An aerial view of Skaneateles in Onondaga County, New York, surrounded by autumn foliage in November 2024. Photo: TW Farlow Media / Shutterstock.com.
Onondaga County has produced far more famous people than the names usually associated with downtown Syracuse. An NBA and WNBA star who attended school in North Syracuse, a professional football player and bestselling author from Liverpool, an influential women’s rights advocate born in Cicero, and a groundbreaking animation director who attended Fayetteville-Manlius High School all have roots in communities surrounding the city. The county’s story stretches from village streets and suburban schools to national politics, literature, music, professional sports, science, and entertainment.
The distinction between Syracuse and Onondaga County matters. Syracuse is the county seat, but its boundaries do not include Skaneateles, Baldwinsville, Fayetteville, Manlius, Liverpool, DeWitt, or North Syracuse. Those towns and villages have their own histories, institutions, and accomplished former residents. Looking beyond the city allows us to discover people who might otherwise be overlooked when every Central New York hometown is casually called Syracuse.
Onondaga County is also the ancestral homeland of the Onondaga Nation, the Keepers of the Central Fire of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The county’s later history includes the Erie Canal, salt production, schools and colleges, manufacturing, suburban expansion, and generations of families who helped build Central New York. The accomplishments of its residents span much more than one profession or one period of history.
The 25 people here were born in Onondaga County, grew up there, or spent a substantial part of their school years in its communities. Some were born elsewhere before moving to the area; others were born in Syracuse but developed their interests at local schools and institutions. Each entry makes that distinction clear. The result is a portrait of a county larger and more varied than its best-known city.
1. Richard Gere (North Syracuse)
Richard Gere was born in Philadelphia in 1949, but the North Syracuse area was home during the school years that helped shape his interests. He graduated from North Syracuse Central High School in 1967, where he was involved in music and gymnastics. He later attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst on a gymnastics scholarship before moving toward a professional acting career. His county connection is therefore an actual upbringing, not a Syracuse-area birthplace casually assigned to him.
Gere became one of Hollywood’s best-known leading men with films including American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, and Chicago. Although his career took him around the world, the North Syracuse high-school years place him firmly in the history of Onondaga County. He is a particularly strong example of why looking beyond Syracuse city limits changes the names that belong in a countywide article.
2. Breanna Stewart (North Syracuse / Cicero)
Breanna Stewart was born in Syracuse in 1994 and grew up in North Syracuse. At Cicero-North Syracuse High School, she became one of the most highly regarded girls’ basketball players in the country, leading her school to state championships. Her outstanding high-school career made her a nationally sought-after recruit long before she began playing college basketball. USA Basketball’s official biography documents her North Syracuse hometown and Cicero-North Syracuse school record.
Stewart went on to the University of Connecticut, where she helped win four consecutive NCAA championships and became the first player to receive the Final Four Most Outstanding Player award four times. She later won WNBA championships and Olympic gold medals for the United States. Her accomplishments give the North Syracuse area a direct connection to one of the outstanding careers in women’s basketball.
3. Tom Kenny (East Syracuse)
Tom Kenny was born in Syracuse and grew up in East Syracuse, where his friendship with another aspiring comedian, Bobcat Goldthwait, began during childhood. They attended school in the same local community and started experimenting with comedy before either had a national audience. Kenny attended Bishop Grimes High School and began working in stand-up and television comedy before finding the kind of voice acting that would make him famous.
As the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, Kenny became familiar to millions of viewers who might not recognize his face. His long list of animated roles also includes characters in Adventure Time, The Powerpuff Girls, and other series. East Syracuse is central to his early story because it was where his friendship and interest in performance developed, not merely an address associated with his birth.
4. Matilda Joslyn Gage (Cicero / Fayetteville)
Matilda Joslyn Gage was born in Cicero in 1826 and grew up in a family committed to abolition and reform. Her parents, Hezekiah and Helen Joslyn, assisted freedom seekers, and Matilda came of age amid the region’s intense political and religious debates. After marrying Henry Gage, she lived in Fayetteville, where the family home was associated with the Underground Railroad. Both communities are in Onondaga County, giving her deep and enduring local roots.
Gage became one of the most important intellectual figures of the 19th-century women’s rights movement. She worked with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, co-edited volumes of History of Woman Suffrage, and wrote critically about restrictions placed on women by religious and political institutions. Her preserved Fayetteville home now serves as an interpretive center, making her legacy directly accessible in the county where she lived and worked.
5. Jon Fishman (DeWitt)
Phish drummer Jon Fishman was born in Philadelphia in 1965 but grew up in DeWitt, east of Syracuse. He attended Jamesville-DeWitt High School, graduating in 1983, and spent his teenage years studying percussion and playing music in the area. He later enrolled at the University of Vermont, where he met musicians who would form Phish. DeWitt, not the city of Syracuse, was his actual childhood community.
