Venezuela has given the world some truly remarkable individuals. From a liberator who freed six nations to a conductor who headlined Coachella, from a Nobel Peace Prize winner hiding from a dictatorship to baseball legends who rewrote record books, the country’s most famous sons and daughters have shaped history in ways that go far beyond their homeland.
These aren’t just celebrities. They’re scientists, politicians, artists, and athletes whose work has touched millions of lives across continents. Here’s a look at 20 of the most famous Venezuelans of all time.
Key Takeaways
- Many internationally famous figures from Venezuela come from baseball and beauty pageantry.
- Famous political leaders include Simón Bolívar, José María Vargas, Hugo Chávez, and Rómulo Gallegos.
- Famous actors from Venezuela include Édgar Ramírez, Lele Pons, Gaby Espino, and Evaluna Montaner.
- Famous sporting figures include Yulimar Rojas, Jose Altuve, and Miguel Cabrera.
- María Corina Machado won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her pro-democracy activism.
Most Famous People From Venezuela
| Name | Place of Birth | Area of Influence |
|---|---|---|
| Simón Bolívar | Caracas | Politics, military |
| José María Vargas | La Guaira | Politics, medicine |
| Gustavo Dudamel | Barquisimeto | Music |
| Jose Altuve | Maracay | Sports (baseball) |
| Teresa Carreño | Caracas | Music |
| Miguel Cabrera | Maracay | Sports (baseball) |
| Danny Ocean | Caracas | Music |
| Irene Sáez | Caracas | Politics, pageantry |
| Carolina Herrera | Caracas | Fashion |
| Édgar Ramírez | San Cristóbal | Entertainment |
| Lele Pons | Caracas | Social media, entertainment |
| Yulimar Rojas | Caracas | Sports (athletics) |
| Rómulo Gallegos | Caracas | Politics, literature |
| Óscar Torres | Caracas | Sports (basketball) |
| Baruj Benacerraf | Caracas | Medical research |
| Jacinto Convit | Caracas | Medical research |
| Humberto Fernández-Morán | Maracaibo | Science, medicine |
| María Corina Machado | Caracas | Politics |
| Sascha Fitness | Maracaibo | Fitness, nutrition |
| Evaluna Montaner | Caracas | Entertainment |
1. Simón Bolívar
Full name: Simón Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Ponte Palacios y Blanco
Date of birth: 24 July 1783
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Date of death: 17 December 1830
Profession: Politician, military officer
If there’s one Venezuelan who needs no introduction, it’s Simón Bolívar. Known as El Libertador, he fought in more than 200 battles and led the independence movements of six nations: Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, which was named in his honour. He’s arguably the most consequential figure in Latin American history.
Born into one of the wealthiest families in the Spanish Americas, Bolívar lost both parents as a child. His worldview was shaped by his Enlightenment-minded tutor, Simón Rodríguez, and after witnessing Napoleon’s coronation in Milan, he swore an oath to liberate the Americas from Spanish rule. He kept that promise, even if his dream of a united Latin American federation ultimately fell apart.
He died at 47, disillusioned and in exile, but his legacy has never faded. Equestrian statues of Bolívar stand in Washington D.C., New York’s Central Park, and cities across the hemisphere. His birthday, July 24, is a national holiday in Venezuela and Ecuador, and every political faction in contemporary Venezuela still claims his legacy.
2. José María Vargas
Full name: José María Vargas Ponce
Date of birth: 10 March 1786
Place of birth: La Guaira, Venezuela
Date of death: 13 July 1854
Profession: Politician, physician
José María Vargas was the kind of person who made everyone around him feel slightly under-accomplished. A physician, surgeon, anatomist, chemist, botanist, geologist, mineralogist, and mathematician, he was Venezuela’s first civilian president and the country’s first physician head of state.
Simón Bolívar personally appointed him as Rector of the Central University of Venezuela in 1827, even changing the rules to allow a non-theologian to take the role. Vargas founded the faculties of anatomy, surgery, and chemistry, wrote Venezuela’s first anatomy textbook, and established human anatomical dissection at the university. He’s celebrated annually on his birthday as Venezuela’s Physicians’ Day, a fitting tribute to the man widely considered the father of Venezuelan medicine.
3. Gustavo Dudamel
Full name: Gustavo Adolfo Dudamel Ramírez
Date of birth: 26 January 1981
Place of birth: Barquisimeto, Venezuela
Profession: Musical director, conductor
Gustavo Dudamel is arguably the world’s most famous living conductor, and 2025 was his most spectacular year to date. He holds nine career Grammy Awards, winning three at the 67th Annual Grammys in February 2025 and two more at the 68th Grammys on February 1, 2026. In April 2025, the LA Philharmonic became the first major orchestra to perform its own set at Coachella, with Dudamel conducting as the crowd chanted his name. Rolling Stone called it one of the five best moments of the weekend.
