leone

1981 – Present

American-Canadian actress, model and former pornographic actress

Born May 13

Wayne Gretzky

1961 – Present

Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1961)

Born January 26

The Weeknd

1990 – Present

Canadian singer and songwriter (born 1990)

Born February 16

Cobie Smulders

1982 – Present

Canadian actress (born 1982)

Born April 3

David Cronenberg

1943 – Present

Canadian filmmaker (born 1943)

Born March 15

Willard Boyle

1924 – 2011

Canadian physicist and inventor (1924–2011)

Born August 19

Kim Campbell

1947 – Present

19th Prime Minister of Canada in 1993

Born March 10

Richard E. Taylor

1929 – 2018

Canadian physicist (1929-2018)

Born November 2

William Gibson

1948 – Present

American-Canadian speculative fiction writer

Born March 17

Anna Paquin

1982 – Present

New Zealand actress (born 1982)

Born July 24

Catherine O'Hara

1954 – 2026

Canadian-American actress and screenwriter (1954–2026)

Born March 4

Arthur B. McDonald

1943 – Present

Canadian physicist (born 1943)

Born August 29

Norma Shearer

1902 – 1983

Canadian-American actress (1902-1983)

Born August 10

Paul Martin

1938 – Present

prime minister of Canada from 2003 to 2006

Born August 28

Denis Villeneuve

1967 – Present

Canadian film director and screenwriter (born 1967)

Born October 3

Naomi Klein

1970 – Present

Canadian author and activist (born 1970)

Born May 8

Jean Chrétien

1934 – Present

prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003

Born January 11

Bertram Brockhouse

1918 – 2003

Canadian physicist

Born July 15

Jim Peebles

1935 – Present

Canadian-American astronomer & Nobel Laureate in Physics

Born April 25

Geoffrey Hinton

1947 – Present

British-Canadian computer scientist and psychologist

Born December 6

Sue Gardner

1967 – Present

Canadian journalist and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation

Born May 11

John A. Macdonald

1815 – 1891

1st prime minister of Canada from 1867 to 1873 and 1878 to 1891

Born January 11

Albert Bandura

1925 – 2021

Canadian psychologist (1925–2021)

Born December 4

Hayden Christensen

1981 – Present

Canadian actor (born 1981)

Born April 19

Steven Pinker

1954 – Present

Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, linguist, and author, an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of the mind

Born September 18

Jacques Villeneuve

1971 – Present

Canadian racecar driver (born 1971)

Born April 9

Lara Fabian

1970 – Present

Belgian and Canadian singer and songwriter

Born January 9

Sidney Altman

1939 – 2022

Canadian American molecular biologist (1939-2022)

Born May 7

Eckhart Tolle

1948 – Present

German spiritual teacher and author

Born February 16

Carrie-Anne Moss

1967 – Present

Canadian actress, producer and model

Born August 21

Dan Aykroyd

1952 – Present

Canadian-American actor (born 1952)

Born July 1

William Giauque

1895 – 1982

American chemist (1895-1982)

Born May 12

Brian Mulroney

1939 – 2024

Prime Minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993

Born March 20

Walter Kohn

1923 – 2016

American physicist (1923–2016)

Born March 9

Mylène Farmer

1961 – Present

French singer and songwriter (born 1961)

Born September 12

Erving Goffman

1922 – 1982

Canadian-American sociologist (1922–1982)

Born June 11

Paul Anka

1941 – Present

Canadian singer and actor

Born July 30

James Naismith

1861 – 1939

Canadian-American coach; inventor of basketball

Born November 6

Ralph Steinman

1943 – 2011

Canadian immunologist and cell biologist (1943–2011)

Born January 14

George A. Romero

1940 – 2017

Canadian-American filmmaker (1940–2017)

Born February 4

Seth Rogen

1982 – Present

Canadian actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1982)

Born April 15