List of Indian Americans
Appearance
This is a list of notable Indian Americans, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.
Lists of Americans |
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By US state |
By ethnicity |
List
Notable academic awards
- Har Gobind Khorana, Nobel Prize for Medicine , (1968). (Nobel Laureate)
- Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, Nobel Prize for Physics, (1983). (Nobel Laureate)
- Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize for Economics, (1998). (Nobel Laureate)
- Raghuram Rajan, International Monetary Fund Chief Economist, winner of the Fischer Black Prize.
- Madhu Sudan, computer science professor at MIT, winner of the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize and Gödel Prize.
- S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan, mathematician who specialised in probability, winner of the Abel Prize and Steele Prize.
- Raj Reddy, founder of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, winner of the Turing Award.
- Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, world renowned statistician, is awarded National Medal of Science by President George W. Bush.
Academic
- C. R. Rao, Internationally known and arguably most famous living statistician of Cramér–Rao bound and Rao-Blackwell Theorem fame, Indian Statistical Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Penn State University.
- Ravindra Khattree, Internationally known statistician at Oakland University
- Beheruz Sethna, current president of the University of West Georgia.
- Akhil Amar, Professor of Law at Yale Law School, an expert on constitutional law and criminal procedure.
- Vikram Amar, Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis School of Law.
- Homi K. Bhabha, post-colonial theorist at Harvard.
- Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty, Distinguished Professor of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Chicago. Creator of the controversial oil-eating bacterium used in Gulf War.
- K. Mani Chandy, Simon Ramo Professor of Computer Science at the California Institute of Technology.
- Anil Gupta, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, and important philosopher and logician.[1]
- Salman Akhtar, professor at the Jefferson Medical College
- Dipak C. Jain, Dean of the J. L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
- Rakesh Jain, Head of the Edwin L. Steele Laboratory for Tumor Biology, Harvard Medical School.
- Muzaffar Alam, Professor in South Asian Languages & Civilizations and the College at University of Chicago.
- V. V. Chari, professor of economics at the University of Minnesota.
- Aravind Joshi, computer scientist, defined the tree-adjoining grammar formalism.
- Thomas Kailath, Emeritus Professor of Engineering at Stanford University
- Subhash Kak, Head of the Department, Oklahoma State University, Researcher in Neural Networks and Cryptography.
- M. A. Muqtedar Khan, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware.
- Marti G. Subrahmanyam, Charles E. Merrill Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University.
- Vijay K. Dhir, Dean of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
- Neal Katyal, Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School, lead counsel in the landmark Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.
- Jogesh Pati, theoretical physicist at the University of Maryland, College Park.
- C.K. Prahalad, leading management guru.
- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, post-colonial theorist, literary critic and deconstructionist who teaches at Columbia University.
- Krishna Saraswat, professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University.
- Surain Subramaniam, professor of international relations and prolific author developing the theory of Asian Values
- George Varghese, Professor of Computer Science at the University of California San Diego
- Jagdish Natwarlal Bhagwati, an economist known for his advocacy of free trade currently a professor at Columbia University.
- Abhay Ashtekar, Professor of Physics at Pennsylvania State University.
- G. V. Loganathan,was a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental engineering at Virginia Tech. He was a victim of the Virginia Tech massacre.
- Anirvan Ghosh, professor at the University of California, San Diego
- Vijay Vazirani, is a Professor of Computer Science at Georgia Tech. One of his significant research was proving, UNIQUE-SAT ∈ P → NP=RP called the Valiant–Vazirani theorem.
- Aswath Damodaran, a Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University.
- Umesh Vazirani, is the Roger A. Strauch Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and the director of the Berkeley Quantum Computation Center.
- Sanjay Subrahmanyam, holder of Navin and Pratima Doshi Chair of Indian History at UCLA.
- Ashok Das, professor of physics at University of Rochester
- Vijay Kumar (roboticist), is a UPS Foundation Professor in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics and Computer and Information Science, at University of Pennsylvania. He is the also Associate Dean of School of Engineering and Applied Science.[2]
- Khem Shahani, microbiologist who conducted pioneer research on probiotics, he discovered the DDS-1 strain of Lactobacillus acidophilus
- Jagdish Shukla, is a meteorologist and Distinguished University Professor at George Mason University in the United States.
- J. N. Reddy, Distinguished Professor and holder of the Oscar S. Wyatt Endowed Chair in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University.
- Veena Talwar Oldenburg, Professor of History at Baruch College
- Jaishree Odin, post-modern literary theorist who teaches at the University of Hawaii
- Ravi Jagannathan, professor at the Kellogg School of Management
- Pran Nath, theoretical physicist working at Northeastern University.
- Vijay Prashad, professor of International Studies at Trinity College.
- Mriganka Sur, Head of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
- Medha Yodh, teacher of classical Indian dance at UCLA
- C. M. Naim, scholar of Urdu language and literature
- G. S. Maddala, economist, best known for his work in the field of econometrics.
- Shrinivas Kulkarni, professor of astrophysics and planetary science at Caltech.
- Nazir Jairazbhoy, Professor of Folk and classical music of South Asia at University of California at Los Angeles.
- Amit Goswami, a theoretical nuclear physicist and member of University of Oregon
- Pradeep Khosla, Dean of Carnegie Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University and Philip and Marsha Dowd Professor from the ECE Department.
- Avinash Kak, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University
- Ashok Gadgil, works with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Sugata Bose, is the Gardiner Professor of History at Harvard University.
- Kausalya Hart, scholar of Tamil language at UC Berkeley
Mathematician
- Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar, mathematician, singularity theory and Abhyankar's conjecture of finite group theory.
- Anil Nerode, mathematician, proved the Myhill-Nerode Theorem.
- Narendra Karmarkar, mathematician, inventor of Karmarkar algorithm.
- Divakar Viswanath, mathematician who discovered Viswanath's constant.
- Chandrashekhar Khare, professor of mathematics at the University of California Los Angeles.
- Harish-Chandra, mathematician
- Abhinav Kumar, mathematician
- K. C. Sreedharan Pillai, mathematician
- Manjul Bhargava, is a professor of mathematics at Princeton University.
- Sarvadaman Chowla, mathematician specializing in number theory
Science and Technology
- Vivek Kundra, is the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the United States of America.
- Gopal Khanna, is the Chief Information Officer in the state of Minnesota.
- Arun Netravali, scientist, former President of Bell Labs, former CTO of Lucent. A pioneer of digital technology including HDTV.
- Narinder Singh Kapany, engineer, called the "Father of Fiber Optics".
- Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail
- Mani Lal Bhaumik, contribuitor excimer laser technology.
- George Sudarshan, physicist, author - first to propose the existence of Tachyon
- C. Kumar N. Patel, developed the carbon dioxide laser, used as a cutting tool in surgery and industry.
- Rangaswamy Srinivasan, in the Inventors’ Hall of Fame for pioneering work on excimer laser surgery.
- Kalpana Chawla, female NASA Space Shuttle astronaut, and space shuttle mission specialist
- Sunita Williams, female NASA astronaut (second woman of Indian descent to head into space)
- Anil Dash, blogger and technologist
- Siva S. Banda, aerospace engineer and researcher, recipient of a Silver Medal from the Royal Aeronautical Society, a Presidential Rank Award, and elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering
- Thomas Anantharaman, computer statistician specializing in Bayesian inference
- Pramod Khargonekar Control Theorist, Dean and Eckis Professor, College of Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida,
- Om Malik, technology journalist and blogger
- Anand Rajaraman, computer science engineer and a businessman
- Subrata Chakraborty, IT executive
- Vijay Raghunath Pandharipande, physicist
- Arvind Rajaraman, theoretical physicist and string theorist
- Abhishek Tripathi, NASA scientist and co-founder of the South Asian diaspora blog, Sepia Mutiny.
- Krishan Sabnani, Engineer and Senior Vice President of the Networking Research Laboratory at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs in New Jersey
- Mahadev Satyanarayanan, computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, pioneered research in mobile and pervasive computing
- Rahul Mahajan (blogger)
- Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, the designation the company reserves for its elite master engineers in the area of “ranking algorithm”.
