List of deaf people

This is an incomplete list of notable deaf people.

Important deaf figures in deaf history 

 Alan Barwiolek, American deaf actor/comedian, CHALB
 Ferdinand Berthier, French intellectual, published several articles, first deaf person to receive the French Legion of Honour, founder of world's first deaf organization
 Julia Brace (1807–1884), early American deaf-blind student at the Hartford School for the Deaf
 Laura Bridgman, (1829–1889), American, first deaf-blind student of Dr. Samuel Howe at the Perkins School for the Blind
 Teresa de Cartagena, Spanish conversa nun and mystic author of the 15th century who became deaf in later life. The first mystic author in Spanish.
 Laurent Clerc (1785–1869), student and teacher (1798–1816) at the Paris deaf school of the Abbé de l'Épée; accompanied Thomas Gallaudet to America to teach deaf children. Co-founded the first deaf school in North America in 1817 in Hartford, Connecticut.
 Alice Cogswell, first deaf student at American School for the Deaf
 Pierre Desloges (1742–?), French deaf writer and bookbinder, first known deaf person to publish a book
 Phyllis Frelich, American actress, Best Actress in a Broadway play:  Children of a Lesser God 1980
 Andrew Foster, (1925–1987), American educator, first Black deaf person to earn a bachelor's degree from Gallaudet College, Christian missionary to Africa
 Ida Gray Hampton, First Black woman to earn a bachelor's degree from Gallaudet College
 William Elsworth "Dummy" Hoy (1862–1961), American baseball player
 Casar Jacobson, Norwegian-Canadian first ever deaf winner of Miss Canada (2013), a disability rights activist and the UN Woman Youth Champion.
 I. King Jordan, first deaf president (eighth overall) of Gallaudet University
 Mary Malzkuhn, Government and History Professor at Gallaudet University, known as the mother of the “Deaf President Now” movement, 1988.
 Helen Keller, American deaf-blind writer, lecturer, and actress
 J. Charlie McKinney, American deaf actor/comedian, CHALB
 Agatha Tiegel, (1873-1959) Poet and First woman to earn a Bachelors of Arts degree from Gallaudet College

