December 16 is the birthday of 38 notable people we've found so far, including authors, actors, scientists and politicians, and 1 of them is a billionaire.
Lei Jun is a Chinese billionaire entrepreneur and computer engineer. He is known for being the founder, chairman, and CEO of the consumer electronics company Xiaomi. He also is the chairman of Kingsoft and Shunwei Capital.
Share of the 38 people we list, by documented field. People can belong to more than one.
Authors32% (12 people)
Actors29% (11 people)
Scientists21% (8 people)
Creators18% (7 people)
Politicians18% (7 people)
Entrepreneurs16% (6 people)
Musicians16% (6 people)
Countries
18 countries, most often United States
Citizenship as recorded on Wikidata, one country per person.
United States11 (11 people)
Spain4 (4 people)
United Kingdom4 (4 people)
Germany3 (3 people)
Japan3 (3 people)
Australia1 (1 people)
France1 (1 people)
Life timeline
What were people born on December 16 doing at your age?
Dated milestones from Wikidata (company foundings, awards, top jobs, notable works), placed at the age each person reached them. Add your birth year above to see the ones you have passed.
1775–1817 · United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Jane Austen was an English writer known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century.
Cassandra Austen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Theodore Peter James Kinnaird Taptiklis is an English actor and producer. He gained recognition for playing Tobias Eaton in The Divergent Series (2014–2016).
Margaret Gardiner, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Krysten Alyce Ritter is an American actress, musician, author, and former model. After an early modeling stint, she appeared on the UPN noir mystery series Veronica Mars (2005–2006) and the CW comedy drama series Gilmore Girls (2006–2007).
Adam Guy Riess is an American astrophysicist and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute. He is known for his research in using supernovae as cosmological probes.
Holger Motzkau, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Philip Kindred Dick was an American science fiction short story writer and novelist. He wrote 45 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines.
Arthur Knight (photographer), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Donald Louis Carcieri is an American politician and corporate executive who served as the 73rd governor of Rhode Island from January 2003 to January 2011. Carcieri has worked as a manufacturing company executive, aid relief worker, bank executive, and teacher.
Creator:Harley W. Bartlett, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Alexander Dmitrievich Protopopov was a Russian publicist and politician who served as the interior minister of the Russian Empire from September 1916 to February 1917.
Angelo Robert Mozilo was an American mortgage industry banker who was co-founder, chairman of the board, and chief executive officer of mortgage giant Countrywide Financial until July 1, 2008.
Ron Bennett for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".
Benjamin Bratt is an American actor. He is known for playing Paco Aguilar in Blood in Blood Out. He had supporting film roles in the 1990s in Demolition Man (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994) and The River Wild (1994).
Kevin Payravi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Göran Bror Benny Andersson is a Swedish musician, composer and producer best known as a member of the pop group ABBA and co-composer of the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia! For the 2008 film version of Mamma Mia! and its 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia!
Miranda Otto is an Australian actress. After a decade of critically acclaimed roles in Australian films, Otto gained attention in Hollywood during the 1990s after appearing in supporting roles in the films The Thin Red Line and What Lies Beneath.
Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ermira "Mira" Murati is an Albanian-American business executive. She is a co-founder and chief executive of Thinking Machines Lab, an artificial intelligence company she launched in February 2025.
Liv Johanne Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and filmmaker. Recognised as one of the greatest European actresses of all time, Ullmann is known as the muse and frequent collaborator of filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, whom she dated for five years.
Nasjonalbiblioteket, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Mats Julian Hummels is a German former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Considered one of the best defenders of his generation, he was known for his tackling, anticipation, goal scoring ability and deadly crosses.
Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Anna Popplewell is an English actress. She is known for portraying Susan Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia trilogy (2005–2010), which grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide and earned her a number of awards.
Gordon Correll, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Matthias Paul, known professionally as Paul van Dyk is a German DJ, record producer and musician. Van Dyk was the first artist to receive a Grammy Award nomination in the newly added category of Best Dance/Electronic album for his 2003 release Reflections. He was voted World No.
The original uploader was Xtoph100 at German Wikipedia. (Original text: PvD), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Marie-Esprit-Léon Walras was a French mathematical economist and Georgist. He formulated the marginal theory of value and pioneered the development of general equilibrium theory.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Rafael Alberti Merello was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. He is considered one of the greatest literary figures of the so-called Silver Age of Spanish Literature, and he won numerous prizes and awards. He died aged 96.
Edward Emerson Barnard was an American astronomer. He was commonly known as E. E. Barnard, and was recognized as a gifted observational astronomer. He is best known for his discovery of the high proper motion of Barnard's Star in 1916, which is named in his honor.
The original uploader was SITCK at Luxembourgish Wikipedia., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
This page lists 38 people born on December 16, every one traced to a Wikidata record and, where shown, a Wikipedia summary (CC BY-SA) and a licensed Wikimedia Commons photo. 1 of them carry a dated net-worth estimate citing Forbes or Bloomberg; combined wealth is the sum of the low end of those estimates, the newest as of May 2025. Rankings compare all 366 dates in the dataset built on 2026-09-28. Milestone ages come from dated Wikidata statements; a tilde marks year-only dates. Nothing on this page is a prediction about anyone born on December 16. Read the full methodology.
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