- Thomas Zacharia, computational scientist
- Deepak Pandya, neuroanatomist
- Rajiv Dutta, technology manager
- Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, neurologist
- Pulickel M. Ajayan, Prof of Material Science at Rice University
- Ajit Varki, Physician-scientist
- Noshir Gowadia, design engineer
- Sharmila Bhattacharya, head of the Biomodel Performance and Behavior laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center.
- Krishna Bharat, Principal Scientist at Google who is famous for creating Google News.
Medicine
- Balamurali Ambati, physician, world's youngest doctor at age 17.
- Paul Antony, MD, MPH is the Chief Medical Officer for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
- Prem Reddy, Founder and Chairman of Prime Healthcare Services, a healthcare management corporation in Southern California.
- Rama P. Coomaraswamy, a cardiac surgeon
- Atul Gawande, general and endocrine surgeon, professor, medical author, and National Book Award finalist.
- Amit Patel, Cardiovascular Surgeon and Stem Cell Researcher - First person to inject stem cells directly into the heart.
- Vamsi Mootha, physician-scientist and computational biologist.
- Chitranjan Singh Ranawat, eminent orthopaedic and knee surgeon
- Vineeta Rastogi, public health worker
Musician
- Kim Thayil, Guitarist for Grammy Award winning rock group Soundgarden.
- Norah Jones, Musician, Grammy Award winner, daughter of Ravi Shankar.
- Tony Kanal, Two-time Grammy Award winner, bass player for No Doubt.
- Sameer Bhattacharya, One of two guitarists in the Texas alternative rock band Flyleaf.
- Rozonda Thomas or Chilli, member of TLC (band)
- Bizzy Bone, Rapper (one-quarter Indian), member of the Cleveland rap group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.
- Sanjaya Malakar, a finalist on the sixth season of American Idol.
- Anoop Desai, a finalist on the eighth season of American Idol.
- Zubin Mehta, Conductor, New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
- Zarin Mehta, executive director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
- Vijay Iyer, Jazz musician and Composer.
- Karsh Kale, an Indian producer, composer and musician.
- Paul Sabu, producer
- Raje Shwari, R&B singer
- Falu, singer and songwriter
- Tatyana Ali, singer
- Arun Luthra, jazz musician
- Nisha Kataria, singer
- Thara Prashad, singer
- Vasant Rai, performer of Indian music
- Shaheen Sheik, song-writer
- Haji Springer, rapper
Actors and actresses
- Kal Penn, Actor
- Noureen DeWulf, Actress
- Sendhil Ramamurthy, Actor
- Navi Rawat, Actress
- Kunal Nayyar, Actor
- Shishir Kurup, Actor
- Sheetal Sheth, Actress
- Tanveer K. Atwal, Actress
- Ravi Kapoor, Actor
- Deep Katdare, Actor
- Waris Ahluwalia, Actor
- Namrata Singh Gujral, Actress
- Sonal Shah, Actress
- Sunkrish Bala, Actor
- Dilshad Vadsaria, Actress
- Purva Bedi, actress
- Arj Barker, Actor
- Devika Parikh, Actress
- Janina Gavankar, Actress
- Sakina Jaffrey, Actress
- Deepti Gupta, Actress
- Serena Varghese, voice actress
- Kavi Ladnier, Actress
- Firdous Bamji, Actor
- Samrat Chakrabarti, Actor
- Summer Bishil, Actress
- Rory Cochrane, Actor
- Sabu Dastagir, Actor
- Aasif Mandvi, Actor
- Ajay Mehta, TV actor
- Shelly Malil, Film and TV Actor
- Ajay Naidu, Actor
- Maulik Pancholy, Actor
Indian British actors in U.S.
- Ben Kingsley, Actor
- Naveen Andrews, Actor (Lost)
- Indira Varma, Actress (Rome)
- Zuleikha Robinson, Actress (The Namesake (film), Rome)
- Parminder Nagra, Actress (ER)
- Nicollette Sheridan, Actress (Desperate Housewives, Knots Landing)
- Rhona Mitra, Actress (Nip/Tuck)
Arts and entertainment
- M. Night Shyamalan, Filmmaker and actor (Director of Signs and The Sixth Sense)
- Nikhil Kamkolkar, filmmaker
- Anand Chandrasekaran, Filmmaker and Entrepreneur
- Harish Saluja, filmmaker
- Mira Nair, director and producer
- Babu Subramaniam, director
- Jay Chandrasekhar, Director, Actor, Comedian, and Writer
- Ajay Sahgal, director, screenwriter and producer
- Benny Mathews, Film and Music video director
- Naren Shankar, TV writer, producer and director, an Executive Producer of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
- Sunil Nayar, TV writer and producer, a Producer of CSI: Miami
- Neeraj Khemlani, a producer at the CBS News 60 Minutes.
- Mindy Kaling, Writer, Producer, Actor on The Office.
- Ashok Amritraj, Hollywood producer
- Padma Lakshmi, Model, Top Chef Host
- Saira Mohan, Model, was ranked #91 on the Maxim Magazine Hot 100 Women of 2002
- Julie Titus, Model, Contestant of America's Next Top Model
- Sunny Leone, Model, former Penthouse Pet of the Year.
- Pooja Kumar, model
- Nicole Narain, Model and actress
- Angela Devi, Adult model and actress
- Priya Rai, Adult model and actress
- Amy Ried, Adult model and actress
- Govindini Murty, Co-founder of Liberty film festival.[3]
- Manick Sorcar, Animator, artist, and producer
- Stephanie Sengupta, producer and writer
- Salma Arastu, artist
- Rina Banerjee, artist
- Reef Karim, host
- Rachel Roy, fashion designer
- Christine Philip, fashion designer
Comedian
- Aziz Ansari, Comedian and MTV personality
- Hari Kondabolu, Comedian
- Paul Varghese, Comedian from Dallas, Texas appeared on Last Comic Standing
- Dan Nainan, Comedian
- Adam Mamawala, Comedian
- Azhar Usman, Comedian
- Syed Faraz Hamza, Funniest looking comedian
Business and industry
- Amar Bose, Billionaire, founder of Bose Corporation
- Bharat Desai, Billionaire, founder of Syntel
- Ram Shriram, Billionaire, co-founder of Junglee.com and board member at Google
- Vinod Khosla, Billionaire, co-founder of Sun Microsystems
- Pradeep Sindhu, Co-founder and CTO of Juniper Networks
- Preetish Nijhawan, Co-founder of Akamai Technologies.
- Ashwin Navin, Co-Founder and President of BitTorrent, Inc.
- Shoba Purushothaman, Co-Founder and Chairman of The NewsMarket, Inc.
- Unni Warrier, Co-founder and former president, chairman, CEO of CyberMedia
- Suhas Patil, Founder of Cirrus Logic
- Somen Banerjee, Founder of Chippendales
- Sanjiv Sidhu, Founder and CEO of i2 Technologies
- Sameer Parekh, Founder of C2Net
- Ritesh Mishra, Founder & CEO of Exore
- Gururaj Deshpande, Founder of Sycamore Networks
- Vivek Ranadive, Founder, Chairman and CEO of TIBCO Software
- Naveen Jain, Founder of InfoSpace.com
- Narendra Patni, Founder of Patni Computer Systems
- Murugan Pal, founder and CTO of SpikeSource
- Ajit Hutheesing, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of International Capital Partners Inc
- Simone Ahuja, Founder of Blood Orange Media
- Srik Soogoor, Founder & CEO of Visvo
- Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo.
- Sanjay Jha, Co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of Motorola Mobile Devices
- Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup
- Victor Menezes, Chairman of Clearing House Association, former Chairman and CEO of Citibank
- Ramani Ayer, Chairman and CEO of The Hartford Financial Services Group
- Jay Sidhu, Former Chairman and CEO of Sovereign Bancorp
- Rana Talwar, former Group CEO of Standard Chartered Bank
- Bobby Mehta, former CEO and Vice Chairman of HSBC North America
- Anshu Jain, Global Head and Managing Director of capital markets at Deutsche Bank.
- Arun Sarin, former CEO of Vodafone Inc.
- Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe Systems.
