50 Celebrities from New Jersey: Famous Jersy-Born People

Located on the east coast of the U.S, New Jersey is considered as one of the most popular states in the whole of North America. Besides these celebrities, there are many more well-known faces who hail from New Jersey. It is also widely believed that New Jersey is one of the wealthiest states in the U.S, because people move to this part of America in considering numbers every year. Not many know that it has great historic significance.

1. Whitney Houston

Name	Whitney Elizabeth Houston
Date of birth	August 9, 1963
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Singer, actress, producer, model

Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born in Newark, New Jersey, U.S, on August 9, 1963. She is the one and only artist to have had 7 consecutive number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, from “Saving All My Love for You” in 1985 to “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” in 1988. She enhanced her fame upon entering the movie industry. Her films and recordings generated both great success and controversy. 

2. David Copperfield

Name	David Seth Kotkin
Date of birth	September 16, 1956
Place of birth	Metuchen, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Magician

David Seth Kotkin was born on September 16, 1956. His career in television began in earnest when he was discovered by Joseph Cates, a producer of Broadway shows and television specials. Cates produced a magic special in 1977 for ABC called The Magic of ABC, hosted by Copperfield, as well as several The Magic of David Copperfield specials on CBS between 1978 and 2001. There have been 18 Copperfield TV specials and 2 documentaries between September 7, 1977, and April 3, 2001.

3. Frank Sinatra

Name	Francis Albert Sinatra
Date of birth	December 12, 1915
Place of birth	Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Singer, actor

Francis Albert Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915. He started singing professionally as a teenager, but although he never learned to read music, he learned it by ear. He got his first breakthrough in 1935 when his mother persuaded a local singing group named the 3 Flashes to allow him to join. Baritone Fred Tamburro said that “Frank hung around us like we were gods or something”, admitting that they only took him on board because of his car and could chauffeur the group around.

4. Meryl Streep

Name	Mary Louise Streep
Date of birth	June 22, 1949
Place of birth	Summit, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress

Mary Louise Streep was born in Summit, New Jersey, on June 22, 1949. She is the daughter of pharmaceutical executive Harry William Streep, Jr and artist Mary Wilkinson Streep. She has two younger brothers, Dana David Streep and Harry William Streep III, both actors. Her father was of Swiss and German descent; Streep’s lineage traced back to Loffenau, from where his great-great-grandfather, Gottfried Streeb, immigrated to the U.S and where one of her ancestors served as mayor.

5. Michael Douglas

Name	Michael Kirk Douglas
Date of birth	September 25, 1944
Place of birth	New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, film producer

Michael Kirk Douglas was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S, on September 25, 1944. His first TV breakthrough play came with a 1969 CBS Playhouse special, The Experiment—and it was the one and only time he was billed as “M.K. Douglas”. On November 24, 1969, Douglas formed his first independent film production company, Bigstick Productions, Limited. Michael started his film career in the late 1960s and early 1970s, appearing in little known films such as Hail, Hero!, Adam at 6 A.M., and Summertree.

6. Sandra Dee

Name	Alexandra Zuck
Date of birth	April 23, 1942
Place of birth	Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, model

Alexandra Zuck was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S. Producer Ross Hunter claimed to have discovered her on Park Avenue in New York City with her mother when she was twelve. In an interview in 1959, Dee recalled that she “grew up fast,” surrounded mostly by the older, and was “never held back in anything she wanted to do.”

During her modeling career, Dee attempted to lose weight to “be as skinny as the high-fashion models,” although an improper diet “ruined her skin, hair, nails—everything.”

7. Peter Dinklage

Name	Peter Hayden Dinklage
Date of birth	June 11, 1969
Place of birth	Jersey Shore, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, producer

Peter Hayden Dinklage is an American actor, producer who was born on June 11, 1969. In May 2009, he was the first person to be cast, as showrunners D. B. Weiss and David Benioff noted that Dinklage, whom they described as witty, funny and smart, was their first choice for the role, as the actor is “core of humanity, covered by a shell of sardonic dry wit, is pretty well in keeping with the character.”

