List of Indian Americans

Indian Americans are citizens or residents of the United States of America who trace their family descent to India.[1][2] Notable Indian Americans include:

Academics

Nobel Prize recipients

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, Nobel Prize for Physics, 1983

Deans and presidents

Mathematicians

Economists

Abhijit Banerjee, Professor of Economics at MIT, Nobel Prize winner in Economic Sciences in 2019.

Professors and scholars in computer science or engineering and electrical engineering


Professors and scholars in other disciplines

Activism and philanthropy

  • Rajiv Malhotra, Hindutva activist for promoting Indic cultures, author of Breaking India and the founder of Infinity Foundation
  • Maya Ajmera, founder of The Global Fund for Children and author of more than 20 books for children[22]
  • Kala Bagai, immigrant advocate and one of the first South Asian women in the United States
  • Vaishno Das Bagai, Ghadar party member, associated with the struggle for U.S. citizenship
  • Bhairavi Desai, founding member of the Taxi Workers Alliance in New York
  • Kartar Dhillon, Ghadar Party, labor, and civil rights activist
  • Mallika Dutt, executive director of Breakthrough human rights organization
  • Vijaya Lakshmi Emani (1958–2009), social activist
  • Arun Manilal Gandhi, fifth grandson of Mohandas Gandhi
  • Meera Gandhi, founder and CEO of The Giving Back Foundation
  • Abraham George, philanthropist humanitarian, founder of The George Foundation (TGF)
  • Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, lawyer who is defending Guantanamo prisoners
  • Maya Harris, of half Indian descent, executive director of the ACLU of Northern California and sister of Kamala Harris
  • Prerna Lal, immigrant rights advocate and attorney
  • Hemant Mehta - atheist activist, YouTuber and writer
  • Girindra Mukerji, leader of one of the first Indian-American student protests against colonialism in 1908
  • Kavita Ramdas, president and CEO of Global Fund for Women
  • Dinesh Sharma, leader, CRO and Director at Steam Works Studio and author in human development, human rights and global education, and professor at Fordham, NYU, and Walden University
  • Inder Singh, chairman of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO)
  • Bhagat Singh Thind, civil rights activist who defended the right of Indian immigrants to gain United States citizenship in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind
  • Urvashi Vaid, gay rights activist
  • Thomas Abraham (b. 1948), founder president of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) as well as the National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA)
  • Sakharam Ganesh Pandit (1875–1959), lawyer who argued against government efforts to revoke American citizenship for Indian emigrants
  • Surendran Pattel, lawyer who is a judge for the 240th Texas District Court in Fort Bend County since 2023