- Pradeep K Jaisingh, CEO of International Oncology
- Bala Sundar, CEO of Syapps.com
- Rono Dutta, former President of United Airlines; Chairman of Air Sahara
- Rakesh Gangwal, former CEO and Chairman of US Airways Group
- Rajat Gupta, former Managing Director of McKinsey & Company
- Dinesh Paliwal, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Harman International.
- Gunjan Sinha, Chairman of MetricStream
- Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice Chairman and former CEO of Cognizant Corporation.
- Ramakrishnan Chandrasekaran, President & Managing Director of Cognizant Corporation.
- Francisco D'Souza, CEO of Cognizant Technology Solutions
- Abbas Sadriwala, Chairman and CEO of the Fort Lauderdale-based Wireless Logix Group
- Prakash Puram, President and CEO of iXmatch.
- Kim Singh, CEO of PortaEnterprise
- Mukesh Chatter, Businessman
- Raj Vaswani, Vice President of Engineering at Epinions.com.
- Rajiv Gupta, a General Manager of Hewlett Packard
- Vyomesh Joshi, Executive Vice President of Imaging and Printing Group, Hewlett-Packard Company.
- Ajit Jain, head of National Indemnity, possible successor to Warren Buffett
- Padmasree Warrior, Chief Technology Officer of Cisco Systems and former CTO of Motorola.
- Gurbaksh Chahal, Internet Entrepreneurs
- Ranji H. Nagaswami, Chief Investment Officer for AllianceBernstein Fund Investors
- Vinod Dham, former microprocessor designer for Intel
- Gunjan Bagla, Management Consultant, Managing Director, Amritt; Author Doing Business in 21st Century India
- Ravi Pendekanti, former marketing executive at Sun Microsystems, currently Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Overland Storage.
- Arjun Gupta, is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist
- Arvind Raghunathan, Managing Director and Head of Global Arbitrage at Deutsche Bank.
- Kanwal Rekhi, former EVP & CTO of Novell
- Vijay Rayanki, Vice President of AT&T.
- Ali Pabrai, entrepreneur
- Gagan Palrecha, entrepreneur
- Vikram Chatwal, an American hotelier
Media
- Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek and host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN
- Zain Verjee, CNN anchor
- Sumi Das, CNN national correspondent
- Shihab Rattansi, CNN International Anchor
- Aneesh Raman, CNN Middle East correspondent
- Sanjay Gupta, CNN senior medical correspondent
- Ali Velshi, business news anchor for CNN
- Vinita Nair, current anchor of World News Now and America This Morning on ABC.
- Uma Pemmaraju, senior news anchor for Fox News Channel
- Shibani Joshi, reporter for the Fox Business Network
- Reena Ninan, Middle East Correspondent for Fox News Channel.
- Asha Blake, an Emmy award-winning journalist who works for KTLA-TV in Los Angeles.
- Hari Sreenivasan, correspondent for CBS News.
- Priya David, correspondent for CBS News.
- Sukanya Krishnan, news anchor for CW 11 Morning News on WPIX
- Shihab Rattansi, news anchor for Al Jazeera English
- Asra Nomani, journalist
- Simran Sethi, journalist
- Mish Michaels, meteorologist for the WBZ-TV Weather Team.
- Deepa Fernandes, host of the WBAI radio program "Wakeup Call"
- Deepti Hajela, newswoman for the Associated Press
- Deepak Ananthapadmanabha, online journalist
- Falguni Lakhani, producer for Dateline NBC
- Alpana Singh, television personality
- Gopal Raju, pioneer of Indian American ethnic media in the United States.
- Sreenath Sreenivasan, Columbia University professor and WABC-TV technology reporter.
- Syma Chowdhry, television host, reporter, and producer
- Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor of National Review magazine
- Rajiv Chandrasekaran, assistant managing editor for continuous news, The Washington Post, author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City (published by Knopf)
- Pico Iyer, author and journalist for Time Magazine, Harper's Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, and The New York Review of Books
Literature
- Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
- Kiran Desai, winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize
- Anita Desai, novelist, she has been shortlisted for the Booker prize three times, mother of Kiran Desai.
- Dhan Gopal Mukerji, First successful Indian man of letters in the U.S., Winner of Newbery Medal 1928
- Amitav Ghosh, Indo-nostalgic writer and winner of Prix Medicis Etranger
- Naomi Hirahara, won a 2007 Edgar Award for her novel Snakeskin Shamisen.
