25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From Yonkers, New York

Feature Photo: Brian Logan Photography / Shutterstock.com

Yonkers sits along the Hudson River directly north of the Bronx and is New York State’s third-largest city. Long associated with manufacturing, transportation, and the lower Hudson Valley, Yonkers has also produced an unusually wide range of nationally known figures in music, television, film, literature, sports, government, and science.

Some of the people on this list were born in Yonkers, while others moved there as children and spent important formative years in the city. What they share is a genuine Yonkers connection rooted in birth, upbringing, education, or the early development of their careers. Here are 25 famous people with strong ties to Yonkers, New York.

1. Mary J. Blige

• Yonkers Roots: Blige was born in the Bronx and spent important childhood and teenage years in Yonkers, including time in the Schlobohm Houses.
• Career & Claim to Fame: An amateur recording she made in a mall recording booth eventually reached Uptown Records and helped launch her career. Blige’s 1992 debut album, What’s the 411?, helped define hip-hop soul, and she went on to win nine Grammy Awards and enter the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2024.

2. DMX (Earl Simmons)

• Yonkers Roots: Born in Mount Vernon, Earl Simmons spent much of his childhood and adolescence in Yonkers, which became inseparable from his identity as DMX.
• Career & Claim to Fame: DMX became one of the defining rappers of the late 1990s and early 2000s. His first five charting albums debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, beginning with It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot in 1998.

3. Steven Tyler

• Yonkers Roots: Steven Tyler moved with his family to northeast Yonkers when he was about nine years old and attended Roosevelt High School on Tuckahoe Road.
• Career & Claim to Fame: As the lead singer of Aerosmith, Tyler became one of the most recognizable frontmen in American rock. The band’s best-known songs include “Dream On,” “Walk This Way,” and “Sweet Emotion,” and Aerosmith was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

4. Jon Voight

• Yonkers Roots: Voight was born and raised in Yonkers and later attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains.
• Career & Claim to Fame: He rose to prominence with Midnight Cowboy and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Coming Home. His long film and television career also includes Deliverance, Heat, Mission: Impossible, and Ray Donovan.

5. Sid Caesar

• Yonkers Roots: Caesar was born and raised in Yonkers, where his parents operated a restaurant and he graduated from Yonkers High School.
• Career & Claim to Fame: His live television programs Your Show of Shows and Caesar’s Hour helped establish the format and style of American television sketch comedy. He won two Primetime Emmy Awards and influenced generations of comedy writers and performers.

6. Ella Fitzgerald

• Yonkers Roots: Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, and moved to Yonkers with her mother as a child. She spent much of her youth in the city before beginning her professional career.
• Career & Claim to Fame: After winning an Amateur Night competition at the Apollo Theater in 1934, Fitzgerald became one of the most celebrated jazz singers in American history. Known as the “First Lady of Song,” she became famous for her phrasing, improvisation, and scat singing.

7. Jadakiss (Jason Phillips)

• Yonkers Roots: Jadakiss was born in Yonkers and began developing his reputation as a freestyle rapper while still young.
• Career & Claim to Fame: He formed The LOX with Styles P and Sheek Louch, first recording for Bad Boy Records and later joining Ruff Ryders. Jadakiss also built a successful solo career that included the chart-topping album Kiss of Death.

8. Styles P (David Styles)

• Yonkers Roots: Styles P was born in Queens and moved to Yonkers with his family as a child. There he met Jadakiss and Sheek Louch and began developing as a rapper.
• Career & Claim to Fame: As a member of The LOX and as a solo artist, Styles P became closely identified with Yonkers hip-hop. His 2002 solo debut A Gangster and a Gentleman included the hit single “Good Times.”

9. Sheek Louch (Sean Jacobs)

• Yonkers Roots: Sheek Louch was born in Yonkers and grew up with future LOX collaborators Jadakiss and Styles P.
• Career & Claim to Fame: He became a founding member of The LOX and later helped build D-Block Records. His solo career began with the 2003 album Walk Witt Me.

10. Adam Rodriguez

• Yonkers Roots: Rodriguez was born in Yonkers and later attended Clarkstown North High School in Rockland County.
• Career & Claim to Fame: He became widely known for playing Eric Delko on CSI: Miami and later appeared in Criminal Minds, Empire, and the Magic Mike film series.

11. Lawrence Ferlinghetti

• Yonkers Roots: Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers in 1919 and spent part of his early childhood in Westchester County.
• Career & Claim to Fame: He became a major poet, publisher, and literary figure after co-founding City Lights Booksellers & Publishers in San Francisco. His publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl led to a landmark 1957 obscenity trial, and his own collection A Coney Island of the Mind became one of the best-known American poetry books of its era.

