A street corner in downtown Oyster Bay, New York. Photo: Bing the Content Creator / Shutterstock.com.
The Town of Oyster Bay covers a broad section of eastern Nassau County, stretching from Long Island Sound to the South Shore and including communities such as Oyster Bay, East Norwich, Syosset, Hicksville, Jericho, Plainview, Bethpage, Farmingdale, Massapequa, and North Massapequa. Across those villages and hamlets, the town has produced an extraordinary group of actors, musicians, writers, athletes, journalists, and other notable figures whose careers reached far beyond Long Island.
For this article, the standard is the same one used throughout our famous New Yorkers series: these are people who were born in the Town of Oyster Bay, were raised here, or spent a substantial part of their formative childhood or teenage years here. Simply moving to Oyster Bay later in life or establishing a home here after becoming famous is not enough. Theodore Roosevelt is the one unusual case on this list: he was born in Manhattan, but his family began spending summers in Oyster Bay while he was still a teenager, and the place became central to the rest of his life.
1. Billy Joel
Billy Joel was born in the Bronx in 1949, but his family moved to Hicksville when he was still very young, and the Town of Oyster Bay became the place where his musical identity began to take shape. He studied piano as a child, played in local bands as a teenager, and attended Hicksville High School before leaving to pursue music professionally. Joel eventually became one of the most successful singer-songwriters in American popular music, with songs including “Piano Man,” “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” “Only the Good Die Young,” and “New York State of Mind.” Long Island appears again and again in his work, and Hicksville remains a central part of the story behind one of New York’s most famous musicians.
2. Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn in 1954 but grew up in Massapequa, where he attended Massapequa High School. His suburban Long Island upbringing became part of the observational sensibility that later defined his stand-up comedy. After graduating from Queens College, Seinfeld built a career in New York comedy clubs and eventually co-created Seinfeld, one of the most influential sitcoms in television history. His dry delivery, fascination with everyday annoyances, and ability to turn small social habits into comedy made him one of the defining comedians of his generation.
3. Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt was born in Manhattan in 1858, but Oyster Bay became part of his life while he was still a teenager. His family began spending summers there in the 1870s, and Roosevelt developed a deep attachment to the area’s woods, shoreline, and outdoor life. As a young adult, he purchased land in Cove Neck and built Sagamore Hill, where he and his family took up full-time residence in 1887. Roosevelt later served as governor of New York, vice president, and the 26th president of the United States. During his presidency, Sagamore Hill became known as the Summer White House, making Oyster Bay one of the most important places associated with his public and private life.
4. Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem in 1981 and moved to the United States with her family when she was a child. After living in several places, the family settled on Long Island, and Portman graduated from Syosset High School in 1999. Her acting career began years earlier, with her breakthrough role in Léon: The Professional while she was still a child. Portman later appeared in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Black Swan. Her years in Syosset shaped a childhood that unfolded alongside the beginnings of an extraordinary film career.
5. Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin was born in Amityville in 1958 and raised in the Nassau Shores section of Massapequa with his brothers and sisters. He attended Alfred G. Berner High School, where his father taught social studies and coached football. Baldwin later studied acting and built a career that ranged from films such as Beetlejuice, The Hunt for Red October, and Glengarry Glen Ross to his Emmy-winning television work on 30 Rock. The Baldwin family became one of the best-known acting families in American entertainment, and much of that story began in Massapequa.
6. Idina Menzel
Idina Menzel was born in Manhattan in 1971 and moved with her family to Syosset when she was still a young child. She attended local schools and graduated from Syosset High School before studying drama at New York University. Menzel began working as a wedding and bar mitzvah singer as a teenager, years before Broadway audiences came to know her through Rent and Wicked. Her performance as Elphaba in Wicked made her one of Broadway’s most recognizable stars, while her role as the voice of Elsa in Disney’s Frozen introduced her voice to an even larger audience around the world.
7. Judd Apatow
Judd Apatow was born in Queens in 1967 and raised in Syosset. His fascination with comedy began while he was still young, and as a teenager he interviewed comedians for a program on his high school radio station. Apatow later became one of the most influential comedy writers, directors, and producers of his era through films including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Funny People, as well as television projects such as Freaks and Geeks. His obsession with comedy was already taking shape during his years growing up in the Town of Oyster Bay.
