List of Romani people

This is a list of notable Romani people and people of Romani origin.

Politicians and activists

• László Berényi – Hungarian politician
• James Carver – member of the European Parliament
• Dávid Daróczi – (1972–2010) Government Spokesperson of the Republic of Hungary
• Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia – ex-member of the European Parliament, founder of the Romani Union, Spain
• Damian Draghici – (born 1970) current Member of the European Parliament, former MP Romanian Parliament – senator, adviser of the Prime Minister on Roma issues
• Rajko Đurić – (born 1947) Serbian writer and academic, leader of Roma Union of Serbia
• Flórián Farkas – Hungarian politician
• James Farnell – (1825-1888) Australian politician
• Bajram Haliti – Kosovar activist
• Ian Hancock – Romani scholar and activist, born in UK, living in USA, professor at the University of Texas
• Amber L. Hollibaugh – American writer, filmmaker and activist.
• Lívia Járóka – Hungarian Member of the European Parliament
• Orbán Kolompár – Hungarian politician and activist
• Ali Krasniqi – Albanian writer and activist
• Juscelino Kubitschek – Brazilian president, his mother was of Czech and Roma descent
• Ronald Lee – (born 1934, in Montreal), Canadian Romani novelist, activist and U.N. delegate
• Mihály Lukács – (1954–2012) Hungarian politician
• Washington Luís – Brazilian president of Portuguese and Romani descent
• Alfonso Mejia-Arias – musician, writer and politician, Mexico
• Viktória Mohácsi – (born 1975) Hungarian Member of the European Parliament
• Ágnes Osztolykán – Hungarian politician
• Nicolae Păun – Romanian politician
• Soraya Post – (born 1956) Swedish politician for the Feminist Initiative party.
• Ştefan Răzvan – (?–1595) Prince of Moldavia, ruled Moldavia for four months (Romani father)
• Sani Rifati – Serbian activist
• Ernest Rogers – (1914–2004) English communist
• Romani Rose – German Sinto activist
• Rudolf Sarközi – chairman of the Austrian Romani association Kulturverein
• József Varga – Hungarian politician
• Mădălin Voicu – (born 1952) Romanian politician. His father, Ion Voicu, is Romani

Authors and writers

• Veijo Baltzar – Finnish writer
• Edward Dębicki – Polish poet
• Rajko Djuric – (born 1947) Serbian writer & activist
• Louise Doughty – British writer
• Karen Finley – American performance artist, musician and poet
• Delia Grigore – (born 1972) Romanian writer, academic and activist
• Caren Gussoff – American writer, claims Romani and mixed heritages.
• Bajram Haliti – Kosovan author
• Lafcadio Hearn – Irish writer
• Usin Kerim – Bulgarian poet
• Menyhért Lakatos (1926-2007) – Hungarian Romani writer
• Ronald Lee – Canadian writer, Romani activist and lecturer at the University of Toronto.
• Baja Saitovic Lukin – poet
• Oksana Marafioti – American writer of Armenian and Romani descent
• Matéo Maximoff – French writer
• Mehmed Merejan – Bulgarian poet
• David Morley – British poet, critic, anthologist, editor and ecologist
• Anton Pann – Romanian musicologist, composer and poet
• Muharem Serbezovski – Bosnian singer and writer
• Charlie Smith – poet
• Eleanor Smith – (1902-1945) British writer
• Ceija Stojka – (born 1933) Austrian author and painter
• Katarina Taikon – (1932-1995) Swedish children's writer
• Bronisława Wajs – (1908–1987) AKA "Papusza", Polish poet and singer
• Mikey Walsh – British author