8. Joe Pesci

Name	Joseph Frank Pesci
Date of birth	February 9, 1943
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, musician, singer

Joseph Frank Pesci was born  in Newark, New Jersey, U.S, on February 9, 1943. His father, Angelo Pesci was a forklift driver for General Motors and a bartender, and his mother, Maria (Mesce) worked part time as a barber. He is of Italian descent with family origins both in Aquilonia and Turin in the province of Avellino. Pesci grew up in Belleville, New Jersey, and graduated from Belleville High School. By the time Pesci was 5 years old, he was appearing in plays in New York.

9. Kevin Spacey

Name	Kevin Spacey Fowler
Date of birth	July 26, 1959
Place of birth	South Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, film producer, singer

Kevin Spacey Fowler was born in South Orange, New Jersey, on July 26, 1959, to Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, a technical writer and data consultant, and Kathleen Ann (née Knutson), a secretary. His family moved to Southern California when he was four years old. Spacey has an older brother, Randy Fowler, from whom Spacey is estranged and a sister. His brother has said that their father, whom he described as a racist, was sexually and physically abusive.

10. Tara Reid

Name	Tara Donna Reid
Date of birth	November 8, 1975
Place of birth	Wyckoff, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress

Tara Donna Reid was born on November 8, 1975, in Wyckoff, New Jersey, the daughter of Thomas Reid and Donna (née Bennett), both of whom were day-care center owners and teachers. Her father also worked on Wall Street. She is of mainly Irish with some Hungarian, Scottish, Italian, French, and English descent. She studied in Professional Children’s School in Manhattan, along with fellow actors Jerry O’Connell, Christina Ricci, Macaulay Culkin, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Donald Faison.

11. Ed Harris

Name	Edward Allen Harris
Date of birth	November 28, 1950
Place of birth	Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, filmmaker

Edward Allen Harris started his career on the stage. He played an FBI agent in the world premiere of Thomas Rickman’s play Baalam at the Pasadena Repertory Theatre located at the historic The Hotel Carver in 1976. He followed that at the Pasadena Repertory Theatre in 1976 playing Lot in the West Coast premiere of Tennessee Williams’s play Kingdom of Earth (aka The Seven Descents of Myrtle).

12. Janeane Garofalo

Name	Janeane Marie Garofalo
Date of birth	September 28, 1964
Place of birth	Newton, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, former co-host

Janeane Marie Garofalo was born in Newton, New Jersey, the daughter of Carmine and Joan Garofalo. Her father is a former executive at Exxon. Her mother was a secretary, in the petrochemical industry, who died of cancer when Janeane was 24. . Garofalo is of Italian and Irish descent. She was raised in various places, including Ontario, California; Madison, New Jersey; and Houston, Texas, where she graduated from James E. Taylor High School.

13. Jon Bon Jovi

Name	John Francis Bongiovi Jr.
Date of birth	March 2, 1962
Place of birth	Perth Amboy, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Actor

John Francis Bongiovi Jr. was born on March 2, 1962. In March 1983, he called David Bryan, who in turn called an experienced drummer named Tico Torres and bassist Alec John Such. Guitarist Richie Sambora later participated in the band; Bon Jovi, Such, Sambora, Bryan, and Torres became the founding members of Bon Jovi.

In 1984 and 1985, Bon Jovi released their first 2 albums and their debut single “Runaway” managed to crack the Top 40.

14. John Travolta

Name	John Joseph Travolta
Date of birth	February 18, 1954
Place of birth	Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, singers, aircraft pilot

John Joseph Travolta was born in Englewood, New Jersey, U.S. After dropping out of school, he moved across the Hudson River to New York City, then landed a job in the touring company of the musical Grease and on Broadway in Over Here!, singing the Sherman Brothers’ song “Dream Drummin'”. He then moved to Los Angeles for professional reasons.

Travolta’s first screen role in California was as a fall victim in Emergency! (Season 2, Episode 2) in September, 1972

15. Jack Nicholson

Name	John Joseph Nicholson
Date of birth	April 22, 1937
Place of birth	Neptune City, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, filmmaker

John Joseph Nicholson was born in Neptune City, New Jersey, U.S. He got a job as an office worker for animation directors Joseph Barbera and William Hanna at the MGM cartoon studio. The studio offered him an entry-level job as an animator, but he denied, citing his desire to become an actor. While receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 56th Golden Globe Awards, Nocholson recalled that his first day as a working actor was 5 May, 1955, which he considered a lucky number, because 5 was the jersey number of his boyhood idol, Joe DiMaggio.

16. Jerry Lewis

Name	Joseph Levitch
Date of birth	March 16, 1926
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Comedian, actor, singer, director, producer, screenwriter, humanitarian

Joseph Levitch was born in Newark, New Jersey, U.S, on March 16, 1926. In 1945, Lewis was 19 years old when he first met singer Dean Martin, who was 27 years old at the Glass Hat Club in New York City, in which the two performed until they debuted at 500 Club in  Atlantic City as Lewis and Martin on July 25, 1946. The duo got attention as a double act with Martin serving as the man to Lewis’s zany antics.

17. Shaquille O’Neal

Name	Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal
Date of birth	March 6, 1972
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Former professional basketball player

Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal was born on March 6, 1972. After playing college basketball for the LSU Tigers, he was drafted by the Orlando Magic with the highest overall pick in the 1992 NBA draft. O’Neal quickly became one of the best centers in the league, winning Rookie of the Year award in 1992–1993 and leading his team to the 1995 NBA Finals. After 4 years with the Magic, he signed as a free agent with the LA Lakers. They won 3 consecutive championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002.

18. Ice-T

Name	Tracy Lauren Marrow
Date of birth	February 16, 1958
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Rapper, actor, songwriter, producer, author

Tracy Lauren Marrow, the son of Alice and Solomon Alice Marrow, was born in Newark, New Jersey on February 16, 1958. His father, Solomon was African-American and his mother, Alice was from a Louisiana Creole background. For decades, he worked as a conveyor belt mechanic at the Rapistan Conveyor Company. When he was a child, his family relocated to upscale Summit, New Jersey.

19. John Amos

Name	John Allen Amos Jr.
Date of birth	December 27, 1939
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor

John Allen Amos Jr. became well known in his first major television role, playing Gordy Howard, the weatherman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, from 1970 to 1973. Upon the death of Betty White, he and Joyce Bulifant (who played Marie Slaughter) became the last surviving semi-regular cast members of that show (not counting child actors). In 1971, he appeared with Anson Williams in a commercial for McDonald’s.

20. Lauryn Hill

Name	Lauryn Noelle Hill
Date of birth	May 26, 1975
Place of birth	East Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Rapper, songwriter, singer, record producer, actress

Lauryn Noelle Hill was born May 26, 1975. While a freshman in high school, through mutual friends, Prakazrel Michel approached Hill about a music group he was creating. Hill and Pras started under the name Translator Crew. They came up with that name because they wanted to rhyme in different languages. Another female vocalist was soon replaced by Prakazrel’s cousin, multi-instrumentalist Wyclef Jean. The group began performing in local showcases and high school talent shows.

21. Ray Liotta

Name	Ray Liotta
Date of birth	December 18, 1954
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, film producer

Ray Liotta was born on December 18, 1954, in Newark, New Jersey, U.S. He was abandoned at an orphanage, Liotta was adopted at the age of 6 months by auto-parts store owner Alfred Liotta and township clerk Mary (née Edgar). His adoptive parents were of Scottish  and Italian descent. Alfred was a personnel director and president of a local Democratic Party club.

22. Christina Ricci

Name	Christina Ricci
Date of birth	February 12, 1980
Place of birth	Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress

Christina Ricci was born in Santa Monica, California, on February 12, 1980, the youngest of four children of Ralph Ricci and Sarah (née Murdoch). Her father had a varied career, including many jobs as a lawyer, gym teacher, primal scream therapist, and drug counselor. Her mother worked as a Ford Agency model during the 1960s and later became a real estate agent. Regarding her surname, she has stated, “The Italian blood has been bred out of me.

