The following people were born or based their life in the Indian city of Chennai (formerly known as Madras), Tamil Nadu (formerly known as Madras State).
Business Aravind Srinivas, ceo and co-founder of Perplexity AI Geeta Aiyer, entrepreneur and business leader; founder and president of Boston Common Asset Management R. G. Chandramogan, chairman of Hatsun Agro Product Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of the TATA Group Anil Kumar (born 1958), management consultant who pled guilty to insider trading Rahul Mammen Mappillai, managing director of MRF Limited Kalanithi Maran, chairman and managing director of the Sun Group Dora Metcalf, entrepreneur, mathematician and engineer Keshav R. Murugesh, chief executive officer and director of WNS Global Services A. C. Muthiah, former chairman of Southern Petrochemicals of India Corporation (SPIC) Shiv Nadar, founder and chairman of HCL Technologies Indra Nooyi, chairperson and chief executive officer of PepsiCo Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Google M. A. M. Ramaswamy, chairman of the Chettinad Group of Companies; ex-pro chancellor of Annamalai University, Chidambaram Prathap C. Reddy, chairman of Apollo Hospitals Naveen Selvadurai, co-founder of Foursquare Mallika Srinivasan, chairman and managing director of Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited N. Srinivasan, chairman and managing director of India Cements Venu Srinivasan, chairman and managing director of TVS Motors A. Vellayan, chairman of the Murugappa Group Jay Vijayan, founder of Tekion Corp C Vijayakumar, chief executive officer of HCL Technologies
Education Munirathna Anandakrishnan, former chairman, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur; former vice-chancellor, Anna University Bala V. Balachandran, founder, dean and chairman, Great Lakes Institute of Management Madhu Bhaskaran, engineer and professor, RMIT University V. L. Ethiraj, founder, Ethiraj College for Women Jeppiaar, founder, Jeppiaar Educational Trust; founder chancellor, Sathyabama University Ramayya Krishnan, dean, Heinz College; H. John Heinz III, W. W. Cooper and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management Science and Information Systems, Carnegie Mellon University V. M. Muralidharan, chairman, Ethiraj College for Women Rajalakshmi Parthasarathy, founder, Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Vallam Sundar, professor Subra Suresh, president, Carnegie Mellon University; former dean, School of Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology; former director, National Science Foundation
Environment Arun Krishnamurthy, founder, Environmentalist Foundation of India
Film and other entertainment A. R. Rahman (born 1967), music composer; winner of multiple awards, including two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe Award Ajith Kumar, thespian, racer Allu Arjun, actor Ashok Amritraj, Hollywood producer Arvind Swamy, actor, businessman C. Joseph Vijay (Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu), actor, playback singer (International Achievement Recognition Award) winner Dhanush, thespian, playback singer, producer Engelbert Humperdinck (born 1936), pop singer Hema Malini, actress Ilaiyaraja, music composer, symphonic maestro Jayabharathi, actress Jayasudha, actress K. V. Mahadevan, music composer Kajol, actress Kamal Haasan, thespian, director, producer, screenwriter Keerthy Suresh, actress Lakshmi Manchu, actress Lakshmi Narayan, actress Lisa Haydon, actress M. S. Viswanathan, music composer Mahesh Babu, actor Mary Hignett (born 1916), actress Olive Rae, soprano, actress Padma Lakshmi, cookbook writer, actress, model, television host Pete Best (born 1941), early Beatles drummer Priya Anand, actress Puneeth Rajkumar, Kannada actor Rajini Kanth, actor, producer, screenwriter Ram Charan Teja, actor Rekha, actress Rochelle Rao, Indian actress, Miss India International 2012 S. Janaki, playback singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, music composer, playback singer Samantha Ruth Prabhu, actress Santhanam, actor Shiva Rajkumar, Kannada actor Shivaji Ganesan, actor; first International Award winner of India Shruthi Hassan, actress Siddharth Narayan, actor Sivakarthikeyan, thespian Sridevi, actress Sripriya, actress Srividya, actress Sumalatha, actress Sundeep Kishan, actor Suriya, thespian Trisha, actress Vidya Vox, YouTuber, musician Vijay Sethupathi, thespian Vijay Yesudas (born 1979), playback singer Vikram, thespian Vishal Krishna (born 1977), actor, film producer Vyjayanthimala, actress Yuvan Shankar Raja, first Cyprus International Film Festival-winning creative music composer