He also led the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra on a European tour that included opening for Coldplay at Wembley Stadium, celebrating the 50th anniversary of El Sistema, the Venezuelan music education programme he joined at age five. He’s now Music & Artistic Director Designate of the New York Philharmonic, becoming the first Latin American to hold the post in September 2026. His estimated net worth stands at around $10 million.
4. Jose Altuve
Full name: Jose Carlos Altuve
Date of birth: 6 May 1990
Place of birth: Maracay, Venezuela
Profession: Professional baseball player
At 5’6″, Jose Altuve is the shortest active player in Major League Baseball and one of the most decorated second basemen in the sport’s history. He’s spent all 15 of his MLB seasons with the Houston Astros and is signed through 2029 on a $125 million extension.
His career numbers are extraordinary: a .303 batting average, 2,388 hits, 255 home runs, and 325 stolen bases through 2025. He’s the fifth player in MLB history to reach 2,000 hits, 200 home runs, and 200 stolen bases, and his résumé includes the 2017 AL MVP, two World Series rings, three AL Batting titles, and seven Silver Slugger awards. He also ranks second all-time in postseason home runs with 27. His estimated net worth is around $60 million.
5. Teresa Carreño
Full name: María Teresa Gertrudis de Jesús Carreño García
Date of birth: 22 December 1853
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Date of death: 12 June 1917
Profession: Pianist, singer, composer, conductor
Teresa Carreño was a once-in-a-generation musician. Conductor Henry Wood wrote that it was “difficult to express adequately what all musicians felt about this great woman who looked like a queen among pianists.” She debuted at Irving Hall at age eight after her family fled Venezuela during the Federal War, performed at the White House for President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, and before she was ten years old had impressed both Rossini and Liszt in Paris.
Known as the Valkyrie of the Piano, Carreño had a 54-year career during which she composed over 75 works for voice, piano, choir, orchestra, and instrumental ensembles. She married four times, sang opera, conducted orchestras, and taught piano to some of the finest musicians of her era. The Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex in Caracas, one of South America’s largest performing arts venues, bears her name. A crater on Venus does too.
6. Miguel Cabrera
Full name: José Miguel Cabrera Torres
Date of birth: 18 April 1983
Place of birth: Maracay, Venezuela
Profession: Former professional baseball player
Miguel Cabrera retired after the 2023 season as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. His final career numbers tell the story: .306 average, 3,174 hits, 511 home runs, and 1,881 RBIs across 21 seasons. He’s one of only seven players ever to record 3,000 hits and 500 home runs, joining Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Albert Pujols in that elite company.
His 2012 Triple Crown (.330, 44 HR, 139 RBI) was the first in 45 years, and he added back-to-back AL MVP awards in 2012 and 2013. He now serves as Special Assistant to the President of Baseball Operations for the Detroit Tigers and becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot in 2029, where a first-ballot induction looks almost certain. His estimated net worth is between $100 and $130 million.
7. Danny Ocean
Full name: Daniel Alejandro Morales Reyes
Date of birth: 5 May 1992
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Profession: Singer, songwriter, producer
Danny Ocean is Venezuela’s biggest pop export of the modern era. His breakout hit “Me Rehúso” (2016), written about leaving his girlfriend behind when emigrating from Venezuela, has surpassed two billion streams on Spotify and is certified platinum 13 times in the United States. He now commands around 30 million monthly Spotify listeners.
His latest album, “Babylon Club” (July 2025), features collaborations with Arcángel, Aitana, and Sech, and leans into tropical sounds. He performed at the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, singing “Alma Llanera” (Venezuela’s unofficial second anthem) in honour of laureate María Corina Machado. The moment was a quietly powerful reminder of what Venezuelan identity means on the world stage.
8. Irene Sáez
Full name: Irene Lailin Sáez Conde
Date of birth: 13 December 1961
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Profession: Politician, beauty queen
Irene Sáez’s story is genuinely remarkable. Orphaned young, she won Miss Universe 1981 at age 19 and then, rather than pursuing modelling, enrolled at university to study political science. In 1992, she was elected Mayor of Chacao, where she professionalised the police force, drove crime down dramatically, and won re-election in 1995 with 96% of the vote. For context, that’s the highest margin in Venezuelan democratic history.
She polled at nearly 70% in Venezuela’s 1998 presidential race before her campaign collapsed after she accepted support from an established political party, which cost her the independent image voters had rallied behind. Hugo Chávez won decisively. She subsequently won the governorship of Nueva Esparta but stepped down in 2000 and has lived in Miami since the early 2000s. She remains active on social media and in Venezuelan political commentary.