Fishman’s drumming became central to Phish’s lengthy improvisations and unusual rhythmic turns. The band’s return appearances in Central New York have frequently been treated as homecomings for its drummer. His path from a DeWitt high-school music program to a nationally recognized touring band is one of the county’s best musical stories.
6. Laurie Halse Anderson (Fayetteville / Manlius)
Laurie Halse Anderson was born in Potsdam, New York, but her family moved to the Syracuse area during her childhood. She attended Fayetteville-Manlius High School and later Onondaga Community College. In an account of her early life, she described finding encouragement for her writing at the college after a difficult period as a student. The Fayetteville-Manlius district recognizes her among its distinguished graduates.
Her 1999 novel Speak became a landmark work in young adult literature for its depiction of trauma and a teenager’s struggle to be heard. Later books including Chains and Shout extended her reputation as a writer willing to address difficult subjects. Her Central New York schooling was a meaningful stage of her life, even though she was born in a different part of the state.
7. Chris Wedge (Fayetteville / Manlius)
Animation director Chris Wedge was born in Binghamton in 1957 and later attended Fayetteville-Manlius High School, graduating in 1975. His interest in animation developed when he was young, before he studied filmmaking at SUNY Purchase and computer graphics at Ohio State University. The Fayetteville-Manlius School District includes him in its Hall of Distinction, documenting the connection to his school years in Onondaga County.
Wedge co-founded Blue Sky Studios and directed the animated feature Ice Age, helping establish one of the best-known family-film franchises of the 2000s. He also received an Academy Award for his animated short Bunny. His career offers an especially interesting connection between a Central New York school and the development of computer animation in American film.
8. Megyn Kelly (DeWitt)
Broadcaster Megyn Kelly was born in Illinois in 1970 and spent part of her childhood in DeWitt, where she attended Tecumseh Elementary School. Her family later moved to Delmar near Albany. After graduating from high school, Kelly returned to Central New York for a political science degree at Syracuse University and later completed law school in Albany. Her DeWitt childhood was a genuine part of her upbringing, rather than a connection based solely on college attendance.
Kelly worked as an attorney before entering television journalism and becoming a prominent host at Fox News and later NBC. She subsequently developed an independent media platform. Regardless of differing opinions about her commentary, she became a nationally recognizable broadcast personality whose early years included an Onondaga County community.
9. Alex Tuch (Baldwinsville)
Alex Tuch was born in Syracuse in 1996 but grew up in Baldwinsville, where he played youth hockey and followed the Buffalo Sabres as a child. He progressed through regional youth programs and later attended Boston College. Minnesota selected him in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft, placing him on a path toward professional hockey that began in the suburbs of Onondaga County.
Tuch played in the NHL for Minnesota and Vegas before joining Buffalo, making his childhood connection to the Sabres an important part of the story. His combination of size, speed, and scoring helped establish him as a well-known NHL forward. Baldwinsville is not just a convenient hometown label: the youth programs and community there were essential to his early development.
10. Justin Torres (Baldwinsville)
Novelist Justin Torres grew up in Baldwinsville, where his experiences as a young person in a small, largely white suburban community became part of his understanding of family, identity, and belonging. He later attended college outside New York and pursued writing. In interviews around the publication of his second novel, Torres discussed how books and artistic work helped him navigate his childhood in Baldwinsville.
His first novel, We the Animals, became a widely praised work of literary fiction and was adapted into a film. His second, Blackouts, won the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction. That is a major national literary distinction, and the Baldwinsville upbringing gives Onondaga County an important connection to a writer whose work has reached audiences far beyond Central New York.
11. Tim Connolly (Baldwinsville)
Professional hockey player Tim Connolly grew up in Baldwinsville and became an exceptional skater at an early age. He developed through regional youth hockey, including the Syracuse Stars, before playing major junior hockey in Canada. The New York Islanders selected him fifth overall in the 1999 NHL Draft, a remarkable achievement for a player whose beginnings were in an Onondaga County village.
Connolly played in the NHL with the Islanders, Buffalo Sabres, and Toronto Maple Leafs, earning a reputation as a gifted playmaker. The Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame inducted him in 2021 and identifies him as a Baldwinsville native. His story belongs in a countywide article because it reflects the local hockey community rather than a nominal association with the city of Syracuse.
12. Jason Grilli (Baldwinsville)
Jason Grilli was born in Michigan in 1976, but his family moved to Central New York while his father, Steve Grilli, was involved in professional baseball. Jason attended Charles W. Baker High School in Baldwinsville and graduated in 1994. He played baseball and basketball there and became an accomplished pitcher before continuing his education and athletic career at Seton Hall University. Major League Baseball’s own player biography confirms his Baldwinsville school years.
