# List of Lebanese Americans

This is a list of notable individuals born in the United States of Lebanese ancestry and/or people of Lebanese and American dual nationality who live or lived in the United States.

## Arts and entertainment
### Artists

* Etel Adnan – painter, poet
* Margot Douaihy – writer
* Chawky Frenn – painter and art professor
* Kahlil Gibran – aka Kahlil G. Gibran, artist, sculptor
* Nabil Kanso – painter
* Sam Maloof – woodworker
* Juman Malouf – costume designer, artist, illustrator, writer, and the romantic partner of film director Wes Anderson.

### Beauty pageant contestants

* Rima Fakih – Miss USA 2010

### Entertainment personalities

* Alexander Koch – actor of Lebanese, Italian and German descent
* Alyssa Farah Griffin - co-host of ABC’s The View
* Amy Yasbeck – actress (father was of Lebanese descent)
* Anissa Jones – child actor (mother was of Lebanese descent)
* Callie Khouri – Oscar-winning screenwriter
* Casey Kasem – radio personality, American Top 40 franchise; voiceover actor (cartoon series Scooby-Doo, Transformers)
* Catherine Keener – actress, mother of Lebanese descent
* Celeste Thorson – actress, model, activist, screenwriter
* Chris Romano – actor, producer, director (father of Lebanese heritage, born Shaheen)
* Cristina Vee – singer and voice actor
* Demián Bichir – Mexican-American film actor of Lebanese heritage
* Dan Jbara – television and film producer
* Danny Thomas – actor
* David Yazbek – musician and composer famous for the Broadway musical The Full Monty
* Diane Rehm – host and executive producer of The Diane Rehm Show on National Public Radio
* Edy Ganem – actress (parents are of Lebanese descent)
* Elie Samaha – film producer
* Emeraude Toubia – actress (father is Lebanese)
* Emile Kuri – Mexican-born American Oscar-winning art director
* Frank Lackteen – actor
* Gregory Jbara – television and film actor
* George Nader – actor, uncle of Michael Nader
* George Noory – radio host (radio program Coast to Coast AM)
* Haaz Sleiman – actor (series Nurse Jackie; film The Visitor)
* Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf – radio and television personality
* James Stacy – film and television actor
* Jamie Farr – actor (sitcom M*A*S*H)
* Jamie Gray Hyder – actress, model (father of Lebanese descent)
* Jane Wiedlin – musician, actress (mother was of Lebanese descent)
* Jenna Dewan – actress (paternal grandfather was of Lebanese descent)
* Kristen Doute – television personality known for Vanderpump Rules
* Joan Alexander – actress known for her role as Lois Lane
* John A. Kuri – author and writer, film and television producer, and director
* John Leguizamo – actor (maternal grandfather was Lebanese)
* Kathy Najimy – actress
* Kerri Kasem – radio and television host; daughter of Casey Kasem
* Khrystyne Haje – actress (sitcom Head of the Class)
* Lili Estefan – Cuban-American television personality, niece of Emilio Estefan
* Marlo Thomas – actress (father was of Lebanese descent)
* Mario Kassar – filmmaker, founder of Carolco Pictures
* Mary Zilba – television personality and singer
* Mayssa Karaa – Grammy-nominated singer
* Mia Khalifa – pornographic actress and adult model
* Michael Ansara – stage, screen, and voice actor (Lebanese born American)
* Michael Nader – actor, All My Children and Dynasty
* Mo Gallini – actor (father of Lebanese descent)
* Paola Turbay – Colombian-American actress, model, beauty queen and television presenter
* Paul Anka – singer-songwriter, actor, producer
* Peter Macdissi – film and television actor
* Raya Meddine – actress of Lebanese descent
* Robert Romanus – actor and musician
* Rose Abdoo – comedian, actress
* Rowan Blanchard – actress (father of Lebanese descent)
* Salma Hayek – Mexican-American actress (paternal grandfather was Lebanese)
* Senta Moses – actress known for her role in Home Alone
* Shannon Elizabeth – actress (father of Lebanese descent)
* Terrence Malick – filmmaker, of part Lebanese descent
* Tom Shadyac – film director (of 3/4 Lebanese descent)
* Tony Shalhoub – actor (Monk)
* Tony Thomas – producer (father was of Lebanese descent)
* Vince Vaughn – actor (paternal grandmother was of Lebanese descent)
* Wentworth Miller – actor, maternal great-grandmother of Lebanese descent
* Yasmeen Fletcher – actress and musician, mother of Lebanese descent
* Yasmine Al Massri – Lebanese-born American actress

### Fashion designers

* Joseph Abboud – fashion designer
* Reem Acra – fashion designer
* Norma Kamali – fashion designer
* Elie Saab – fashioner designer

### Musicians

* Andrew Bazzi – pop musician
* Dick Dale – rock guitarist and surf music pioneer
* Emilio Estefan – Cuban-American musician and producer; husband of Gloria Estefan
* G. E. Smith – lead guitarist in the band Hall & Oates; musical director of Saturday Night Live
* Hamed Sinno – Lebanese-American graphic designer, singer-songwriter of the band Mashrou'Leila
* Jack Barakat – guitarist of the band All Time Low
* Jane Wiedlin – musician, singer-songwriter, and actress; best known as a member of the all-female new wave band The Go-Go's
* John Dolmayan – Lebanese-American of Armenian descent, drummer of band System of a Down
* Kat Dahlia – singer-songwriter, rapper
* Mohammed El-Bakkar – tenor singer, oud player, and conductor
* Nadia Azzi – pianist
* Paul Anka – singer-songwriter (both parents of Lebanese descent)
* Sammy Hagar – singer-songwriter and guitarist
* Paul Jabara – composer
* Neil Sedaka – pop/rock singer, pianist, composer and record producer
* Ron Affif – jazz guitarist and musician
* Rosalind Elias – opera singer renowned for her time in the Metropolitan Opera
* Serj Tankian – Lebanese-American of Armenian descent, lead singer of band System of a Down
* Soraya – Colombian-American singer
* Tiffany – singer
* Tino Coury – singer-songwriter and producer
* Tiny Tim – folk singer
* Tyler Joseph – lead singer of Twenty One Pilots

## Legal professionals

* Tom Ajamie - civil litigation attorney
* Eva M. Mack – attorney who worked on the California civil rights case Davis v. Carter
* Jeanine Pirro – former district attorney of Westchester County, New York

## Business

* Alec Gores – entrepreneur
* Caroline Ghosn – entrepreneur
* Charles Elachi – director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory
* Clifford Antone – founder of Antone's blues club in Austin, Texas
* Debra Cafaro – CEO of Ventas Inc., a healthcare real estate investment trust
* Fares D. Noujaim – business executive
* Frédéric Fekkai – French-American hairdresser and founder of Frédéric Fekkai salons and hair products
* George Joseph – founder of Mercury Insurance Group
* George J. Maloof Jr. – businessman and owner of the Sacramento Monarchs, Sacramento Kings and the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas
* George J. Maloof Sr. – businessman and former owner of the Houston Rockets
* Jacques Nasser – former CEO of Ford Motor Company
* Jean Succar Kuri – businessman
* Joe Jamail – attorney and businessman
* Joe Robbie – attorney and original owner of the Miami Dolphins
* John J. Mack – former CEO of investment bank Morgan Stanley (2005–2009)
* Joseph J. Jacobs – former chairman and founder of the Jacobs Engineering Group
* Madeleine A. Pickens – business executive
* Magid Abraham – market research expert and businessman
* Manuel Moroun – businessman and the owner of the Ambassador Bridge
* Michael Boulos – business executive and partner of Tiffany Trump
* Moose Scheib – founder and CEO of LoanMod.com
* Paul Orfalea – founder of Kinko's
* Richard Rainwater (1944–2015) – investor and philanthropist
* Richard Rashid – founder of Microsoft Research
* Robert Khuzami – former director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
* Thomas J. Barrack Jr. – businessman and founder of Colony Capital
* Tony Fadell – product development manager at Apple Inc.
* Tony Tamer – founder and co-CEO of H.I.G. Capital
* Ziad Makkawi - investor and entrepreneur

## Education and academics

* Charbel Farhat – Vivian Church Hoff Professor of Aircraft Structures in the School of Engineering and inaugural James and Anna Marie Spilker Chair of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, at Stanford University;
* Joseph E. Aoun – President of Northeastern University
* Nafe Katter – professor of theatre, University of Connecticut
* Robert Khayat – Chancellor of the University of Mississippi
* Eugene Nassar – author, literary critic and professor
* Donna Shalala – U.S. Representative from Florida, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and former President of the University of Miami
* Phoebe Stanton – faculty at Johns Hopkins University from 1955 until 1982, art historian, urban planner for the city of Baltimore.
* Gabriel Hawawini – emeritus professor of finance and former holder of the Henry Grunfeld Chair in Investment Banking at INSEAD

## History

* Akram Fouad Khater – professor, author, expert on Lebanese-American studies
* Philip Khuri Hitti – historian of Arab culture and history

