January 21 is the birthday of 48 notable people we've found so far, including actors, entrepreneurs, athletes and musicians, and 4 of them are billionaires.
Paul Gardner Allen was an American businessman, computer programmer, and investor. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which was followed by the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s.
Hasso Plattner is a German businessman who is the co-founder of SAP SE software company. From 2003 to 2024, he was the chairman of the company's supervisory board. As of August 2020, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$17.9 billion.
Lynn Schusterman is an American billionaire philanthropist. She is the co-founder and chair emerita of Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and founder of several other philanthropic initiatives.
Jeremy Maurice Jacobs Sr. is an American billionaire businessman, the owner of the Boston Bruins and chairman of Delaware North. Forbes magazine ranks him as 669th richest person in the world.
Industries of the companies the 4 wealthy people born on January 21 founded or led.
software100% (2 people)
aerospace50% (1 people)
Who shares January 21
What kind of people are born on January 21?
Share of the 48 people we list, by documented field. People can belong to more than one.
Actors27% (13 people)
Athletes23% (11 people)
Entrepreneurs23% (11 people)
Creators21% (10 people)
Musicians21% (10 people)
Authors15% (7 people)
Scientists15% (7 people)
Countries
15 countries, most often United States
Citizenship as recorded on Wikidata, one country per person.
United States16 (16 people)
United Kingdom6 (6 people)
Spain5 (5 people)
Germany4 (4 people)
Japan3 (3 people)
France2 (2 people)
Armenia1 (1 people)
Life timeline
What were people born on January 21 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.
Konrad Emil Bloch was a German-American biochemist. Bloch received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1964 for discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of the cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism.
Peter Geymayer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon, known until 1991 as Akeem Olajuwon, nicknamed "the Dream", is a Nigerian and American former professional basketball player who played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), primarily with the Houston Rockets.
U.S. Department of State, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Emma Lee Bunton is an English singer, actress and media personality. She rose to fame in the mid-1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Baby Spice, due to the fact that she was the youngest member and "wore pigtails and sucked a lollipop".
Kenneth Leung is an American actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he has gained attention for playing Miles Straume in the ABC drama series Lost (2008–10) and Eric Tao in the HBO drama series Industry (2020–present).
Christian Ernest Dior was a French fashion designer and founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE. He was one of the Big Four of 1950s haute couture, the others being Jacques Fath, Pierre Balmain and Jean Dessès.
Kim Dotcom, also known as Kimble and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, is a German-Finnish Internet entrepreneur and political activist who lives in Glenorchy, New Zealand.
Robert O'Neill, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Jeffrey Lynn Koons is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-finish surfaces.
Bengt Oberger, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ethan Allen was an American farmer, writer, military officer, and politician. He is best known as one of the founders of Vermont and for the capture of Fort Ticonderoga during the American Revolutionary War, and was also the brother of Ira Allen and the father of Fanny Allen.
sc. Larkin Goldsmith Mead (Photographer unknown), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
John Fitch was an American inventor, clockmaker, entrepreneur, and engineer. He was most famous for operating the first steamboat service in the United States. The first boat, 45 feet long, was tested on the Delaware River by Fitch and his design assistant Steven Pagano.
John_Fitch_(inventor).jpg: Unknown derivative work: Beao, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Sushant Singh Rajput was an Indian actor best known for his work in Hindi cinema. Rajput is the recipient of several accolades, including a Screen Award and three Filmfare Award nominations.
Bollywood Hungama, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Henrikh Mkhitaryan is an Armenian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie A club Inter Milan. He is the all time top goalscorer for the Armenia national team.
Дмитрий Голубович, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Philip John Neville is an English football manager and former player who was most recently the head coach of Major League Soccer club Portland Timbers. He is also the co-owner of Salford City, along with several of his former Manchester United teammates.
David Paul Scofield was an English actor. During a six-decade career, Scofield achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award for his work.
Stephen Lester Reeves was an American professional bodybuilder and actor. He was famous in the mid-1950s as a movie star in Italian-made sword-and-sandal films, playing muscular protagonists such as Hercules, Aeneas, and Sandokan.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Laura Robson is a British former professional tennis player. She debuted on the ITF Junior Circuit in 2007, and a year later won the Junior Wimbledon championships at the age of 14.
Moses Hess was a German-Jewish philosopher, a writer on socialism, and in later life, a forerunner of the political movement that became known as Zionism.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
María Dolores "Lola" Flores Ruiz was a Spanish actress, bailaora and singer. Born in Jerez de la Frontera, Flores became interested in the performing arts at a very young age.
Core Collection Periodicals, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino, was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his native city of Parma.
Parmigianino, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Michel Teló is a Brazilian sertanejo singer-songwriter and actor. Before his solo act, he was a lead singer in various bands, most notably Grupo Tradição. His biggest national and international hit "Ai Se Eu Te Pego" reached number one in most European and Latin American charts.
Michel_Teló2.jpg: Igor Duarte derivative work: Minerva97 (talk), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky was a Russian Orthodox theologian, priest, philosopher, mathematician, physicist, electrical engineer, inventor, polymath, neomartyr and folk saint.
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Gene Sharp was an American political scientist. He was the founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the study of nonviolent action, and professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Wolfgang Köhler was a German psychologist and phenomenologist who, like Max Wertheimer and Kurt Koffka, contributed to the creation of Gestalt psychology.
Simon Rolfes is a German professional football official and a former player who played as a defensive midfielder. He is the managing director of sport for Bayer Leverkusen.
Festus Egwarewa Keyamo SAN is a Nigerian lawyer, columnist and human rights activist who serves as the minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development of Nigeria.
Manuel del Pópulo Vicente Rodriguez García was a Spanish opera singer, composer, impresario, and singing teacher. He is often credited as a key figure in the development of modern vocal technique and vocal pedagogy.
Pierre Langlumé, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Lee Yoo-hyung was a South Korean football player and manager. He has played for Japan national team and South Korea national team. He was part of South Korea's squad for the 1948 Summer Olympics, but he did not play in any matches. He also played Kyungsung FC.
This page lists 48 people born on January 21, every one traced to a Wikidata record and, where shown, a Wikipedia summary (CC BY-SA) and a licensed Wikimedia Commons photo. 4 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 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 January 21. Read the full methodology.
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