23. Ian Ziering

Name	Ian Andrew Ziering
Date of birth	March 30, 1964
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor

Ian Andrew Ziering was born on March 30, 1964. in Newark, New Jersey, U.S. In 1990, he began his portrayal of the character Steve Sanders on the hit series Beverly Hills, 90210. Sanders was a high school student and also friend of Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestly), 1 of the series’ other central characters. He is 1 of only 4 series regulars to appear on the show for its entire duration of ten seasons until 2000.

24. Martha Stewart

Name	Martha Helen Kostyra
Date of birth	August 3, 1941
Place of birth	Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Businesswoman, writer, television personality

Martha Helen Kostyra was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on August 3, 1941. She is the second of six children born to parents Martha (née Ruszkowski; 1914–2007) and Edward Kostyra (1912–1979) and is of Polish heritage. Her parents both were teachers, but her father later became a pharmaceutical salesman. When she was three years old, the family relocated to Nutley, New Jersey.

When Stewart was ten years old, she worked as the occasional babysitter for the children of Yogi Berra, Gil McDougald, and Mickey Mantle, all players for the New York Yankees.

25. Vera Farmiga

Name	Vera Ann Farmiga
Date of birth	August 6, 1973
Place of birth	Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, director, producer

Vera Ann Farmiga was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S. In February 1996, she starred as Miranda in the American Conservatory Theater’s production of The Tempest. That same year, she portrayed Anne Hartman in a production of Good at The Barrow Group. Farmiga made her Broadway debut alongside Ed Harris and Daniel Massey in October 1996, understudying the role of Emmi Straube in Ronald Harwood’s play Taking Sides. Following these stage roles, she co-starred in the Hallmark Hall of Fame western television film Rose Hill in April 1997, portraying Emily Elliot.

26. Kevin Smith

Name	Kevin Patrick Smith
Date of birth	August 2, 1970
Place of birth	Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Filmmaker, actor, comedian, comic book writer, author, YouTuber, podcaster

Kevin Patrick Smith was born on August 2, 1970. On his 21st birthday, he saw Richard Linklater’s comedy Slacker. Smith was impressed that Linklater shot and set the film in his hometown of Texas rather than on another soundstage in a major city, he was inspired to become a filmmaker, and to set films where he lived. Smith has said, “It was the movie that got me off my ass; it was the movie that lit a fire under me, the movie that made me think, ‘Hey, I could be a filmmaker.’ And I had never seen a movie like that before ever in my life.”

27. Ali Larter

Name	Alison Elizabeth Larter
Date of birth	February 28, 1976
Place of birth	Cherry Hill, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, model

Alison Elizabeth Larter was born on February 28, 1976. She started her modeling career at the age of fourteen when a modeling scout discovered her on the street and asked her to star in a Phillies commercial advertisement; this led to a modeling contract with Ford Modeling Agency in New York city. Larter subsequently skipped the senior year to model in Japan, Australia, and Italy the former a country she would temporarily settle in at the age of 17.

28. Zach Braff

Name	Zachary Israel Braff
Date of birth	April 6, 1975
Place of birth	South Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, filmmaker

Zachary Israel Braff was born on April 6, 1975. One of Braff’s earliest plays was in High, a proposed 1989 CBS tv series with a cast that also included Craig Ferguson and Gwyneth Paltrow; the television pilot never made it on air. He appeared in the 1990s series The Baby-sitters Club, in an episode “Dawn Saves the Trees.” Braff appeared in Woody Allen’s 1993 film Manhattan Murder Mystery.

29. Chelsea Handler

Name	Chelsea Joy Handler
Date of birth	February 25, 1975
Place of birth	Livingston, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Comedian, actress, writer, television host, and producer

Chelsea Joy Handler was a part of the all-female cast of Oxygen’s hidden camera reality tv series Girls Behaving Badly, which aired between 2002 and 2005. Other programs on which Handler has appeared include The Bernie Mac Show, The Practice, My Wife and Kids, and Weekends at the D.L. Handler was a correspondent on The Tonight Show as well as a regular commentator on E! and Scarborough Country. She hosted the first episode of the reality television show On the Lot but dropped out before the second episode aired, saying that she left “because I smelled the disaster happening before it did.”

