Cancela is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Arturo Cancela (1882–1957), Argentine novelist and critic Dani Cancela (born 1981), Spanish Galician footballer José Cancela (born 1976), Uruguayan soccer player Yvanna Cancela, American politician
See also Paleontological Site Arroio Cancela, in the city of Santa Maria, a municipality of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil