List of people from Chennai
The following people were born or based their life in Chennai, formerly known as Madras:
Arts and language
- R.K. Narayan (1906–2001), writer
Business
- Indra Nooyi, Chairperson & CEO of PepsiCo
- Venu Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director, TVS Motors Ltd.
- Mallika Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director, Ammalgamations Group
- N. Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director, India Cements Ltd.
- A. Vellayan, Chairman, Murugappa Group of Companies
- M. A. M. Ramaswamy, Chettinad Cements Group of Companies and ex-Pro Chancellor, Annamalai University, Chidambaram.
- A. C. Muthiah, former Chairman, Southern Petrochemicals of India Corporation (SPIC) group of companies
- Sundar Pichai, Senior Vice President of Android, Chrome and Google Apps at Google
- Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals
- Bhargav Sri Prakash, founder & CEO of FriendsLearn, entrepreneur and hedge fund manager
- Naveen Selvadurai, Co-founder of Foursquare
Education
- Ramayya Krishnan, Dean of Heinz College and H. John Heinz III, W. W. Cooper and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management science and Information systems at Carnegie Mellon University
Films and entertainment
- Ashok Amritraj, Hollywood producer
- Padma Lakshmi, Cookbook author, actress, model and television host
- Ajith Kumar, Thespian and Racer
- M. G. Ramachandran, Actor, politician, producer, director
- A. R. Rahman (born 1966), music composer and Academy Award Winner
- Ilayathalapathy Vijay, Thespian
- Kamal Haasan, Thespian
- Ilaiyaraja, Indian music composer and Symphonic Maestro
- Shivaji Ganesan, actor and the first International Award winner of India
- Yuvan Shankar Raja, First Cypress-International-Award Winning Creative music Composer
- Vijay Yesudas (born 1979), Playback Singer
- Pete Best (born 1941), early Beatles drummer
- Engelbert Humperdinck (born 1936), pop singer
- Mani Ratnam (born 1956), film director
- Rajinikanth (born 1950), Thespian
- Priya Anand, actress
- Shruthi Hassan, actress
- Samantha Ruth Prabhu, actress
- Trisha, actress
- Arvind Swamy, actor and businessman
- Diwakar, a playback singer and title winner of the Airtel Super Singer in 2014.
Scientists
- C. V. Raman, Nobel laureate
- Kariamanickam Srinivasa Krishnan
- Subra Suresh
- John Henry Constantine Whitehead (1904–1960), British mathematician
- Nicodemus Abel, Indian plant geneticist
- Arun Robisnon A, Software Engineer
- Feroz Basha G, Software Engineer
- Antony Vinoth, Software Engineer
- Karthiha Devi, Software Engineer
Sports
Chess
- Viswanathan Anand (born 1969), chess grandmaster and the undisputed world chess champion from 2007 until 2013
Cricket
- Ravichandran Ashwin, cricketer
- Nasser Hussain (born 1968), English cricketer
- Dinesh Karthik (born 1985), Indian cricketer
- Hemang Badani, former Indian cricketer
- Krishnamachari Srikkanth (born 1959), former Indian cricketer
- Lakshmipathy Balaji, Indian cricketer
- Murali Vijay (born 1984), current Indian cricketer
- Sadagoppan Ramesh, former Indian cricketer
- Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan, former Indian cricketer
- W. V. Raman, former Indian crickter
Tennis
- Vijay Amritraj (born 1953), tennis player, Sports Commentator and Actor
- Anand Amritraj (born 1952), tennis player, Businessman
- Ramanathan Krishnan, tennis player
- Ramesh Krishnan, tennis player and coach
Squash
- Dipika Pallikal (born 1991), squash player, WISPA titles and first Indian woman to break into the top 10 in the WSA rankings
- Joshna Chinappa (born 1986), squash player, British Squash Championship
Motorsport
- Ajith Kumar (born 1971), racing driver, Formula Two and Actor
- Karun Chandhok (born 1984), racing driver, Formula One and sports commentator