30. Joe Dante

Name	Joseph James Dante Jr.
Date of birth	November 28, 1946
Place of birth	Morristown, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Director, producer, editor, actor

American actor Joseph James Dante Jr. was born on November 28, 1946. His famous films including Gremlins in 1984 alongside its sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch in 1990—often mix 1950s-style B films with cartoon comedy.

Dante’s movies also include Piranha in 1978, The Howling in 1981, Explorers in 1985, Innerspace in 1987, The ‘Burbs in 1989, Matinee in 1993, Small Soldiers in 1998, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action in 2003.

31. Frankie Valli

Name	Francesco Stephen Castelluccio
Date of birth	May 3, 1934
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Singer, actor

Francesco Stephen Castelluccio was born on May 3, 1934, to an Italian family in Newark, New Jersey; he was the eldest of 3 sons. His mother, Mary Rinaldi, was a beer company employee and homemaker; his father, Anthony Castelluccio, was a display designer for Lionel model trains and barber. He was inspired to take up a singing career at the age of seven after his mother brought him to see the young Frank Sinatra at the Paramount Theater in Manhattan, New York City.

32. Hope Davis

Name	Hope Davis
Date of birth	March 23, 1964
Place of birth	Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress

Hope Davis was born on March 23, 1964. She co-starred as the self-deprecating and bitter Mia with Golden Globe winner Gabriel Byrne in the second season (2009) of HBO’s In Treatment, a dramatic series that tracks the backstory and progress of five patients during their series of psychological therapeutic sessions. Mia is a successful, unmarried malpractice attorney who returns to therapy with Dr. Paul Weston after a 20-year absence because of a lack of stability in her personal life.

33. Bobby Cannavale

Name	Roberto Michael Cannavale
Date of birth	May 3, 1970
Place of birth	Union City, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor

Roberto Michael Cannavale was born in Union City, New Jersey, U.S. He participated in the cast of Ally McBeal for the last five episodes in 2002, but the show was then canceled. After that, he starred with Sheryl Lee and Yancey Arias in the miniseries Kingpin. Cannavale briefly starred in the last two episodes of Oz in 2003. He also appeared in the film The Station Agent as a man who befriends a little person removed from society.

34. Marc Maron

Name	Marcus David Maron
Date of birth	September 27, 1963
Place of birth	Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Stand-up comedian, podcaster, writer, actor, and musician

Marcus David Maron was born on September 27, 1963, in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of father Barry Ralph Maron, an orthopedic surgeon and mother Toby.He has a younger brother, Craig.

He is from a Jewish family, originally from Poland and Ukraine, including Drohobych. He stayed in Wayne, New Jersey until he was six. Maron’s father participated in the U.S. Air Force for 2 years for his medical residency in Alaska, and so Maron and his family moved there.

35. Wayne Shorter

Name	Wayne Shorter
Date of birth	August 25, 1933
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Musician, composer

Wayne Shorter was born on August 25, 1933, and studied in Newark Arts High School, from which he graduated in 1952. He loved music, being motivated by his father to take up the clarinet as a child. While in high school he also performed with the Nat Phipps Band in Newark. After graduating from NYU with a degree in music education in 1956, Shorter spent 2 years in the U.S. Army, during that time he played briefly with Horace Silver.

36. Jane Krakowski

Name	Jane Krajkowski
Date of birth	October 11, 1968
Place of birth	Parsippany, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, singer

Jane Krajkowski was born in Parsippany, New Jersey, U.S, on October 11, 1968. Her first major television appearance was as Theresa Rebecca Kendall in the NBC soap opera Search for Tomorrow for the NBC Daytime programming block, which she performed from 1984 until the show stopped on December 26, 1986. Krajkowski was nominated for two consecutive Daytime Emmy Awards for her role in 1986 and 1987.