12. James Comey

• Yonkers Roots: Comey was born in Yonkers and spent part of his early childhood there before his family moved to New Jersey.
• Career & Claim to Fame: He served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Deputy Attorney General of the United States from 2003 to 2005, and the seventh Director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017.

13. Antony Blinken

• Yonkers Roots: Blinken was born in Yonkers in 1962 and spent part of his early life in New York before moving to Paris as a child.
• Career & Claim to Fame: He served as Deputy National Security Advisor and Deputy Secretary of State during the Obama administration and later served as the 71st U.S. Secretary of State from 2021 to 2025.

14. James Blake

• Yonkers Roots: Blake was born in Yonkers in 1979 before his family later moved to Fairfield, Connecticut. He began playing tennis at age five through the Harlem Junior Tennis and Education Program.
• Career & Claim to Fame: Blake became one of the leading American tennis players of the 2000s, reaching a career-high world ranking of No. 4. He won ten ATP singles titles and was part of the United States team that won the Davis Cup in 2007.

15. Chip Taylor (James Wesley Voight)

• Yonkers Roots: Taylor was born in Yonkers in 1940 and began playing music while attending high school there.
• Career & Claim to Fame: The younger brother of Jon Voight, Taylor became a major songwriter whose compositions included “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning.” He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016.

16. Carlos Alazraqui

• Yonkers Roots: Alazraqui was born in Yonkers in 1962.
• Career & Claim to Fame: He became a prolific actor, comedian, and voice performer. His best-known work includes Rocko on Rocko’s Modern Life, Deputy James Garcia on Reno 911!, and numerous animated television and video-game roles.

17. Tommy Dreamer (Thomas Laughlin)

• Yonkers Roots: Dreamer grew up in Yonkers and was a wrestling fan long before entering the profession himself.
• Career & Claim to Fame: He became one of the defining performers of Extreme Championship Wrestling and later competed in WWE and other promotions. His championships include the ECW World Heavyweight Championship and WWE’s ECW Championship.

18. Alec John Such

• Yonkers Roots: Such was born in Yonkers and became active in the New York and New Jersey music scene.
• Career & Claim to Fame: He was the founding bassist of Bon Jovi and played on the band’s breakthrough albums, including Slippery When Wet and New Jersey. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with Bon Jovi in 2018.

19. Joe Panik

• Yonkers Roots: Panik was born in Yonkers in 1990 and later attended John Jay High School in Hopewell Junction before playing baseball at St. John’s University.
• Career & Claim to Fame: A first-round pick of the San Francisco Giants in 2011, Panik became the team’s starting second baseman during its 2014 World Series championship season. He was an All-Star in 2015 and won a Gold Glove Award in 2016.

20. Cathy Moriarty

• Yonkers Roots: Moriarty was born in the Bronx and raised in Yonkers, where she attended Lincoln High School.
• Career & Claim to Fame: Her film debut opposite Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her later films included Soapdish, Casper, and Analyze That.

21. Richard Yates

• Yonkers Roots: Yates was born in Yonkers in 1926.
• Career & Claim to Fame: He became one of the notable American fiction writers of the postwar period. His 1961 debut novel, Revolutionary Road, was a finalist for the National Book Award and was later adapted into a feature film.

22. Eddie Kingston (Edward Moore)

• Yonkers Roots: Kingston is a Yonkers native and has long identified the city as his hometown.
• Career & Claim to Fame: After years on the independent wrestling circuit, Kingston became a prominent performer in All Elite Wrestling and Ring of Honor. His championship career has included the ROH World Championship.

23. Ron Garan

• Yonkers Roots: Garan was born in Yonkers before pursuing a career in the U.S. Air Force and later NASA.
• Career & Claim to Fame: The astronaut flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-124 and later served aboard the International Space Station during Expeditions 27 and 28. NASA credits him with more than 178 days in space and four spacewalks totaling more than 27 hours.

24. Stephin Merritt

• Yonkers Roots: Merritt was born in Yonkers in 1965 before spending his childhood in several different places.
• Career & Claim to Fame: He became the principal songwriter and singer of The Magnetic Fields and is best known for the acclaimed 1999 album 69 Love Songs. His other projects include The 6ths, The Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes.

25. Erik Palladino

• Yonkers Roots: Palladino was born in Yonkers in 1968 and grew up in the city.
• Career & Claim to Fame: He became best known for playing Dr. Dave Malucci on the NBC medical drama ER. His later television work has included NCIS: Los Angeles, Suits, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Godfather of Harlem.

Quick Reference: 25 Famous People From Yonkers, New York

For more Westchester history and notable people, read 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From Westchester County, New York. For more on one of Yonkers’ best-known historic sports venues, see our History of Yonkers Raceway.