Arts, media, and entertainment

M. Night Shyamalan, Hollywood director
Mira Nair, director and producer
Sharad Devarajan, superhero creator and producer
Rohit Gupta, director, producer
Nina Davuluri, Miss America 2014
  • Ashok Amritraj, Hollywood film producer
  • Alok Vaid-Menon, writer, performance artist, media personality
  • Salma Arastu, artist
  • San Banarje, independent filmmaker
  • Rina Banerjee, artist
  • Prashant Bhargava, director
  • Niala Boodhoo, journalist, host, and executive producer
  • Lesley-Ann Brandt, actress
  • Jay Chandrasekhar, director, actor, comedian, and writer
  • Shanthi Chandrasekar, visual artist
  • Aneesh Chaganty, film director, screenwriter
  • Sabu Dastagir, actor
  • Nina Davuluri, Miss America 2014
  • India de Beaufort, actress
  • Sharad Devarajan, superhero creator, producer, writer
  • Param Gill, director, screenwriter and producer
  • Kovid Gupta, bestselling author and screenwriter
  • RK DreamWest, film director, screenwriter, cinematographer
  • Reef Karim, actor, director, writer, and producer
  • Neeraj Khemlani, producer for CBS News' 60 Minutes
  • Bharti Kirchner, writer
  • Shirish Korde, artist
  • Adam Bhala Lough, director, screenwriter
  • Tirlok Malik, filmmaker and actor
  • Dharminder Mann, entrepreneur, film producer and YouTuber.
  • Benny Mathews, film and music video director
  • Faris McReynolds, painter and musician
  • Meera Menon, director, writer, and editor
  • Mira Nair, director and producer
  • Sunil Nayar, TV writer and producer; producer of CSI: Miami
  • Oopali Operajita, choreographer and Odissi and Bharatanatyam artiste; Distinguished Fellow, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Yatin Patel, photographer and artist
  • Mythili Prakash, Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer
  • Asha Puthli, singer-songwriter, producer and actress
  • Sarayu Rao, actor and director
  • Harish Saluja, filmmaker
  • Stephanie Sengupta, producer and writer
  • Mehul Shah, actor, director, writer, and producer
  • Adi Shankar, producer and actor
  • Naren Shankar, TV writer, producer and director; an executive producer of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
  • M. Night Shyamalan, director, filmmaker
  • Ishana Night Shyamalan, filmmaker, screenwriter and producer
  • Tarsem Singh, director
  • Rohit Gupta, director, producer
  • Manick Sorcar, animator, artist, and producer
  • Babu Subramaniam, director
  • Tina Sugandh, entertainer
  • Julie Titus, model, contestant on America's Next Top Model
  • Serena Varghese, voice actress
  • Prashanth Venkataramanujam, television writer, actor, and producer
  • Hasna Sal, glass sculptor, architect, artist and author

Actors and actresses

Kal Penn, actor
Mindy Kaling, actress
Sendhil Ramamurthy, actor
Danny Pudi, actor

Comedians

Aziz Ansari, comedian and actor
Hasan Minhaj, comedian
Hari Kondabolu, comedian
Padma Lakshmi
  • Ashok Bajaj, restaurateur
  • Vishwesh Bhatt, chef
  • Maneet Chauhan, celebrity chef, restaurateur, author
  • H. Jay Dinshah, founded the American Vegan Society
  • Raghavan Iyer, chef, author, culinary educator
  • Vikas Khanna, Michelin starred celebrity chef, restaurateur, author, filmmaker, and TV host
  • Jehangir Mehta, celebrity chef, restaurateur, author
  • Rajat Parr, sommelier
  • Suvir Saran, Michelin starred chef and author
  • Aarti Sequeira (b. 1978), TV host on Food Network
  • Vikram Sunderam (b. 1967), chef and author
  • Padma Lakshmi