Grilli spent many seasons as a major-league pitcher and became a National League All-Star in 2013 while with the Pittsburgh Pirates. His professional career included teams across the league, but his baseball foundation was established in Baldwinsville. He illustrates the county’s reach into professional sports through a school and community outside Syracuse city limits.
13. Alex Bono (Baldwinsville)
Alex Bono was born and raised in Baldwinsville and attended Charles W. Baker High School. He became an outstanding goalkeeper, developing further through the Empire United Academy before enrolling at Syracuse University. Rather than leaving the region for college, he stayed nearby and helped turn the university’s men’s soccer program into a nationally competitive team. Syracuse University’s own athletic records describe him as a homegrown Baldwinsville player.
Bono entered Major League Soccer with Toronto FC and also earned an appearance for the United States national team. His career brought professional recognition to a goalkeeper trained in an Onondaga County school and youth soccer environment. He is less broadly known than some names on this list, but his hometown connection and professional accomplishments are unusually well documented.
14. Barry Crimmins (Skaneateles)
Comedian and political satirist Barry Crimmins was born in Kingston, New York, in 1953 and moved to Skaneateles with his family as a child. He grew up in the lakeside community and began performing comedy in Central New York before relocating to the Boston area. In the 1970s he organized local performances that also influenced younger comedians, including Tom Kenny and Bobcat Goldthwait.
Crimmins later helped develop an important stand-up scene in Boston and became known for sharply political comedy. He was also an advocate for survivors of childhood abuse and became the subject of Bobcat Goldthwait’s documentary Call Me Lucky. His hometown is significant because his earliest performances and experiences took place in Skaneateles, not because he happened to visit the village later in life.
15. Neilia Hunter Biden (Skaneateles)
Neilia Hunter, later Neilia Hunter Biden, was born in Skaneateles in 1942 and belonged to a family with longstanding connections to the lakeside village. She attended school outside the area for part of her education and later studied at Syracuse University. After meeting Joe Biden, she married him in 1966, years before he became the 46th president of the United States. Her personal story offers a direct and sometimes overlooked connection between Skaneateles and a future presidential family.
Neilia was a teacher and the mother of Beau, Hunter, and Naomi Biden. In December 1972, after Joe Biden’s election to the U.S. Senate, she and her infant daughter Naomi were killed in a vehicle collision in Delaware; her sons survived with injuries. Her life was far more than the tragedy by which she is often remembered, and her birthplace establishes a clear Onondaga County connection.
16. Tim Green (Liverpool)
Tim Green was born in Liverpool in 1963 and graduated from Liverpool High School in 1982. He became an outstanding football player, went to Syracuse University, and earned recognition as a collegiate All-American. The Atlanta Falcons selected him in the first round of the 1986 NFL Draft. Unlike people whose sole Syracuse-area connection comes from attending the university, Green had already grown up in Onondaga County before his college career began.
After playing eight NFL seasons, Green worked in broadcasting and became a successful author, especially of sports books for young readers. He later earned a law degree from Syracuse University and practiced law. His career spans athletics, education, television, and publishing, making him one of the clearest examples of the county’s varied influence on public life.
17. Jonathan Murray (Fayetteville / Manlius)
Television producer Jonathan Murray was born in Mississippi but grew up in the Syracuse area and graduated from Fayetteville-Manlius High School in 1973. He later studied at SUNY Geneseo and the University of Missouri before entering television production. The Fayetteville-Manlius district lists him among its distinguished graduates, providing independent evidence for his Onondaga County upbringing.
Murray became best known as a co-creator of MTV’s The Real World, a series that helped shape the development of American reality television. He went on to produce related reality programs through Bunim/Murray Productions. His early ties to Fayetteville-Manlius are especially interesting because his best-known work helped change television formats, not simply the fortunes of an individual performer.
18. Tom Rafferty (Fayetteville / Manlius)
Tom Rafferty was born in Syracuse in 1954 and graduated from Fayetteville-Manlius High School in 1972. He played college football at Penn State before the Dallas Cowboys selected him in the 1976 NFL Draft. His Central New York school years are recorded both by the school district’s Hall of Distinction and by professional football records. He developed from a local athlete into one of the Cowboys’ long-serving offensive linemen.
Rafferty played guard and center during 14 seasons with Dallas and was part of the team that won Super Bowl XII. He played 203 regular-season games and helped block for some of the team’s most famous offensive stars. Rafferty died in June 2025. His career demonstrates that national professional sports success was also rooted in Onondaga County schools outside Syracuse itself.
19. Don Paige (Baldwinsville)
Middle-distance runner Don Paige attended Charles W. Baker High School in Baldwinsville, where he excelled in cross-country and track before competing at Villanova University. He became one of the country’s strongest 800-meter runners and won the event at the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials. The United States boycott of the Moscow Games prevented him from racing at the Olympics, despite his qualification for the team.