Notable deaf people
 Shirley Allen, first deaf black woman to earn a doctorate degree
 Dimitra Arapoglou, deaf member of Greek parliament, from 2007 to 2009
 Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, banker
 Sean Berdy, actor and comedian
 Linda Bove, actress, known particularly for the role of Linda the Librarian on the children's television program Sesame Street
 Bob Hiltermann, actor, writer, director, and musician
 Deanne Bray, actress who played the lead role on Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye
 Earnest Elmo Calkins, deaf American advertising executive who pioneered the use of art in advertising
 Tamika Catchings, basketball player
 Punk Chef, celebrity deaf chef from the UK
 Michael Chorost, writer
 Willy Conley, playwright, actor, photographer 
 Karen Christie, deaf author ABC Portraits of Deaf Ancestors 2019
 Robert R. Davila, ninth president of Gallaudet University
 Nyle DiMarco, season 22 Dancing with the Stars champion and 2015 winner of America's Next Top Model
 Thomas Edison, American inventor
 Georgia Elliott, (1867-1941), activist, educator, and missionary leader
 Aryana Engineer, actress
 Ashley Fiolek, 4-time Women's Motocross Champion
 Juliana Fjeld, Best Producer of a TV movie: Love is Never Silent, won Emmy 1986
 Phyllis Frelich, Tony Award winner for her role in the stage production of Children of a Lesser God
 John Goodricke, (1764-1786), English astronomer
 Claudia L. Gordon, lawyer
 Matt Hamill, MMA fighter
 Russell Harvard, actor
 Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk
 Regina Olson Hughes, American Illustrator
 T. Alan Hurwitz, tenth president of Gallaudet University and former Vice President of National Technical Institute for the Deaf
 Alice C. Jennings, (1851-1940), poet
 I. King Jordan, the first deaf president of Gallaudet University and its eighth since its founding
 Alan Kilby, United Kingdom professional wrestler
 Jim Kyte (b. 1964), first, and to date the only deaf person to play in the National Hockey League
 Ryan Lane, actor and model
 Geraldine Lawhorn, musician, actress, instructor and first deaf-blind African-American person to earn a college degree 
 Rush Limbaugh, American conservative radio talk show host
 Mojo Mathers (b. 1966), New Zealand politician
 Marlee Matlin, only deaf person to win an Academy Award (Best Actress) for her role in Children of a Lesser God
 Caleb McDuff racing driver
 Dorothy Miles, deaf poet and activist
 The Musign Theater Company, a 3-person Rita Corey Bob Hiltermann Ed Chevy music and sign language performing group
 Lawrence R. Newman, deaf educator and activist, and served two terms as President of the National Association of the Deaf
 Wilma Neuhoudt-Druchen, social worker, and activist from South Africa.  The first Deaf person to serve in South African Parliament
 Michael Ndurumo, deaf educator from Kenya, third deaf person from Africa to obtain a PhD
 Leslie Nielsen, Canadian-American comedic actor
 Mary Lou Novitsky, co-producer & co-host of a TV show Deaf Mosaic, won Emmy 5 times
 Roger Demosthenes O'Kelly (b. 1880), deaf blind black lawyer, Yale alumnus
 Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw (b. 1912), British mathematician and politician
 Kitty O'Neil, stuntwoman, high-speed racer
 Andrew Phillips, lawyer
 Marie Jean Philip, teacher and leading international advocate for the right to sign language
 Yvonne Pitrios, (1880-1937), French writer, journalist, translator, and social service worker
 Eugen Relgis, Romanian humanist writer and political activist
 Terrylene Sacchetti, actress
 Howie Seago, actor and director
 Joshua Sealy, deaf actor known for A Silent Agreement
 The Silent Warrior, American professional wrestler and founder of the Deaf Wrestling Alliance
 Millicent Simmonds, deaf actress
 Laurene E Simms, educator, diversity educator and professor
 Laura C. Redden Searing,(1893-1923), Civil war journalist, biographer and poet
 Elizabeth Steel, earliest record of a deaf person in Australia
 Louise Stern, writer and artist
 Shoshannah Stern, actress in Jericho and Weeds
 Ted Supalla, researcher and professor
 Sue Thomas, first deaf person to work as an undercover investigator doing lip-reading of suspects for the Federal Bureau of Investigation
 Ildikó Újlaky-Rejtő (b. 1937), Hungarian foil fencer, Olympic champion and world champion
 Umesh Valjee, deaf cricketer who won the Disability cricket of the Year for England in 2011. Captain of the England national deaf cricket team
 Clayton Valli, deaf linguist and ASL poet
 George Veditz, former president of the National Association of the Deaf, and one of the first people to film sign language
 Alexandria Wailes, deaf actress, dancer, and educator
 Soleil Wheeler, first deaf partner on Twitch
 Heather Whitestone, first deaf woman to win the title of Miss America
 Nellie Zabel Willhite, pilot
 Blanche Wilkins, (1876-1936), Deaf Black Trailblazer, Educator, and Advocate
 David Wright, South African-born British poet
 Heidi Zimmer, American mountaineer
 Miha Zupan, Slovenian basketball player, first deaf person to play in the Euroleague
 Annie Jump Cannon, Female Harvard astronomer recognized for her work in stellar classification

Notable people who are deaf
 Bruce Willis, American actor, producer and singer, partially deaf in left ear
 Lance Allred, American basketball player, first deaf person to play in the NBA
 Guillaume Amontons, French inventor and physicist
 Cliff Bastin, British footballer
 Halle Berry, American actress, acquired unilateral hearing loss
 Connie Briscoe, American best-selling Black author
 Luis Buñuel, Spanish surrealist filmmaker and poet
 Kathy Buckley, American comedian
 Steve Downie, NHL hockey player
 Gertrude Ederle, American competitive swimmer, first woman to swim the English Channel
 Lou Ferrigno, American actor and bodybuilder
 Oliver Heaviside, British engineer, mathematician and physicist
 Georgia Horsley, Miss England 2007 and contestant in Miss World 2007
 Holly Hunter, American actress, completely deaf in one ear
 Katie Leclerc, American actress, known especially for her leading role in Switched at Birth
 Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA
 Rob Lowe, American actor, completely deaf in right ear
 Henrietta Leavitt, American astronomer
Florence Lewis May, American textile curator
 Harold MacGrath, American author
 Sir William McMahon, Australian politician and Prime Minister
 François d'Orléans, Prince of Joinville
 Pierre de Ronsard, French poet
 Adam Savage, American science educator
 R. N. Taber, English poet
 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian rocket scientist and pioneer of space exploration studies
 Judith Wright, Australian poet