Fashion

Models

Media

Fareed Zakaria, journalist
Lilly Singh, actress and YouTuber
  • Rajan Devadas, photojournalist
  • Manu Raju (b. 1980), CNN journalist anchor, reporter
  • Deepak Ananthapadmanabha, online journalist
  • Sanjay Gupta, journalist, medical correspondent, neurosurgeon
  • Rajiv Chandrasekaran, assistant managing editor for continuous news, The Washington Post; author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City
  • Syma Chowdhry, television host, reporter, and producer
  • Priya David, correspondent for CBS News
  • Dinesh D'Souza, political commentator, author and filmmaker. Former president of The King's College, New York
  • Deepa Fernandes, host of the WBAI radio program Wakeup Call
  • Deepti Hajela, journalist for the Associated Press
  • Pico Iyer, author and journalist for Time magazine, Harper's Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, and The New York Review of Books
  • Shibani Joshi, reporter for the Fox Business Network
  • Suma Josson, journalist and filmmaker
  • Sukanya Krishnan, news anchor for CW 11 Morning News on WPIX
  • Raj Mathai, television journalist
  • Seema Mody, news reporter/anchor for CNBC
  • Mish Michaels, meteorologist for the WBZ-TV Weather Team
  • Vinita Nair, anchor of World News Now and America This Morning on ABC
  • Kevin Negandhi, sports anchor for ESPN SportsCenter
  • Reena Ninan, Middle East correspondent for Fox News Channel
  • Asra Nomani, journalist
  • Safiya Nygaard, YouTube beauty creator
  • Uma Pemmaraju, senior news anchor for Fox News Channel
  • Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor of the National Review magazine
  • Ash-har Quraishi, correspondent, WTTW Chicago; former KCTV Chief Investigative Reporter; former CNN Islamabad Bureau Chief
  • Gopal Raju, pioneer of Indian American ethnic media
  • Aneesh Raman, first Indian-American presidential speechwriter under President Barack Obama, former CNN Middle East correspondent
  • Alpana Singh, television personality
  • Lakshmi Singh, NPR's national midday newscaster
  • Hari Sreenivasan, correspondent for CBS News and the PBS NewsHour
  • Sreenath Sreenivasan, Columbia University professor; WABC-TV technology reporter
  • Ali Velshi, business news anchor for CNN
  • Zain Verjee, CNN anchor
  • Rohit Vyas, first and longest serving Indian American broadcast journalist
  • Fareed Zakaria, columnist for Time magazine and host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN
  • Lilly Singh, YouTuber of Indian descent widely known as IISuperwomanII, ranked tenth on the Forbes list of the world's highest paid YouTube stars, ranked first on 2017 Forbes Top Influencers List in the entertainment category
  • Liza Koshy, actress, YouTube comedian and television host
  • Ambreen Tariq, author, activist and founder of @BrownPeopleCamping

Musicians

Norah Jones, singer and winner of multiple Grammy Awards
Zubin Mehta, musician and receiver of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
  • Rick Parashar (1963–2014), producer
  • Sandeep Das (b. 1971), won the Grammy award for Best World Music Album, at the 59th Grammy Awards, 2017
  • Sonika Vaid, singer
  • Bamboo Shoots, dance-rock band
  • 6ix, record producer
  • Rajiv Dhall, singer
  • Sid Sriram, singer
  • Jeff Bhasker, producer
  • Nicki Minaj, rapper and singer-songwriter of half Indian descent[23]
  • Sameer Bhattacharya, one of two guitarists in the Texas alternative rock band Flyleaf
  • Das Racist, alternative hip hop group; two of the three members are Indian
  • Anoop Desai, finalist on the eighth season of American Idol
  • Falu, singer and songwriter
  • Sameer Gadhia, lead vocalist in Young the Giant
  • Terry Vivkeanand Gajraj, chutney-soca singer
  • Heems, rapper
  • Ravi Hutheesing, singer-songwriter, guitarist
  • iLoveMakonnen, rapper
  • Daya, singer
  • Sandeep Khurana, new age music and world music composer
  • Raja Kumari, singer and songwriter
  • Vijay Iyer, jazz musician and composer
  • Sunny Jain, dhol player, drummer, and composer
  • Norah Jones, singer, songwriter and actress; winner of multiple Grammy Awards
  • Rajan Somasundaram, Music Composer, Songwriter and multi instrumentalist
  • Karsh Kale, producer, composer and musician
  • Tony Kanal, two-time Grammy Award winner, bass player for No Doubt
  • Appu Krishnan, known professionally as The Professor, music producer and songwriter
  • Ashok Kondabolu, rapper (also known as Dapwell)
  • Savan Kotecha, songwriter
  • KSHMR, electronic musician, record producer
  • Arun Luthra, jazz musician
  • Sanjaya Malakar, finalist on the sixth season of American Idol
  • Mathai, finalist on season 2 of The Voice
  • Zarin Mehta, executive director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
  • Zubin Mehta, former conductor, New York Philharmonic Orchestra; receiver of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
  • Sanjay Mishra, guitarist and composer
  • Thara Prashad, R&B singer and model of half Indian descent
  • Vidya Vox, YouTube musician
  • Vasant Rai, performer of Indian music
  • Lara Raj, singer, dancer, and member of girl group Katseye
  • Rhea Raj, singer and songwriter
  • Saleka, singer-songwriter and actress
  • Paul Sabu, producer
  • Amar Sandhu, singer
  • Shaheen Sheik, songwriter
  • Bikram Singh, singer
  • Mickey Singh, singer from Detroit, MI
  • Justine Skye, singer
  • Ramesh Srivastava, singer
  • Ambi Subramaniam, violinist and composer
  • Bindu Subramaniam, singer-songwriter
  • Kim Thayil, named among 100th greatest guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone
  • Rozonda Thomas, singer
  • Zoya, California-based singer and guitarist
  • Sanjay Patel, animator and director and also illustrator of Pixar
  • Shirish Korde (b. 1945), composer
  • Raveena Aurora, alternative singer and songwriter
  • Olivia, singer
  • Lisa Mishra, singer and actress