- Shauna Singh Baldwin, novelist, won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
- Ravi Batra, bestselling author and economist
- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author
- Deepak Chopra, author and speaker
- Dinesh D'Souza, author and conservative political commentator
- Anu Garg, author, speaker, and computer engineer
- Bharati Mukherjee, author
- Janaki Ram, author
- Susham Bedi, author
- Thrity Umrigar, writer
- S. T. Joshi, literary critic
- Indira Viswanathan Peterson, literary critic
- Vijay Seshadri, literary critic
- Rishi Reddi, author
- Ravi Shankar, poet
- Parag Khanna, author
- Indu Sundaresan, author
- Rajiv Joseph, playwright
- Usha Haley, author
- Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla, author
- Thrity Umrigar, author of Bombay Time.
- Aimee Nezhukumatathil, poet
- Agha Shahid Ali, poet
- Vikram Seth, poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist
- Dr. Abraham Verghese noted Doctor and Author; "In My Own Country" and "My Tennis Partner"
- Kaavya Viswanathan, novelist
Politics
- Bobby Jindal, former U.S. Congressman and current Governor of Louisiana; Republican.
- Dalip Singh Saund, the first Asian and Indian-American congressman, was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California.
- Mervyn M. Dymally, Prominent Democrat politician; current California State Assemblyman; former State Senator, Lieutenant Governor, and Congressman; first Trinidadian (who is of Indian and African decent) to serve in California State Senate and as California Lt. Governor.
- Joy Cherian, 1st Asian and Indian American head of the EEOC.
- Satveer Chaudhary, State Senator in Minnesota.
- Swati Dandekar, State Senator in Iowa.
- Kumar P. Barve, State legislator and Majority Leader of the Maryland House of Delegates
- Saqib Ali, Member of the Maryland House of Delegates from the 39th district.
- Neel Kashkari, is the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability in the United States Department of the Treasury.
- Sonal Shah, on the advisory board for president-elect Barack Obama's presidential transition team.
- Rachel Paulose, the first Indian American woman, the youngest person, and the first woman to become US Attorney, for the District of Minnesota.
- Upendra J. Chivukula, state legislator for New Jersey General Assembly; first Indian-American elected to the NJ legislature.
- Shashi Tharoor, Undersecretary General for Communications and Public Information for the United Nations. Candidate for UN general secretary post.
- Preeta D. Bansal, member and past chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and former Solicitor General of the State of New York during Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's first Term.
- Raj Goyle, Kansas House of Representatives
- Jay Goyal, Ohio House of Representatives
- Nikki Randhawa Haley, South Carolina House of Representatives
- Harvinder "Harry" Anand, Mayor of Laurel Hollow, New York, the first Indian-American Mayor in New York.
- Arun Jhaveri, former mayor of Burien, Washington
- Bala K. Srinivas, former mayor of Hollywood Park, Texas
- John Abraham, former mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey
- Kris Kolluri, New Jersey Commissioner of Transportation.
- Shekar Narasimhan, Co-chair of the Democratic National Committee.
- Faz Husain, first native of India to win elected office in Michigan
- Nimi McConigley, first Indian born person to serve in any State legislature.
- Kamala Harris, District Attorney of San Francisco; first Indian-American elected as a D.A. in the United States.
- Maya Harris, the Executive Director of the ACLU of Northern California and sister of Kamala Harris.
- Thomas Abraham, City Councilman of Sugar Land, Texas
- Satish Mohan, town supervisor of Amherst, New York
- Raj Peter Bhakta, entrepreneur, former The Apprentice contestant, and 2006 Republican U.S. House nominee
- Bhagwan Dashairya, 2006 nominee for Governor of Michigan of the U.S. Taxpayers Party.
- Raj Mukherji, New Jersey lobbyist and businessman.
- S. R. Sidarth, Democratic campaign volunteer who sparked the George Allen "Macaca" incident.
