This is a list of notable people from Palo Alto, California. It includes people who were born/raised in, lived in, or spent portions of their lives in Palo Alto, or for whom Palo Alto is a significant part of their identity.
Actors
Visual arts
Fine artists
Designers
Business leaders and entrepreneurs
Musicians
- William Ackerman, acoustic guitarist, founded influential New Age record label Windham Hill Records
- Joan Baez, folk singer, went to school in Palo Alto, now resides in Woodside, California
- Lindsey Buckingham, musician, singer, songwriter, and producer, best known as lead guitarist and one of the vocalists of the musical group Fleetwood Mac, born and raised in Palo Alto
- Doug Clifford, drummer of Creedence Clearwater Revival and Palo Alto native
- The Donnas, rock group, met while growing up in Palo Alto; graduated from Palo Alto High in 1997
- The Grateful Dead, rock "jam" band; early incarnations of the band were based in Palo Alto
- Jerry Garcia (1942âÂÂ1995), founding member of the Grateful Dead; moved to Palo Alto in the 1960s
- Bill Kreutzmann (born 1946), founding member and drummer of the Grateful Dead; born and raised in Palo Alto
- Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (1945âÂÂ1973), founding member of the Grateful Dead; moved to Palo Alto as a teenager; buried at Alta Mesa Memorial Park
- Stephan Jenkins, rock musician with Third Eye Blind and Gunn High School alumnus (1983)
- The Kingston Trio, folk group, formed in Palo Alto while its members were enrolled at Stanford University and nearby Menlo College
- Rick Nowels, pop music record producer and songwriter
- Virginia Seay, composer and musicologist, born in Palo Alto in 1922
- Matt Simons, singer-songwriter, born and raised in Palo Alto; graduated from Gunn High School in 2005
- Grace Slick, singer with the rock group Jefferson Airplane, later known as Jefferson Starship
- Molly Tuttle, singer-songwriter, banjo player, guitarist, recording artist, and teacher in the bluegrass tradition, raised in Palo Alto and attended Palo Alto High School
- Ugly Kid Joe, rock band; members Whitfield Crane and Klaus Eichstadt grew up in Palo Alto, as did producer Eric Valentine
- Remi Wolf, indie pop singer-songwriter, born and raised in Palo Alto; graduated from Palo Alto High School in 2014
Politicians, political figures and civil servants
- Robert Bell, Virginia State Delegate, born in Palo Alto
- Ron Christie, former advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney and political pundit
- Jerry Daniels, CIA officer in Laos during the Vietnam War
- Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States; starting in 1916, maintained a home in Palo Alto
- Jon Huntsman, Jr., former governor of Utah and U.S. Ambassador to China
- Merrill Newman (born 1928), Palo Alto Channing House resident, former United States Army officer, and Korean War veteran, noted for his 2013 arrest in North Korea
- Guy H. Preston, US Army brigadier general
- JB Pritzker, governor of Illinois and member of the Pritzker family
- Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State
- Thomas T. Riley, former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco
- Manabendra Nath Roy, Indian nationalist and revolutionary
- Byron Sher (born 1928), served in the California State Senate 1996âÂÂ2004, the California State Assembly from 1980 and 1996, and was a professor emeritus at Stanford Law School
- Sarah Wallis (1825âÂÂ1905), first president of the California Woman Suffrage Educational Association
- Ron Wyden, United States Senator
Religion
Scientists
- Richard R. Ernst, Nobel laureate in chemistry, worked at Varian Associates in Palo Alto
- Gene F. Franklin, control engineer and NASA scientist
- Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist, author, and college professor; attended Cubberly High School and built an atom smasher in his parents' garage
- Brian Kobilka, Nobel laureate in chemistry, lives in Palo Alto
- Arthur Kornberg (1918âÂÂ2007), Nobel prize-winning biochemist
- Pamela Melroy, astronaut and second woman to command a space shuttle mission
- Maryam Mirzakhani (1977âÂÂ2017), Iranian mathematician and professor of mathematics at Stanford University
- Souvik Bose, an Indian astrophysicist, works in Lockheed Martin & NASA
- James G. Moore (born 1930), geologist, born in Palo Alto
- Ida Shepard Oldroyd, conchologist and curator (1856–1940)
- Perley Ason Ross, physicist who worked on essential problems in the behavior of X-rays
- William Shockley, Nobel laureate in physics and eugenicist
- Robert Spinrad (1932âÂÂ2009), computer pioneer as director of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
- Sidney Dean Townley, astronomer, geodeticist, and Stanford University professor emeritus
Writers
Athletes
- Davante Adams, NFL wide receiver for the Las Vegas Raiders, East Palo Alto resident and Palo Alto High School graduate
- Harris Barton (born 1964), All Pro NFL offensive lineman
- Matt Biondi (born 1965), swimmer and winner of 11 Olympic medals (8 gold), born in Palo Alto
- Hunter Bishop (born 1998), baseball player
- Paul Blanchette (born 1994), soccer player
- Nick Bravin (born 1971), Olympic fencer
- Sebastian DeFrancesco, paralympic athlete and table tennis player
- Jim Harbaugh, former football player and current head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1982
- Tony Hargain, NFL player
- Phil Hellmuth, professional poker player, holds a record 16 WSOP bracelets with total earnings of more than $25 million to date
- Katie Hoff, Olympic swimmer, Palo Alto native
- Adam Juratovac, professional football player and Arena Bowl XXIII champion alumnus of Gunn High School
- Dana Kirk, Olympic swimmer, coaches for Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics
- Tara Kirk, Olympic swimmer, swam with Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics; American record holder in 100 and breaststroke
- Hilary Knight, PHWL ice hockey player, 1-time Olympic gold medal winner, 9-time Women's World Championships winner
- Trajan Langdon, basketball executive and former player
- Francie Larrieu-Smith, long-distance runner and first female athlete to make five Olympic teams, born in Palo Alto
- Jeremy Lin (born 1988), basketball player, formerly for the NBA's Toronto Raptors, alumnus of Palo Alto High School
- Jim Loscutoff, basketball player who won seven NBA championships with the Boston Celtics
- Don MacLean, UCLA and NBA basketball player
- Bob Melvin (born 1961), Major League Baseball player and manager of the San Francisco Giants
- Joc Pederson (born 1992), baseball player for the Arizona Diamondbacks
- Dan Petry, pitcher for 1984 World Series champion Detroit Tigers, born in Palo Alto
- Tim Rossovich, professional football player
- Dave Schultz, Olympic gold medalist and World Champion in freestyle wrestling, subject of film Foxcatcher
- Mark Schultz, Olympic gold medalist and two-time World Champion in freestyle wrestling, subject of film Foxcatcher
- Nolan Siegel, IndyCar driver.
- Pop Warner, early football player and head coach of eight colleges including Stanford University (1924âÂÂ1932), lived and died in Palo Alto
- Charles Wright, professional wrestler, formerly worked for WWE as Papa Shango and The Godfather
- Steve Young, former professional football player for the San Francisco 49ers and NFL Hall of Famer
- Vincent Zhou, figure skater, attended the 2018 Winter Olympics
See also
References