Musicians

• Carmen Amaya – (1913–1963) Spanish flamenco dancer
• Remedios Amaya – Spanish flamenco singer
• Gitano Antón – Spanish rapper and member of La Excepción
• Ayọ – German born singer of Nigerian and Romani descent.
• Azis – (1978-) Bulgarian chalga (pop-folk) singer.
• Elek Bacsik – (1926–1993) Hungarian jazz violinist and guitarist
• Šaban Bajramović – (1936–2008) Serbian singer
• Janika Balázs – (1925–1988) was a Serbian musician
• Tonino Baliardo – Franco-Spanish guitar player; also a member of the Gipsy Kings
• Kálmán Balogh – Hungarian musician
• Radoslav Banga – of Czech group Gypsy.cz
• Vierka Berkyová – Slovak singer
• János Bihari – (1764–1827) Hungarian violinist
• Věra Bílá – (born 1954) Czech folk and pop singer
• Iva Bittová – (born 1958) Czech singer, violinist and composer
• Robi Botos – Canadian musician and composer from Hungary
• Georges Boulanger – Romanian violinist
• Sibel Can – Turkish singer
• Manolo Caracol – (1909–1973) Spanish flamenco singer
• Antonio Carbonell – Spanish singer and songwriter
• Panna Cinka – (1711–1772) Hungarian Violinist, born in Kingdom of Hungary in modern Slovakia
• Fanfare Ciocărlia – Romanian Romani band
• Connect-R – Romanian rapper, singer, record producer and actor
• Joaquín Cortés – Spanish flamenco dancer
• Georges Cziffra – (1921–1994) Hungarian composer and pianist
• Pista Dankó – (born 1858–1903) Hungarian-born bandleader and composer
• Sandro de América – (1945–2010) Argentinian singer and actor
• Camarón de la Isla – (1950–1992) Spanish flamenco singer
• Manitas de Plata – (1921–2014) French flamenco guitarist
• Angelo Debarre – French guitarist
• Drafi Deutscher – (1946–2006) German Sinto songwriter, singer and composer
• Grigoraş Dinicu – Romanian composer and violinist
• Damian Draghici – Romanian, composer and Jazz panflute player, Politician
• Sébastien El Chato – French singer and guitarist
• Diego El Cigala – Dominican flamenco guitarist
• Tracey Emin – British singer
• Christian Escoudé – French jazz guitarist
• Vicente Escudero – Spanish flamenco singer, dancer and choreographer; occasionally painter, writer and actor
• Rafael Ojeda Rojas alias Falete – Spanish singer
• Ermal Fejzullahu – Kosovan male pop singer
• Antonio Flores – (1961–1995) was a Spanish singer-songwriter and actor
• Lolita Flores – (1958) Spanish singer and actress
• Rosario Flores – (born 1963) Spanish singer and actress, Latin Grammy award winner
• Cornelis Fuhler – (1964) Dutch/Australian musician and composer
• Kendji Girac – French singer of Romani and Spanish descent
• Edyta Górniak – (born 1972) Polish singer
• César Guerra-Peixe – (1914-1993) Brazilian composer
• Nicolae Guță – Romanian manele singer
• Taraful Haiducilor – (Taraf de Haïdouks) Romanian band, formed 1989
• Kostas Hatzis – Greek musician
• Eugene Hütz – Ukrainian singer, guitarist, writer and actor
• Natalia Jiménez – (born 1981) Spanish pop singer (Portuguese mother of "Cigano" descent)
• Kal – Romani world music Band from Serbia
• Ketama – Spanish new-flamenco band
• Cher Lloyd – British international pop singer/rapper of Romani descent.
• Angel Jordanov Kapsov – (1957-2014) Bulgarian pop-folk singer
• Didem Kınalı – Turkish belly dancer and singer
• Sasha Kolpakov – (born 1943) Russian guitarist
• Mónika Juhász Miczura – Hungarian folk singer
• Fapy Lafertin – Belgian jazz guitarist
• Biréli Lagrène – (born 1966) French jazz guitarist, violinist and bassist
• Denny Laine – British musician (The Moody Blues, Wings)
• Félix Lajkó – (born 1974) Hungarian-Serbian violinist and composer (part Romani)
• Roby Lakatos – Hungarian violinist
• Albert Lee – (born 1943) London born and raised country rock guitar legend. His father is Romanichal.
• Pyotr Leshchenko – Russian (born 1858–1903)
• Joe Longthorne – (born 1955) English singer and impressionist