37. Genie Francis

Name	Eugenie Ann Francis
Date of birth	May 26, 1962
Place of birth	Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress

American actress Eugenie Ann Francis was born in Englewood, New Jersey, on May 26, 1962. Her father was Canadian actor Ivor Francis. Her mother, Rosemary Daley, is a former model /actress of Lithuanian descent. Genie has a younger brother, Kenneth; an older brother, Ivor Jr.; and an older half-sister, Shelley, from her father’s first marriage. She is best known for starring as Laura Spencer on the TV soap opera General Hospital.

38. Jay Mohr

Name	Jon Ferguson Mohr
Date of birth	August 23, 1970
Place of birth	Verona, New Jersey, U.S.
OccupationActor, stand-up comedian, radio host

Jon Ferguson Mohr was born in Verona, New Jersey to Jon Wood Mohr, a marketing executive, and Iva Jean (née Ferguson), a nurse. He has two sisters, Virginia and Julia. He is of Scottish ancestry. Mohr was raised Presbyterian, but later converted to Roman Catholicism. He graduated from Verona High School in 1988. In high school, he was on the wrestling team, and he served as its captain during his senior year.

39. Bill Bellamy

Name	William Bellamy
Date of birth	April 7, 1965
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, comedian

American actor William Bellamy was born on April 7, 1965. In 2002, he had a co-starring appearance in the Fox Network television show Fastlane alongside Tiffani Thiessen and Peter Facinelli. Bellamy also appeared frequently as a guest on the late night E! talk show Chelsea Lately. He hosted seasons 5 and 6 of NBC’s Last Comic Standing reality show (2007 and 2008). In 2014, he had a recurring appearance as Councilman Powell on the TV Land original series Hot in Cleveland.

40. Kelly Ripa

Name	Kelly Ripa
Date of birth	October 2, 1970
Place of birth	Berlin, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, talk show host, television producer, dancer

Kelly Ripa was born and grew up in Berlin, New Jersey, on October 2, 1970, the daughter of Joseph Ripa, a bus driver and labor union president who attended Rutgers University, and Esther, a homemaker. She has a sister, Linda, a children’s book writer. She was on a local dance show, named Dancing on Air, before it got picked up by USA Network and was renamed Dance Party USA.

41. Laura San Giacomo

Name	Laura San Giacomo
Date of birth	November 14, 1961
Place of birth	West Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress

Laura San Giacomo was born on November 14, 1961. Her first television appearances were four episodes on three television series during 1987. Two notable plays were in Crime Story in 1988 for the episode “Protected Witness” (Episode 13 / Season 2) as Theresa Farantino, and in 1989 in Miami Vice for the episode, “Leap of Faith” (Episode 21 / Season 5) as Tania Lewis. The Miami Vice episode featured a guest appearance by her future husband, actor Cameron Dye, one year before their marriage.

42. Zoe Saldana

Name	Zoë Yadira Saldaña Nazari
Date of birth	June 19, 1978
Place of birth	Passaic, New Jersey, U.S
Occupation	Actress

Zoë Yadira Saldaña Nazari was born on June 19, 1978 in Passaic, New Jersey, U.S. The Dominican and Puerto Rican actress has made it big in Hollywood ever since her role as Neytiri in James Cameron’s Avatar. She’s also incredibly proud of being an Afro-Latina. As a Latina, I think we should be very proud of our heritage,” she told Latina magazine. She strongly disagrees with anyone who denies their roots as she said, “We tend to look for European roots and reject the indigenous and the African, and that’s disgusting.”

43. Kristen Connolly

Name	Kristen Connolly
Date of birth	July 12, 1980
Place of birth	Montclair, New Jersey, U.S
Occupation	Actress

Kristen Connolly was born in Montclair, New Jersey, U.S. She began her career with recurring appearances on several CollegeHumor digital shorts. Connolly appeared as an extra on the films The Happening, Mona Lisa Smile, and Meet Dave. She has also appeared on 2 CBS daytime soap operas with recurring roles on As the World Turns and Guiding Light.

She first got mainstream recognition in 2012, after appearing as the main protagonist Dana in the Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard movie The Cabin in the Woods.