Paige continued competing internationally and ranked among the world’s leading middle-distance runners. His accomplishments are documented by the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame and published accounts of the 1980 boycott. His story offers a particularly meaningful local sports history: a Baldwinsville athlete reached the Olympic level but was denied the chance to compete because of an international political decision.
20. Jeanette Epps (Syracuse)
Jeanette Epps was born and raised in Syracuse and graduated from Thomas J. Corcoran High School in 1988. She earned a physics degree from Le Moyne College before pursuing graduate study in aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland. Her early career included research in the automotive industry and technical work for the CIA. NASA selected her for astronaut training in 2009.
Epps traveled to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX Crew-8 in 2024 and spent 235 days in space. She retired from NASA in May 2025, after nearly 16 years with the agency. NASA’s own records document both her Syracuse schooling and her spaceflight. Her inclusion reflects a major scientific accomplishment by someone whose roots in the county extend well beyond a birth certificate.
21. Grace Jones (Syracuse)
Grace Jones was born in Jamaica in 1948 and moved to Syracuse during adolescence to join her family. She spent part of her teenage years in Central New York before moving into modeling and performance. Her life connected Jamaica, Syracuse, and New York City, and it is important to describe the Syracuse period as part of her youth rather than to claim the city as her birthplace.
Jones went on to become an influential singer, model, and actress, celebrated for a striking visual style and music that moved among disco, reggae, funk, and new wave. Her albums include Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing. She is one of the most internationally recognizable people on the list, with an Onondaga County connection based on her adolescent years.
22. Robert De Niro Sr. (Syracuse)
Painter Robert De Niro Sr. was born in Syracuse in 1922 and grew up there. As a teenager he attended the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, which gave him space and encouragement to paint. He subsequently studied with Josef Albers and Hans Hofmann, bringing an early interest formed in Central New York into the center of American modern art. His estate and museum records confirm his Syracuse upbringing and early artistic training.
De Niro became an important postwar painter whose work combined expressive brushwork and vivid color with recognizable subjects. He exhibited in New York galleries and museums and was part of the artistic world that included many leading figures of Abstract Expressionism. Although he is often identified through his son, actor Robert De Niro, his own achievements and Syracuse beginnings deserve recognition in their own right.
23. Thom Filicia (Syracuse)
Interior designer Thom Filicia grew up in the Syracuse area and graduated from Nottingham High School before earning an interior design degree at Syracuse University. His local education preceded a career in professional design firms in New York City, where he developed an approach that eventually attracted national attention. His Onondaga County link is stronger than a college affiliation alone because his childhood and school years were also local.
Filicia became widely known as the design specialist on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and built a professional interior design company serving residential and commercial clients. His work has included television, publishing, and home furnishings. The combination of Nottingham High School and Syracuse University makes his path from Central New York to national recognition unusually easy to trace.
24. Walter Farley (Syracuse)
Walter Farley was born in Syracuse in 1915 and became interested in horses while he was still a boy living in the city. His family later moved to New York City, where he continued spending time around stables through a relative who trained horses. Those early experiences supplied practical details for the stories he began writing while still a student. His family’s official Black Stallion website documents the Syracuse beginnings of his lifelong interest.
Farley’s 1941 novel The Black Stallion introduced Alec Ramsay and the mysterious horse that became the center of a long-running book series. A well-regarded film adaptation followed in 1979. Syracuse was an early childhood home rather than the site of his entire schooling, but it was where a fascination with horses first took hold.
25. Nina Fedoroff (Fayetteville)
Plant geneticist Nina V. Fedoroff was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and moved to Fayetteville with her family when she was nine years old. She graduated from Fayetteville-Manlius High School in 1960 and later studied biology and chemistry at Syracuse University. Her childhood and secondary education therefore provide a solid Onondaga County connection before the scientific research that made her internationally known.
Fedoroff became a pioneer in plant molecular biology and earned the National Medal of Science for her work on genetic processes, including maize transposable elements. She also contributed to discussions of science policy and international scientific cooperation. The Fayetteville-Manlius School District recognizes her as a distinguished alumna, making her one of the county’s most significant scientific figures.
Why the County Has Its Own Story
These stories show why Onondaga County should not be reduced to a second list of people born in Syracuse. Skaneateles had its own influence on comedy and public life. Baldwinsville produced notable athletes and a National Book Award-winning novelist. Fayetteville, Manlius, Cicero, and DeWitt have connections to major scientific, literary, and political accomplishments. The county has contributed to American culture through schools, family life, and local institutions across many communities.
Not everyone here was born in the town most closely associated with their story. Some were born elsewhere and moved to Onondaga County during childhood, while others left the area before their careers began. Recognizing those differences makes the local history stronger and gives each community proper credit.