• Los Niños de Sara – French (Spanish origin, Iberian Kale) rumba and flamenco singers and guitar players
• Fănică Luca – (1894–1968) Romanian musician*Georges Boulanger – (1893–1958) Romanian violinist
• Gabi Luncă – (born 1938) Romanian singer (Urban Lăutarească Music)
• Aggelopoulos Manolis – (1939–1989) Greek singer and actor
• Sofi Marinova – Bulgarian singer
• Boban Marković – Serbian brass bandleader and trumpet player
• Jerry Mason – American rock singer, guitarist and songwriter
• Alfonso Mejia-Arias – (1961-) Mexican musician and activist.
• Irini Merkouri – (born 1981) Greek pop singer
• Ionică Minune – Romanian accordionist
• Carlos Montoya – (1903–1993) Spanish flamenco guitarist
• Ramón Montoya – (1889–1949) Spanish flamenco guitarist
• Ferus Mustafov – Macedonian saxophonist
• Nicolae Neacşu ("Culai") – Lăutar, was the leader of Taraf de Haïdouks
• Neshko Neshev – Bulgarian accordionist
• Mary Nótár – Hungarian musician
• Gergő Oláh – Hungarian singer
• Ginesa Ortega – Spanish flamenco singer
• Isabel Pantoja – Spanish singer
• Ivo Papazov – (born 1952) Bulgarian jazz clarinetist
• Aladár Pege – (1939–2006) Hungarian jazz musician
• Pere Pubill Calaf "Peret" – (1935-2014) Catalan Spanish singer, guitar player and composer
• Zlata Petrović – Serbian pop folk singer
• Robert Plant – (born 1948) English singer and songwriter (former vocalist of Led Zeppelin). Romanichal mother
• Valentina Ponomaryova – (born 1939) Russian singer
• Romica Puceanu – (1928–1996) Romanian singer (Urban Lăutarească Music)
• Gigi Radics – Hungarian singer
• Johnny Răducanu – (born 1931) Romanian jazz musician
• Džej Ramadanovski – born 1964 in Belgrade (former Yugoslavia), modern Serbian folk singer
• "Rayito" Antonio Rayo – Spanish Guitarist, singer and composer. Father Gitano (Iberian Kalo) and Japanese mother
• Esma Redzepova – (born 1943) Macedonian singer and songwriter
• Babik Reinhardt – French guitarist
• Django Reinhardt – (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953) Belgian-born pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique (sometimes called 'hot' jazz guitar) that has since become a living musical tradition within French Manouche culture
• Nicolas Reyes (born 1958) – Franco-Spanish singer, guitar player; lead singer for the Grammy Award winning group Gipsy Kings, a band made up mostly of members of his extended family
• Reyhan – (1986–2005) Bulgarian singer
• Jimmy Rosenberg – (born 1980) Dutch swing guitarist
• Marianne Rosenberg – (born 1955) German singer and songwriter. Daughter of German Gypsy who survived Auschwitz.
• Sabicas – (1912-1990) Spanish flamenco guitarist
• Sinan Sakić – Serbian Folk singer of Romani descent
• Florin Salam – Romanian musician
• Tanja Savić – Serbian pop-folk singer
• Paulus Schafer – (born 1978) Dutch jazz guitarist
• Tchavolo Schmitt – (born 1954) French jazz guitarist
• Hüsnü Şenlendirici – Turkish musician
• Selim Sesler – (1957–2014) Turkish clarinetist
• Anjeza Shahini – Albanian singer
• Harri Stojka – Austrian jazz guitarist
• Wally Tax – Dutch rock singer, of The Outsiders. Son of a Dutch father and a Russian Romani mother
• Tomatito – Spanish flamenco guitarist
• Manuel Torre – (1878–1933) Spanish flamenco musician
• Mariska Veres – (1947–2006) Lead singer of the Dutch rock group Shocking Blue. Daughter of Hungarian Romani violinist Lajos Veres and Franco-Russian mother
• Ion Voicu – (1923–1997) Romanian violinist and orchestral conductor, founder of Bucharest Chamber Orchestra
• Mădălin Voicu – Romanian musician
• Sotis Volanis – Greek singer
• Ronnie Wood – British musician
• Yuri Yunakov – Turkish-Bulgarian musician
• Joe Zawinul – Austrian musician. His grandmother was a Hungarian Romani, and his grandfather was from southern Moravia