Deaf and hard of hearing musicians
 Ryan Adams, American alternative country artist
 Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer and pianist, had adult-onset progressive deafness
 Mabel Hubbard Bell, wife of telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell
 William Boyce, British composer
 Foxy Brown, American rap artist
 Rudi Carrell, Dutch popular singer
 Danny Elfman, film score composer and former member of Oingo Boingo
 Gabriel Fauré, French composer
 Sean Forbes, American musician, songwriter, and rapper
 TL Forsberg, American avant-garde rock singer
 Evelyn Glennie, Scottish percussionist, won Grammy for Best Musician in a Recording 1989: Bartok's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
 Ayumi Hamasaki, Japanese popular singer and songwriter
 Mandy Harvey, American jazz singer
 Bob Hiltermann, drummer for Beethoven's Nightmare, an all-deaf rock band
 Brian Johnson, former lead singer of AC/DC
 Kyo, singer of Dir En Grey
 George Martin, English bandleader and producer
 Johnnie Ray, American popular singer
 Signmark, Finnish rap artist
 Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer
 Ethel Smyth, composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement
 Mariko Takamura, deaf Japanese musician
 Pete Townshend, British lead guitarist and songwriter
 Lars Ulrich, Danish drummer
 John Bruce Wallace, American composer and avant-garde, free jazz, fusion, experimental, improvisational guitarist
 Brian Wilson, American musician and songwriter

Artists who are/were deaf

 Sarah T. Adams, (1869–1894), deaf artist
 Chuck Baird, (1947–2012), American painter and performer, one of the founding members of the De'Via Deaf art movement
 Bernard Bragg, performer, writer, director, poet, and artist
John Brewster Jr. (1766–1854) portraitist and miniaturist in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine in the Federalist period in America
George Catlin (1796–1872), American artist, painted portraits of native American people
 Thomas Davidson, RA an English painter specialising in historical naval scenes (1842-1919)
 Walter Geikie, Scottish painter
 Francisco Goya (1746–1828), Spanish painter
David Hockney (b. 1937), British painter
 Fernanda Machado, Brazilian artist, actress and deaf poet
 Betty G. Miller, American artist
 Maurycy Minkowski, deaf Polish Jewish artist (1881/2-1930)
 Juan Fernández Navarrete, Spanish Mannerist painter (1526–79)
Albert Newsam (1809–1864) lithographer, and student of Catlin
 Will J. Quinlan, American artist, etcher, painter
 Slava Raškaj (1877–1906), Croatian painter
 Granville Redmond, American painter, actor
 Nancy Rourke, American deaf artist, illustrator of ABC Portraits of Deaf Ancestors
 Alfred Thomson, an English artist and Olympic Gold Medalist (1894-1979)
 Douglas Tilden, American sculptor

Fictional Deaf characters

 Echo (Marvel Comics), a deaf Native American martial artist.
 Hearthstone, a deaf light elf, who is experienced in rune casting. One of the main characters of Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.
 Drury Lane (character), a deaf detective written by Ellery Queen.

References

Further reading
 Lang, Harry G. Fighting in the Shadows: Untold Stories of Deaf People in the Civil War (Washington: Gallaudet University Press, 2017), xv, 255 pp.
Sonnenstrahl, Deborah M. Deaf Artists in America, Colonial to Contemporary. San Diego: Dawnsign Press, 2002.

Category:Lists of people with disabilities
Category:Deaf culture
 
Category:Lists of people by physical attribute