8. Sue Bird
Sue Bird was born in Syosset in 1980 and grew up there, first making her name as an athlete in several sports before basketball became her focus. She played her first two years of high school basketball at Syosset High School before transferring to Christ the King in Queens for stronger competition. Bird went on to star at the University of Connecticut, win four WNBA championships with the Seattle Storm, and capture five Olympic gold medals with the United States. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2025, completing a career that began on the courts of Syosset.
9. Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon was born in Glen Cove in 1937 but grew up in nearby Oyster Bay, where he attended Oyster Bay High School and graduated in 1953. Even as a student, he was known as an unusually gifted reader and writer. After serving in the Navy and studying at Cornell University, Pynchon became one of the most influential and enigmatic American novelists of the postwar era. His books include V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity’s Rainbow. Although he later became famous for avoiding publicity, his early years in Oyster Bay are an important part of the biography of one of America’s most celebrated literary figures.
10. Chuck Lorre
Chuck Lorre was born in Plainview in 1952 and grew up in Bethpage, where his father operated a luncheonette. Lorre worked there as a boy and later attended high school on Long Island before enrolling at SUNY Potsdam. After first pursuing music, he moved into television writing and production and eventually became one of the most successful sitcom creators in television history. His credits include Dharma & Greg, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and Mom. Long before those shows reached millions of viewers, Lorre was growing up in the Town of Oyster Bay.
11. Ron Kovic
Ron Kovic was born in Wisconsin in 1946 but was raised in Massapequa, where he graduated from Massapequa High School in 1964. He was a serious athlete as a teenager before enlisting in the United States Marine Corps and serving in Vietnam. After being paralyzed in combat, Kovic became an author and activist and wrote the memoir Born on the Fourth of July. The book was later adapted into the Academy Award-winning film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Tom Cruise. Kovic’s Massapequa childhood and high school years were central to the life story he later made famous.
12. Marie Colvin
Marie Colvin was born in Astoria, Queens, in 1956 but grew up in East Norwich in the Town of Oyster Bay. She graduated from Oyster Bay High School in 1974 before attending Yale University. Colvin went on to become one of the most respected war correspondents of her generation, reporting from conflict zones around the world for The Sunday Times of London. Her career took her to places including Kosovo, Chechnya, East Timor, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. She was killed in Homs, Syria, in 2012 while covering the siege of the city.
13. Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer was born in Massapequa in 1959 and developed his love of music there while still a child. He played several instruments before guitar became his primary focus and absorbed everything from rockabilly and blues to jazz and punk. Setzer later formed the Stray Cats with fellow Long Islanders Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom, helping bring rockabilly back into the mainstream during the early 1980s. Years later, the Brian Setzer Orchestra helped spark a swing revival. His guitar style and musical identity began taking shape in Massapequa long before international success arrived.
14. Steve Guttenberg
Steve Guttenberg was born in Brooklyn in 1958 and spent part of his childhood in Queens before his family moved to North Massapequa. He graduated from Plainedge High School in 1976 and studied acting while still young. Guttenberg became one of the most familiar movie stars of the 1980s through films including Police Academy, Cocoon, Three Men and a Baby, and Short Circuit. His path to Hollywood began while he was still a teenager living in the Town of Oyster Bay.
15. Lorraine Bracco
Lorraine Bracco was born in Brooklyn in 1954 and moved to Hicksville while she was still in elementary school. She graduated from Hicksville High School in 1972 before beginning a modeling career in France and eventually turning to acting. Bracco received an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Karen Hill in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas and later became known to television audiences as Dr. Jennifer Melfi on The Sopranos. Her formative years in Hicksville came long before two of the most memorable roles of her career.
16. Jamie-Lynn Sigler
Jamie-Lynn Sigler was born in Jericho in 1981 and grew up there, beginning acting and singing lessons while she was still a child. She attended Jericho High School and performed in regional theater before landing the role that changed her career. Sigler became famous as Meadow Soprano on HBO’s The Sopranos, appearing throughout the show’s landmark run. She later worked in television, film, and theater, but her earliest performances and training took place while she was growing up in Jericho and Old Bethpage.