Cinema and theater

• Charlie Chaplin – British actor, filmmaker, composer
• Lolita Flores – Spanish actress
• Elena Furiase – Spanish actress
• Hiba Abouk – Spanish actress
• Jesús Castro – Spanish actor
• Fairuza Balk – American actress
• Ştefan Bănică, Jr. – Romanian actor and musician
• Ştefan Bănică, Sr. – Romanian actor
• Eric Cantona – French actor and former footballer
• Tony Gatlif – French film director
• Jill Hennessy – Canadian actress and musician
• Marcia Nicole Barandyai known as Manoush – French-German actress. Her mother is of Manouche origin
• Helen Mirren – British actress
• Nikolai Slichenko – Russian actor
• Rosa Taikon – Swedish actress
• Tracey Ullman – British born American actress

Artists

• Micaela Flores Amaya, La Chunga, Flamenco dancer and painter
• Helios Gómez – Spanish artist, writer and poet
• Lita Cabellut – Spanish female artist
• Joe Machine – (1973) British Stuckist
• Otto Mueller – painter and printmaker, Sinti mother
• Antonio Solario – Italian artist

Athletes

• Ilie Năstase – Romanian tennis player of selfdeclared Romani descent
• Mirko Petrović – Serbian long-distance runner

Boxers

• Jakob Bamberger – German amateur boxer
• Johnny Frankham – British Boxer
• Zoltan Lunka – Germany
• Ivailo Marinov – also known as Ismail Mustafov, Ismail Huseinov or Ivailo Khristov) is a Roma Bulgarian boxer
• Michele di Rocco – Italian Light Welterweight Boxing Champion
• Billy Joe Saunders – British Boxing, represented Great Britain in the 2008 Olympics
• Serafim Todorov – was a Bulgarian/Georgian boxer at the 1996 Summer Olympics who won a silver medal.
• Johann Wilhelm Trollmann – German light-heavyweight boxer killed during the Porajmos

Football players

• Zlatan Ibrahimović – Swedish
• Pierre-Yves André – French (Retired)
• Aljoša Asanović – Croatian (Retired)
• Eugen Bari – Slovak
• Richard Carpenter – English (Retired)
• Dumitru Copil – Romanian
• Iván Amaya – Spanish (Rayo)
• Antonio Amaya – Spanish (Retired, Atletico)
• Carlos Muñoz – Spanish (Retired, Oviedo)
• Carlos Aranda – Spanish (Levante)
• Tony Vairelles – Frech (Retired)
• Freddy Eastwood – Welsh (Free Agent)
• János Farkas – Hungarian
• André-Pierre Gignac – French (Olympique Marseille)
• Dani Güiza – Spanish (Getafe)
• Rab Howell – English
• Ruzin Kerimov – Bulgarian
• Vital Lanko – Belarusian
• Mircea Lucescu – Romanian (Retired)
• Răzvan Lucescu – Romanian (Retired)
• Predrag Luka – Serbian
• José Mari – Spanish (Xerez CD)
• Petre Marin – Romanian (Retired)
• Marcos Márquez – Spanish (Retired)
• José Rodríguez Martínez – Spanish
• Gerd Mueller – German (Munich)
• Jesús Navas – Spanish (Manchester City)
• Bănel Nicoliță – Romanian (Nantes)
• Nacho Novo – Spanish (Carolina Railhawks)
• Oleksandr Noyok – Ukrainian
• Marian Ognyanov – Bulgarian
• Dejan Osmanović – Serbian (Retired)
• Christos Patsatzoglou – Greek (Iraklis Psachna)
• István Pisont – Hungarian (Retired)
• Ricardo Quaresma – Portuguese (Porto)
• José Antonio Reyes – Spanish (Sevilla)
• Dragoslav Šekularac – Serbian (Retired)
• Emra Tahirović – Bosnian

Various

• Florin Cioabă – (1954 –2013) Romanian Pentecostal
• Ceferino Giménez Malla – Spanish beatified Catholic catechist
• Paul Henry – New Zealand radio and television broadcaster
• Sofia Kovalevskaya – Russian mathematician of 1/4 Romani descent
• Hristo Kyuchukov – Bulgarian specialist
• Jimmy Marks – litigant in a lawsuit against the city of Spokane, Washington
• Róisín Mullins – Irish dancer and choreographer
• Kerope Patkanov – Armenian Garachi scientist
• Juliette Peirce – Wife of mathematician and philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce
• Ștefan Răzvan – Ruler of Moldovia
• Rodney "Gipsy" Smith – (1860–1947), British evangelist
• Settela Steinbach – Holocaust victim
• Petr Torak, MBE - UK police officer working with the Roma community

External links

• Romany Gypsy Notables
• Famous Gypsies
• Prominente Roma
• Goethe Institut