Directors A. R. Murugadoss, Tamil film director Atlee Kumar, Tamil and Hindi film director K. Balachander, Tamil film director Karthik Subburaj, Tamil film director Lokesh Kanagaraj, Tamil film director Mani Ratnam, Tamil film director Nalan Kumarasamy, Tamil film director Pa.Ranjith, Tamil film director S. Shankar, Tamil film director Selvaraghavan, Tamil film director Vetrimaran, Tamil film director
Literature and visual arts R.K. Narayan (1906–2001), writer Achuthanand Tanjore Ravi (born 1991), photographer V. D. Trivadi, humorist
Marketing and sales
Vishnu Hari, Co- founder, Social Eagle
Politics Subramaniam Iswaran (born 1962), known as S. Iswaran, Singaporean politician Pramila Jayapal, U.S. representative for Washington
Religion Jesu Pudumai Doss (born 1967), Catholic priest; professor and dean, Faculty of Canon Law, Salesian Pontifical University, Rome Sri Sabhapati Swami (born 1840), yogi, writer
Scientists Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, recipient, Nobel Prize in Physics Alan Garnett Davenport, engineer Shyamala Gopalan, breast-cancer researcher; mother of former vice president of the United States Kamala Harris A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, physicist; former president of India Kariamanickam Srinivasa Krishnan, physicist (co-discoverer of Raman scattering) C. V. Raman, recipient, Nobel Prize in Physics Srinivasa Ramanujan, mathematician; Fellow of the Royal Society Kannan Soundararajan, mathematician Subra Suresh, engineer, materials scientist, academic M. S. Swaminathan, geneticist, plant breeder, administrator and humanitarian John Henry Constantine Whitehead (1904–1960), British mathematician
Social entrepreneurs Kirthi Jayakumar
Sports Anand Amritraj (born 1952), tennis player, businessman Vijay Amritraj (born 1953), tennis player, sports commentator, actor Viswanathan Anand (born 1969), chess grandmaster; undisputed world chess champion from 2007 until 2013 PK Arumugam, speedcuber Ravichandran Ashwin, cricketer Naresh Babu, professorial motorcycle road racer Hemang Badani, former cricketer Subramaniam Badrinath, former cricketer Lakshmipathy Balaji, cricketer Karun Chandhok (born 1984), racing driver, Formula One, sports commentator Joshna Chinappa (born 1986), squash player, British Squash Championship Gukesh Dommaraju (born 2006), chess grandmaster; undisputed world chess champion since 2024 Akbar Ebrahim (born 1963), racing driver, cricketer Edward Foord (1825–1899), cricketer George Gowan (1818–1890), cricketer Nasser Hussain (born 1968), former cricketer Sharath Kamal (born 1982), table-tennis player Thirush Kamini, cricketer Dinesh Karthik (born 1985), cricketer Rajini Krishnan, motorcycle racer Ramanathan Krishnan, tennis player Ramesh Krishnan, tennis player and coach Buchi Babu Naidu, father of South Indian cricket M. Baliah Naidu, cricketer Dipika Pallikal (born 1991), squash player, WISPA titles; first Indian woman to break into the top ten in the WSA rankings Aditya Patel (born 1988), professional racing driver Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (born 2005), chess grandmaster Jack Pritchard (1895–1936), cricketer Mahaveer Raghunathan (born 1998), racing driver W. V. Raman, former cricketer Ramkumar Ramanathan, tennis player Cotah Ramaswami, cricketer, tennis player Sadagoppan Ramesh, former cricketer Ravivarman Sharmila, carrom champion Krishnamachari Srikkanth (born 1959), former cricketer Washington Sundar, cricketer Roopa Unnikrishnan, former sports-rifle shooter; Commonwealth Games gold medalist Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan, former cricketer Murali Vijay (born 1984), cricketer
Miscellaneous Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah Faizabadi Madrasi or Ahmadullah Shah (1787–1858), Indian freedom fighter General Paramasiva Prabhakar Kumaramangalam, DSO, MBE (1913–2000), 6th chief of Indian army Georgiana Fanny Shipley Daniell, philanthropist Nugent Grant, lawyer Geeta Madhavan, lawyer Praveena Solomon, crematorium manager Abhinandan Varthaman, wing commander in the Indian Air Force
References