Business

Crime

Literature

Kiran Desai, winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize
Siddhartha Mukherjee, physician and 2011 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction

Military

Politics and government

  • Stanley George, political strategist, known for his advisory role in the U.S. Republican Party and close association with President Donald Trump's political campaigns; also biographer

Elected officials

Aruna Miller, 10th Lieutenant Governor of Maryland
Ravinder Bhalla, elected the first turban-wearing Sikh U.S. mayor, of Hoboken, New Jersey

Federal elected officials

Dalip Singh Saund, first Indian American to be elected to Congress
Kamala Harris, former Vice President of the United States.

Civil servants

Kash Patel, 9th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Nikki Haley, United States Ambassador to the United Nations

Federal judges

Religion and spirituality

Science and technology

Dr. Subbarow Yellapragada
Kalpana Chawla, NASA astronaut, On February 1, 2003, Kalpana Chawla died on the Space Shuttle Columbia
Sunita Williams, NASA astronaut

Medicine

Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General of U.S.; former vice admiral of U.S. Health Corps
  • Amit Patel, cardiovascular surgeon and stem cell researcher; first person to inject stem cells directly into the heart
  • Anita Goel, Harvard-MIT physicist, physician; expert in nanobiophysics and nanotechnology; chairman and CEO of Nanobiosym; inventor of Gene-RADAR technology
  • Ashutosh Tewari, professor of urology at New York Presbyterian Hospital; prostate cancer surgeon
  • Atul Gawande, general and endocrine surgeon, professor, medical author, and National Book Award finalist
  • Balamurali Ambati, world's youngest doctor, at age 17
  • Deepak Chopra, alternative medicine advocate, author and public speaker
  • E. Premkumar Reddy, oncologist; director of Fels institute of cancer research and molecular biology at Temple University
  • Harvinder Sahota, cardiologist; inventor of the FDA-approved perfusion balloon angioplasty; holds patents of 24 other medical inventions
  • Inder Verma, Professor of Molecular Biology in the Laboratory of Genetics at Salk Institute for Biological Studies and University of California, San Diego
  • Joia Mukherjee, associate professor with the Division of Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School
  • Paul Antony, MD, MPH, chief medical officer for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
  • Ragavendra R. Baliga, FACC, FACP, FRCP (Edin), Professor of Medicine at; Ohio State University College of Medicine
  • Sangeeta Bhatia, Harvard-MIT doctor and scientist; engineer of artificial liver cells
  • Sanjay Gupta, neurosurgeon; CNN chief medical correspondent;
  • Vivek Murthy (b. 1977), 19th and former Surgeon General of the United States; former vice admiral of U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Officer Corps
  • Aseem Shukla (b. 1972), Professor of Surgery (Urology) at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, co-founder of Hindu American Foundation
  • Kiran C Patel (b. 1949), cardiologist, philanthropist, serial entrepreneur, and hotelier
  • Asim Duttaroy, Medical Scientist
  • Deborah Persaud (b. 1960), virologist
  • Alok Kanojia, psychiatrist and mental health coach