- Dr. Arjinderpal Sekhon, Ran for Congress from California's 2nd congressional district
- Harry Sidhu, first Indian American elected to Anaheim City Council
- Ashwin Madia, Democratic Candidate for Congress in Minnesota's 3rd congressional district
- Jonathan Bedi, an Illinois politician
- Mehul Thakker, Green Party candidate for State Treasurer in California.
- Har Dayal, founder of the Ghadar Party.
- Semonti Mustaphi, Deputy Press Secretary to Michelle Obama
Religion
- Rohit Ravindran, atheist
- K.A. Paul, founder of the Global Peace Initiative
- Reverend Kiran Sankhla, the first female Hindu chaplain in the U.S.
- Ed Viswanathan, author of Am I A Hindu?
- Ramananda Prasad, founder of the International Gita Society
- Ravi Zacharias, Evangelical Protestant author and apologetic
- Muzammil Siddiqi, Ph.D., Chairman, Fiqh Council of North America
- Rajan Zed, Hindu chaplain to read first Hindu prayer in United States Senate.
- Prem Rawat, also known as Guru Maharaji Ji, head of the Divine Light Mission and later organizations
- Sharmila Ford, member of the Board of Governors of the Oxford Center for Hindu Studies.
- K. A. Paul, controversial Christian Preacher
- Sushil Kumarji, Jain Acharya
- Nikhil Joshi, Mihir Meghani, Aseem Shukla and Suhag Shukla, co-founders, Hindu American Foundation
Scripps National Spelling Bee Champions
- Balu Natarajan, 1985
- Rageshree Ramachandran, 1988
- Nupur Lala, 1999
- George Abraham Thampy 2000[4]
- Pratyush Buddiga, 2002
- Sai Gunturi, 2003
- Anurag Kashyap, 2005
- Sameer Mishra, 2008
Sports
- Alexi Grewal, first ever Indian American to win an Olympic medal, Gold Medalist in 1984 Summer Olympics in cycling
- Mohini Bhardwaj, second Indian American Olympic medalist, 2004 Summer Olympics silver medalist in gymnastics
- Raj Bhavsar, third Indian-American Olympic Medalist, 2008 Summer Olympics bronze medalist in the team gymnastics competition.
- Sanjay Beach, was a former NFL wide receiver. He played for the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers.
- Brandon Chillar, NFL player, linebacker for the St. Louis Rams.
- Sunil Gulati, in charge of United States Soccer Federation.
- Laxmi Poruri, first Indian-born female professional tennis player
- Shikha Uberoi, tennis player
- Rajeev Ram, tennis player
- Neha Uberoi, tennis player
- Prakash Amritraj, Tennis player (born in U.S.)
- Stephen Amritraj, Tennis player
- Leander Paes, Tennis player (Residence in U.S.)
- Sonjay Dutt, TNA Pro Wrestler
- The Great Khali, WWE Pro Wrestler
- Ami Parekh, skater
Others
- Bhairavi Desai, founding member of the Taxi Workers Alliance in New York
- Vinay Bhat, chess Grandmaster
- Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of Global Fund for Women.
- Bikram Choudhury, yoga guru
- Sabita Singh, first judge of Indian descent in Massachusetts history
- Aman Kapoor, Founder and President of ImmigrationVoice, an advocacy group that united immigrants in USA
- Bhagat Singh Thind, civil rights figure, lecturer, author
- Amrit Singh, a staff attorney at the ACLU.
- Mallika Dutt, currently the Executive Director of Breakthrough (human rights)
- Urvashi Vaid, famous gay rights activist
- Dr. Abraham George, Philanthropist Humanitarian, Founder of The George Foundation (TGF)
- Dipa Ma, famous yoga teacher
- Maya Ajmera, Founder and President of The Global Fund for Children
- Mahzarin Banaji, best known for a series of studies around exploring gender and racial bias
- Swadesh Chatterjee, former elected National President of the Indian American Forum.
- H. Jay Dinshah, founded the American Vegan Society
- Arun Manilal Gandhi, fifth grandson of Mohandas Gandhi
- Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, lawyer
- Sant Keshavadas, guru
- Rajat Parr, sommelier
See also
- British Indian
- Indian American
- Indo-Canadian
- Non-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin
- List of Indian Britons
- List of Indo-Canadians
- List of Indians
- List of NRIs