44. Frankie Muniz

Name	Frankie Muniz IV
Date of birth	December 5, 1985
Place of birth	Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, race car driver

Frankie Muniz IV was born on December 5, 1985, in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, the son of  restaurateur Francisco Muniz III and nurse Denise. His father is Puerto Rican, while his mother is half Italian and half Irish. He has an elder sister called Cristina. When Muniz was 4 years old, his family moved to Knightdale, North Carolina, where he was raised. He was discovered at the age of 8 at a talent program in Raleigh, North Carolina, acting Tiny Tim in a local production of A Christmas Carol.

45. Sterling Hayden

Name	Sterling Relyea Walter
Date of birth	March 26, 1916
Place of birth	Upper Montclair, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, author, sailor, model, Marine, OSS agent

Sterling Relyea Walter dropped out of high school at the age of sixteen and took a job as a mate on a schooner. His first voyage was to Newport Beach, California, from New London, Connecticut. After that, he was a fisherman on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, ran a charter yacht, and served as a fireman on elevent trips to Cuba aboard a steamer.

Hayden skippered a trading schooner in the Caribbean after earning his master’s license, and in 1937 he served as mate on a world cruise of the schooner Yankee.

46. Jason Biggs

Name	Jason Matthew Biggs
Date of birth	May 12, 1978
Place of birth	Pompton Plains, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, comedian

Jason Matthew Biggs was born on November 8, 1975. He started acting at the age of five. He made his television first appearance in the short lived FOX series Drexell’s Class in 1991.

In 1988, 10 years old, he received his Screen Actors Guild card for participating in a television commercial for Pathmark. Biggs later recalled in an interview in TV Guide in 2015, “I remember I had to eat a doughnut in one of the shots. Over and over again. Awesome.”

47. Queen Latifah

Name	Dana Elaine Owens
Date of birth	March 18, 1970
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Rapper, actress, singer, songwriter, film producer, talk show host

Born in Newark, New Jersey, Dana Elaine Owens stayed primarily in East Orange, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Lancelot Amos Owens, who was a police officer, and Rita Lamae (née Bray; d. 2018), who was a teacher at Irvington High School. Her parents divorced when Latifah was ten.

Latifah grew up in the Baptist faith. She studied in Essex Catholic Girls’ High School in Irvington and Catholic school in Newark, New Jersey, but graduated from Irvington High School.

48. Mj Rodriguez

Name	Michaela Jaé Rodriguez
Date of birth	January 7, 1991
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, singer

A Dominican-American poet and author Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, who was born on February 15, 1988, in New York City. Following graduation from George Washington University, Acevedo went into the classroom as a Teach for America Corps participant in 2010. She kept on teaching eighth-grade English in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Although the school’s population was 78% Latino and 20% black, she was the first Latino teacher to teach a core subject. Although raised as Catholic, she no longer practices the religion.

49. Roy Scheider

Name	Roy Richard Scheider
Date of birth	November 10, 1932
Place of birth	Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, amateur boxer

Roy Richard Scheider was born in Orange, New Jersey, U.S. His first film role was in the horror movie The Curse of the Living Corpse in 1964.

On television, he performed running roles on two CBS soap operas, The Secret Storm and Love of Life, and also played character roles in episodes of Coronet Blue, and Camera Three. He was in the TV film Lamp at Midnight (1966).

In 1968, Scheider appeared with the New York Shakespeare Festival and won an Obie Award.

50.  Jason Alexander

Name	Jay Scott Greenspan
Date of birth	September 23, 1959
Place of birth	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, comedian, director, television presenter, podcast host

Jay Scott Greenspan was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Alexander B. Greenspan, an accounting manager, and Ruth Minnie (née Simon), a nurse. He later borrowed his father’s first name to create his stage name, Jason Alexander.

Alexander was raised in Maplewood and Livingston, New Jersey, and is a graduate of Livingston High School in 1977. Interested in magic from a young age, he initially dreamed of being a magician, but while attending a magic camp, he was told that his hands were not big enough for card magic.