Sports

Mohini Bhardwaj, 2004 Summer Olympics medalist in gymnastics

See also

References

  1. ^ "A Growing Number of Indian Americans Are Leading America's Best Business Schools". Forbes.com. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  2. ^ "Dual Nationality - New Delhi, India - Embassy of the United States". Archived from the original on March 17, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
  3. ^ "Short Bio | MIT Economics". economics.mit.edu. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  4. ^ "Dean Rakesh Khurana | Harvard". college.harvard.edu. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  5. ^ "Home - Dr. Neeli Bendapudi — Office of the President". louisville.edu. Archived from the original on September 22, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  6. ^ "Dean's Welcome". Duke Pratt School of Engineering. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  7. ^ "BioSketch - Pramod Khargonekar". faculty.sites.uci.edu. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  8. ^ "About Renu Khator". www.uh.edu. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  9. ^ "About the Chancellor's Office". chancellor.ucsd.edu. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  10. ^ "Office of the President | Tufts University". www.tufts.edu. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  11. ^ "Dr. Vijay Kumar : Vijay Kumar Lab". Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  12. ^ "Saira Rao | Penguin Random House". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  13. ^ "NYU Stern - Geeta Menon - Abraham Krasnoff Professor of Global Business & Professor of Marketing". www.stern.nyu.edu. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  14. ^ "Nitin Nohria - Faculty & Research - Harvard Business School". www.hbs.edu. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  15. ^ "Sethuraman Panchanathan | ASU Search". search.asu.edu. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  16. ^ https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/balachandran_bala.aspx Northwestern University's Kellog School of Management's Faculty. Retrieved 19 June 2021
  17. ^ https://www.greatlakes.edu.in/chennai/faculty/dr-bala-v-balachandran Great Lakes Institute of Management's Faculty. Retrieved 19 June 2021
  18. ^ "Biography | Oregon Tech". www.oit.edu. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  19. ^ "Sri Zaheer". Carlson School of Management. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  20. ^ "Amit Sheth - people.wright.edu - Wright State University". Retrieved May 8, 2016.
  21. ^ "Jagdish Sheth". Emory University's Goizueta Business School. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
  22. ^ "The Global Fund for Children - Founder's Story". Archived from the original on November 22, 2011. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
  23. ^ "Birthday girl Nicki Minaj has a very interesting Indian connection you didn't know about!". IndiaToday. August 30, 2017.
  24. ^ Platon (September 29, 2008). "Service". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on September 30, 2008.
  25. ^ "Maryland Legislator Kumar P. Barve to Run for Congress in 2016". india.com. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  26. ^ Otterman, Sharon (November 8, 2017). "In a City of Firsts, Hoboken Elects a Sikh as Mayor". The New York Times. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  27. ^ Kaur, Brahmjot (November 9, 2022). "Aruna Miller makes history as first South Asian woman elected lieutenant governor in U.S." NBC News. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
  28. ^ Hefler, Jan. "Race-baiting ads backfired, says Sikh who broke barriers in South Jersey freeholder race", The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 8, 2017. Accessed December 30, 2017.
  29. ^ Pries, Allison; Ensslin, John (December 2, 2016). "Bergen prosecutor talks computer crimes, heroin epidemic". NorthJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY network. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  30. ^ "Bhog Akhand Path". ambedkartimes.com. Retrieved June 13, 2024.
  31. ^ a b c d "Barack Obama re-nominates 3 Indian-Americans for federal judgeship". timesofindia-economictimes. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
  32. ^ "Cathy Bissoon". Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  33. ^ "Many Congratulations" (PDF). No. 32. Ambedkartimes. October 19, 2022. Retrieved June 13, 2024.
  34. ^ "Neetu S Badhan Judge Supreme Courts of California Special Notes on Congratulations" (PDF). No. 1–3. Ambedkartimes. March 27, 2019. Retrieved June 13, 2024.
  35. ^ "Suchir Balaji: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in apartment". www.bbc.com. Retrieved January 16, 2025.