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10 Most Famous People from Kansas City

Kansas City boasts of many famous people in different spheres of life. Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 508,090. This makes it the 36th most populous city in the United States.

KC is ranked in the top 50 Best Places to live in the U.S. In addition, this fast-growing Midwest metro is an excellent place to live because of job opportunities, affordable housing, top-rated colleges, pro sports events, incredible arts and culture and MOST NOTABLE the best barbecue in America.

There are actually two sides to Kansas City. More specifically, there’s a Missouri side and a Kansas side. The metropolis spans two states and the people who grow up here have the unique chance to be influenced by both sides.

The city is home to innovators, creators, performers and visionaries that have made and are making lasting impressions in American history. This list of the 10 most famous people from Kansas City brings together a few iconic Kansans through time.

1.  Don Cheadle – Actor

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Donald Frank Cheadle was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 29, 1964. Having developed an early interest in acting, he then attended the California Institute of the Arts in. While still a student, Cheadle made his feature-film debut in the comedy Moving Violations (1985).

Cheadle is an American writer and actor who is best known for performances in Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Iron Man series.

He won a Golden Globe Award in 2013 for his role as Marty Kaan on the Showtime comedy series House of Lies. For his lead role as Rwandan hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina in the drama film Hotel Rwanda, Cheadle was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

2.  Eddie Asner – Actor

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Ed Asner, original name in full Yitzhak Edward Asner, also called Edward Asner was born in 1929, in Kansas City, Missouri. Asner attended Wyandotte High School and then went to college at the University of Chicago, but later dropped out.

Eddie Asner was an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild. He is best remembered for playing Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s, on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off series Lou Grant, making him one of the few television actors to portray the same character in both a comedy and a drama.

He is the most decorated male performer in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, having won seven. His other Emmys were for performances in two television miniseries: Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), where he won for Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a TV series, and Roots (1977), for which he won for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a TV series.

3. Aaron Rahsaan Thomas – Writer/Producer

Aaron Rahsaan Thomas grew up in Kansas City, developing a love for storytelling after completing a fifth-grade assignment to create his own original Greek myth from scratch. He is an American television and film screenwriter and producer, as well as an adjunct professor at the University Of Southern California School Of Cinematic Arts.

Thomas was born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas, and attended the Pembroke Hill School in nearby Kansas City. He began his professional career as a writer’s assistant on Soul Food: for which he received a Peabody Award, as well as CBS programmes such as Numb3rs and CSI: NY. Aaron has also served as a Co-Executive Producer on TNT’s SouthLAnd, Fox’s Sleepy Hollow and Netflix’s The Get Down.

4.      Earl Cole – TV Personality

Originally from Kansas City,  Earl Cole attended business school at the University of Washington in Seattle and received a National Scholastic Achievement Award before moving to Southern California.

Earl Cole is an entrepreneur, producer, philanthropist, television personality, and former California advertising executive. He is well known as the $1 million winner on the reality television series Survivor: Fiji. Earl currently resides in Santa Monica, California.

In addition, Cole also works as a composer and is an accomplished musician. He plays piano, saxophone, guitar, violin and drums. He is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

Towery was the first African American contestant to win Survivor, succeeded by Earl Cole of Survivor: Fiji, Jeremy Collins of Survivor: Cambodia, and Wendell Holland of Survivor: Ghost Island and Maryanne Oketch of Survivor

5.  Trai Byers – Actor

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Trai Byers is an American actor and singer known for playing Andre Lyon in the Fox music-industry prime time drama Empire.

Trai Byers was born in Kansas City. He completed his high-school education in Georgia.  He then graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor’s degree in communications. He also attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles and the Yale School of Drama.

Byers made his television debut with the recurring role on the ABC daytime soap opera, All My Children, and the following year had a role in The CW teen soap,90210. He played civil rights activist James Forman in the 2014 historical epic film, Selma.

6. Misty Copeland – Ballet Dancer

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Born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in San Pedro, California, Misty Copeland began her ballet studies at the age of 13 at the San Pedro City Ballet.  At the age of 15, she won first place in the Music Center Spotlight Awards.  She then began her studies at the Lauridsen Ballet Center.  Copeland has studied at the San Francisco Ballet School and American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive. 

She’s been crutinized throughout her career not only for her skin colour and ethnicity but also for her body type. She became the company’s first woman soloist of African American origin in two decades. In 2015, she became the first African American principal dancer in ABT’s 75-year history.

7. Dianne Wiest – Actress

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Dianne Wiest was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the USA on 28 March 1946. Her original ambition was to be a ballerina. But she was bitten by the acting bug after some stage work, most notably playing Desdemona in James Earl Jones’s Othello on Broadway. She made her film debut in 1980. However, she did not make a name for herself until her performance in Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985).

Wiest’s steady Hollywood work financed her frequent returns to the New York stage. She remained a figure both on- and off-Broadway throughout her film and primetime television career. Her revered role t on HBO’s “In Treatment” (2008-10), helped cement her status as one of Hollywood’s most esteemed and beloved character actresses.

8.  Robert Altman – Oscar-Winning Director

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Robert Altman was born on February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri, to B.C. (an insurance salesman) and Helen Altman.

He became fascinated by movies and he, moved to Hollywood, where Altman tried acting, songwriting and screen-writing (he co-wrote the screenplay for the film Bodyguard (1948) and wrote the story (uncredited) for Christmas Eve (1947)), but he could not get a foothold in Tinseltown.

After a brief fling as publicity director with a company in the business of tattooing dogs, Altman finally gave up and returned to his hometown of Kansas City, where he decided he wanted to do some serious work in filmmaking. The rest is history.

9.  Maurice Greene – Olympian

Maurice Greene is an American former track and field sprinter who competed in the 100 meters and 200 meters. He is a former 100 m world record holder with a time of 9.79 seconds. During the height of his career, he won four Olympic medals and was a five-time World Champion.

Greene was born in 1974, in Kansas City. He was a rare gem among US athletes as he never ran at college but made spectacular progress in 95, from 10.20s in 94 to 9.88s. He placed 2nd behind Michael Marsh in 95 US Champs.

He equalled Donovan Bailey’s world indoor records of 5.56 in 99. Maurice Greene moved from Kansas to train with John Smith in Los Angeles in September 1996. In 1997 he clocked 9.90 to win the US Champs and twice in Athens before running  9.86 to win the World title.

10.  Christopher Walton Cooper – Actor

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Christopher Walton Cooper was born in Kansas City, Missouri. His parents were from Texas, where Cooper was raised. He was educated at the University of Missouri school of drama.

Christopher Walton Cooper is a celebrated American actor. He has appeared in several major Hollywood films, including American Beauty, October Sky, The Bourne Identity, Seabiscuit, Capote, Syriana, The Kingdom, Where the Wild Things Are, The Town, The Muppets, Cars 3, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Little Women.

Kansas City is where everyone belongs. You never know who you’ll meet in Kansas City, but chances are you’ll meet a lot of locals living here because they love it here.