17. Lee Rocker
Lee Rocker was born Leon Drucker in Massapequa in 1961 into a musical family. His father, Stanley Drucker, became the longtime principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic, while his mother, Naomi, was also a professional clarinetist. Rocker began with classical instruments before discovering the upright bass and rock and roll. He later joined Brian Setzer and Slim Jim Phantom in the Stray Cats, whose hits included “Rock This Town” and “Stray Cat Strut.” One of rockabilly’s most recognizable bass players came directly out of the same Massapequa music scene that produced Setzer.
18. Madison Beer
Madison Beer was born in Jericho in 1999 and grew up there. She began posting videos of herself singing online while still very young and gained widespread attention in 2012 after Justin Bieber shared one of her cover performances. Beer went on to build a recording career that included the album Life Support and the Grammy-nominated Silence Between Songs. Her rise began during the social-media era, but the singer’s childhood and earliest performances were rooted in Jericho.
19. Stephen Baldwin
Stephen Baldwin was born in Massapequa in 1966 and grew up there as the youngest of the four Baldwin brothers who later became actors. He attended Alfred G. Berner High School, where he participated in wrestling and also developed an interest in performing. Baldwin later appeared in films including Born on the Fourth of July, The Usual Suspects, and Bio-Dome, along with numerous television productions. Like his older brother Alec, Stephen carried a Massapequa upbringing into a long career in film and television.
20. Elliot Easton
Elliot Easton was born in Brooklyn in 1953 but grew up on Long Island and attended Massapequa High School. He was already playing guitar in local bands as a teenager and later studied music at Berklee College of Music. Easton became the lead guitarist for The Cars, whose combination of rock, pop, and new wave produced hits including “Just What I Needed,” “My Best Friend’s Girl,” and “Drive.” His precise, melodic guitar solos became an important part of the band’s sound, eventually earning him induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Cars.
21. Heather Matarazzo
Heather Matarazzo was born in Oyster Bay in 1982 and raised there. She began acting as a child and was only twelve when she delivered the performance that made her nationally known in the independent film Welcome to the Dollhouse. Matarazzo later appeared in Scream 3, The Princess Diaries, Saved!, and numerous television productions. Her unusual path from a Long Island childhood to independent film success began in the hamlet of Oyster Bay itself.
22. Robert Townsend
Robert Townsend was born into the prominent Townsend family of Oyster Bay in 1753 and grew up in the family home now known as Raynham Hall. During the American Revolution, Townsend operated as “Culper Junior,” one of the most important members of the Culper Spy Ring organized to gather intelligence for George Washington. Working as a merchant in British-occupied New York City gave him access to information that could be passed secretly through the network. His role remained hidden for generations, making one of Oyster Bay’s native sons a central figure in one of the most fascinating intelligence stories of the Revolutionary War.
23. Joe Sambito
Joe Sambito was born in Brooklyn in 1952 but grew up in Bethpage and graduated from Bethpage High School in 1970. He attended Adelphi University and eventually reached the major leagues as a left-handed relief pitcher. Sambito spent most of his career with the Houston Astros and was selected to the National League All-Star team in 1979. He later pitched for the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox. His professional baseball career began with the athletic foundation he developed while growing up in Bethpage.
24. Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF)
Maxwell Jacob Friedman, better known to wrestling fans as MJF, was born in Plainview in 1996 and grew up there. He attended Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School before beginning his professional wrestling career. Friedman built his reputation on the independent circuit and later became one of the most prominent stars in All Elite Wrestling. Known for his ability on the microphone as much as his work in the ring, MJF developed into one of professional wrestling’s most recognizable performers while remaining closely identified with his Long Island roots.
25. SallyAnn Salsano
SallyAnn Salsano was raised in Farmingdale and graduated from Farmingdale High School in 1992. After attending the University of Missouri, she entered television production and worked on a series of reality programs before founding 495 Productions. Her company went on to produce MTV’s Jersey Shore, one of the most successful and culturally visible reality shows of its era. Even the company name, 495 Productions, reflects Salsano’s Long Island background through its reference to Interstate 495, the Long Island Expressway.
Readers interested in more notable Long Islanders can continue with our 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From Nassau County, New York, 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From the Town of Hempstead, New York, and 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Went to College on Long Island. For more Long Island history, explore 10 Historic Long Island Towns Where Early American Charm Still Survives.