## Journalism

* Anthony Shadid – foreign correspondent for The New York Times and earlier The Boston Globe
* Brian Karem – journalist and White House correspondent
* Helen Thomas – journalist who covered every U.S. president from 1961 to 2010
* Jad Abumrad – radio host, composer, and producer, founder and co-host of the syndicated public radio program Radiolab
* Jim Avila – senior correspondent for ABC News
* Leila Fadel – journalist for National Public Radio
* Lucie Salhany – first woman to head a broadcast television network in 1993 in the position as Chairman of Fox Broadcasting Company
* Octavia Nasr – former television journalist for CNN
* Paula Faris – journalist (father was of Lebanese descent)
* Raghida Dergham – columnist and senior diplomatic correspondent for the London-based Al Hayat
* Sara Ganim – CNN journalist (father is of Lebanese descent)
* Serena Shim – journalist
* Tamsen Fadal – television journalist
* Walid Phares – security and anti-terrorism expert

## Medicine

* Amin J. Barakat – physician, known for the diagnosis of Barakat syndrome
* Charles Sophy – psychiatrist
* Daniel Amen – psychiatrist and author
* George Hatem – "Ma Haide," a founder of the public health system in China
* M. Amin Arnaout – nephrologist and physician-scientist
* Michael DeBakey – heart surgeon, medical innovator
* Paul Nassif – facial plastic surgeon, co-star on the television series Botched

## Military

* Alfred Naifeh – U.S. Navy lieutenant posthumously awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal in WWII and namesake of a U.S. Navy ship, USS Naifeh (DE-352)
* Ernest "Iron Mike" Massad – U.S. Army major general
* George Joulwan – retired U.S. Army general
* James Jabara – first American jet ace
* John Abizaid – retired general in the United States Army
* Michael A. Monsoor – U.S. Navy SEAL awarded Medal of Honor after being killed during the Iraq War

## Politics
### Activists

* Jahaira DeAlto – domestic violence victims and LGBT community activist and advocate
* Brigitte Gabriel – founder of non-profit political organizations American Congress For Truth and ACT! for America; author; formerly journalist in Israel working for World News
* Candy Lightner – activist and founder of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers
* James Zogby – founder of the Arab-American Institute
* Jill Kelley – international advocate, socialite, and former diplomat
* John Zogby – pollster; founder of Zogby International

### Politicians

* Abraham Kazen – former U.S. representative from Texas
* Alex Azar – former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
* Charles Boustany – former U.S. representative from Louisiana
* Charlie Crist – U.S. representative from Florida and former governor of Florida
* Chris Greeley – former Maine state representative
* Chris John – former U.S. representative from Louisiana
* Chris Sununu – Governor of New Hampshire
* Darin LaHood – Republican representative from Illinois
* Darrell Issa – U.S. representative from California
* David Karem – member of Kentucky Senate from 1976 to 2004
* Debbie Mucarsel-Powell – U.S. representative from Florida
* Donna Shalala – U.S. representative from Florida and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services
* Edward M. Gabriel – former U.S. ambassador to Morocco
* Francis Slay – former mayor of Saint Louis
* Garret Graves – U.S. representative from Louisiana
* George A. Kasem – former U.S. representative from California
* George J. Mitchell – former U.S. senator from Maine
* Gwen Graham – former U.S. representative from Florida
* James Abdnor – former U.S. senator and U.S. representative from South Dakota
* James Abourezk – former U.S. senator from South Dakota
* Jeanine Pirro – politician, judge and television host
* John Baldacci – former governor of Maine
* John E. Sununu – former U.S. senator and U.S. representative from New Hampshire
* John H. Sununu – former White House Chief of Staff; former governor of New Hampshire
* Katcho Achadjian – former California State Assembly member, of Armenian descent
* Manuel Maloof – former U.S. government official and businessman
* Mary Rose Oakar – former U.S. representative from Ohio
* Nick Rahall – former U.S. representative from West Virginia
* Nico LaHood – Bexar County district attorney, Texas
* Pat Danner – former U.S. representative from Missouri
* Philip Habib – former U.S. ambassador and envoy
* Ralph Abraham – U.S. representative from Louisiana
* Ralph Nader – political activist and former U.S. presidential candidate (Green Party)
* Ray LaHood – former U.S. Transportation Secretary and former U.S. representative from Illinois
* Richard L. Hanna – former U.S. representative from New York
* Richard Ieyoub – former Attorney General of Louisiana
* Selwa Roosevelt – former U.S. government official
* Spencer Abraham – former U.S. senator from Michigan
* Suzanne Haik Terrell – former Louisiana elections commissioner
* Toby Moffett – former U.S. representative from Connecticut
* Victor G. Atiyeh – former governor of Oregon
* Vincent Sheheen – member of the South Carolina senate
* Sam H. Zakhem – member of the Colorado State House of Representatives, Colorado state senator, former U.S. ambassador to Bahrain under Ronald Reagan

### Other personalities

* Adele Khoury Graham – educator and former first lady of the State of Florida
* George Noory – radio host of Coast to Coast AM; author; entertainer
* Joseph Farah – author and journalist
* Nassim Nicholas Taleb – best-selling author, risk expert and statistician, university professor, and former trader and business person
* Robert Khuzami, U.S. deputy attorney for Southern District of New York
* Timothy Massad – U.S. Treasury Department official and corporate lawyer
* Jirair Ratevosian – acting chief of staff to the United States Global AIDS Coordinator (2022–23)
* Victoria Reggie Kennedy – attorney and widow of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy

## Sciences

* Anthony Atala – director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine
* Moustafa T. Chahine - atmospheric scientist
* Joanne Chory - plant biologist and geneticist
* Edgar Choueiri - plasma physicist
* Elias Corey – 1990 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry
* Doris Daou – NASA astronomer
* Michael Debakey – doctor and heart surgeon, medical innovator
* Charles Elachi – electrical engineer, 8th director of NASA Jet Propulsion Labs
* Charbel Farhat – director, Army High Performance Computing Research Center, Stanford University, and Member of National Academy of Engineering
* Christa McAuliffe – teacher and astronaut who was killed on the Space Shuttle Challenger; mother was of partial Lebanese descent
* Mikhail Nasrallah - plant geneticist
* June Nasrallah - plant geneticist
* Hassan Kamel Al-Sabbah – technology innovator
* Edward M. Sion - astrophysicist
* Hussein M. Zbib - educator and engineer
* Huda Zoghbi - human geneticist, neuroscientist

## Sports
### Athletes

* Abe Mickal – football player for LSU
* Bobby Rahal – professional car racer and team owner
* Charley Zivic – professional boxer
* Damien Sandow – professional wrestler in the WWE
* David Azzi – professional football player
* Doug Flutie – former professional football player
* Fred Saigh – lawyer; real estate investor; owner of the American professional baseball franchise the St. Louis Cardinals
* Graham Rahal – professional car racer
* Jackson Vroman – former professional basketball player and member of Lebanon's national basketball team (naturalized Lebanese citizen)
* Jeff George – former NFL quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts
* Jim Harrick – former head coach of the University of Georgia Bull Dogs
* Joe Lahoud – former Major League Baseball outfielder
* Joe Vogel – professional basketball player and member of Lebanon's national basketball team
* John Elway – Hall of Fame NFL quarterback for the Denver Broncos
* John Grabow – former Major League Baseball pitcher
* John Jaha – former first baseman in Major League Baseball, played for the Milwaukee Brewers and Oakland Athletics
* Johnny Manziel – professional football player
* Jordyn Wieber – Olympic gymnast and gold medallist
* Liz Carmouche – mixed martial artist
* Matt Freije – ex-NBA player and member of Lebanon national basketball team
* Matt Kalil – professional football player
* Mikie Mahtook – Major League Baseball outfielder
* Patrick Maroon – ice hockey player for the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL
* Paul Rabil – former professional lacrosse player
* Petey Sarron – former featherweight boxing champion
* Rich Kotite – former National Football League player and coach
* Robert Saleh – professional football coach and head coach of the New York Jets
* Robert Watkins – former professional football player; of African-American and Lebanese descent
* Rony Seikaly – former professional basketball player in the NBA and for both the U.S. and Lebanon's national basketball team
* Ryan Kalil – professional football player
* Sabu – professional wrestler, real name Terry Brunk
* Sage Karam – professional car racer
* Samir Bannout – former professional bodybuilder and winner of Mr. Olympia title in 1983
* Skandor Akbar – former professional wrestler
* Soony Saad – professional soccer forward player
* Steve Kerr – retired professional basketball player and current head coach of the Golden State Warriors
* Toni Breidinger – professional race car driver

### World Series of Poker champions

* Ihsan "Sammy" Farha – three-time WSOP-bracelet winner
* Jennifer Shahade – two-time United States Women's champion; has the FIDE title of woman grandmaster
* Kassem "Freddy" Deeb – two-time WSOP-bracelet winner
* Joe Hachem – WSOP main event winner and a WPT championship winner (1 of 6 players in the world to win both)

## Writers

* Ameen Rihani – author
* D. H. Melhem – poet, novelist, and editor
* Geoff Johns – comic book writer
* Khalil Gibran – author and philosopher
* Lee Francis – poet
* Mikha'il Na'ima – author and poet
* Nassim Nicholas Taleb – essayist
* Paula Gunn Allen – Native American poet and activist
* Rabih Alameddine – author
* Raymond Khoury – novelist and screenwriter
* Saree Makdisi – author and literary critic
* Stephen Karam – playwright
* Vance Bourjaily – novelist
* William Peter Blatty – writer, screenwriter