9. Carolina Herrera
Full name: María Carolina Josefina Pacanins y Niño
Date of birth: 8 January 1939
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Profession: Fashion designer
Carolina Herrera launched her eponymous fashion brand in 1981 at age 40, with no formal fashion training and the encouragement of Vogue legend Diana Vreeland. What followed was one of the most enduring careers in modern fashion. She stepped down as Creative Director in February 2018 after 37 years, transitioning to Global Brand Ambassador, while Wes Gordon took the design reins.
Her legacy extends well beyond runway shows. She dressed Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis exclusively for the last 12 years of Jackie’s life, designed Caroline Kennedy’s wedding gown, and has dressed multiple First Ladies. The brand now operates in 105 countries with over 350 stores and is owned by Spanish conglomerate Puig, which posted revenues exceeding €5 billion in 2025. In September 2024, Herrera used her acceptance speech at the Hispanic Heritage Awards to call for “Venezuela Libre.” Her husband of 57 years, Reinaldo Herrera Guevara, died in March 2025 at age 91. Her estimated net worth is around $130 million.
10. Édgar Ramírez
Full name: Édgar Filiberto Ramírez Arellano
Date of birth: 25 March 1977
Place of birth: San Cristóbal, Venezuela
Profession: Actor
Édgar Ramírez speaks five languages and holds a degree in mass communication. He worked as a journalist and democracy advocate before turning to acting, and that background gives his performances a depth that’s hard to manufacture. His breakout came playing Carlos the Jackal in Olivier Assayas’s Carlos (2010), which earned him a César Award and Golden Globe and Emmy nominations.
His Hollywood career since then has been consistently strong: Zero Dark Thirty, Point Break, Gold, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, and Florida Man (Netflix, 2023) among many others. In 2024, he appeared in Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez,” which premiered at Cannes. His 2025-2026 pipeline is particularly busy, with several films in production and an untitled Hulu pilot in development. His estimated net worth is between $6 and $8 million.
11. Lele Pons
Full name: Eleonora Pons Maronese
Date of birth: 25 June 1996
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Profession: Content creator, actress, singer
Lele Pons was the first creator to reach one billion loops on Vine, and she’s been building on that foundation ever since. As of February 2026, she has around 53.7 million Instagram followers, 33.2 million on TikTok, and 18 million YouTube subscribers, placing her total cross-platform audience well above 105 million.
She married Puerto Rican rapper Guaynaa in March 2023 and welcomed their daughter Eloísa in July 2025. Her career spans music (her single “Celoso” is certified 10× Diamond), television appearances including Dancing with the Stars and The Masked Singer, and she’s been open about living with ADHD, Tourette syndrome, and OCD. In 2022, she received the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization Influencer Pioneer Award at the United Nations. Her estimated net worth is around $10 million.
12. Yulimar Rojas
Full name: Yulimar Rojas Rodríguez
Date of birth: 21 October 1995
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Profession: Athlete (triple jump)
Known as La Reina del Triple Salto (the Queen of the Triple Jump), Yulimar Rojas holds the outdoor triple jump world record of 15.74 metres and the Olympic record of 15.67 metres. Her title haul includes four World Outdoor Championship titles, three World Indoor titles, Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020, and silver at Rio 2016.
Her story since 2024 has been one of painful resilience. She suffered a left Achilles tendon injury in April 2024 and missed the Paris Olympics entirely. After 540 days away from competition, she returned in March 2025 and won a bronze medal at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo that September with a best jump of 14.76 metres. On September 27, 2025, she competed in Venezuela for the first time in 10 years, winning before an adoring home crowd. Her eyes are fixed on the LA 2028 Olympics.
13. Rómulo Gallegos
Full name: Rómulo Ángel del Monte Carmelo Gallegos Freire
Date of birth: 2 August 1884
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Date of death: 5 April 1969
Profession: Novelist, politician
Rómulo Gallegos is considered the most important Venezuelan novelist of the 20th century. His masterpiece “Doña Bárbara” (1929), set against the Venezuelan plains and exploring the conflict between civilization and barbarism, is one of the earliest examples of magical realism and has been translated into dozens of languages. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 16 times between 1951 and 1967.
Gallegos co-founded the Acción Democrática party and won Venezuela’s first free, direct, and universal presidential election in 1947 with over 74% of the vote. He raised the oil profit tax to 50% in his first months in office, a model later replicated by Saudi Arabia. A military coup cut his presidency short after nine months. The Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize, created in his honour, has since been awarded to Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Roberto Bolaño, among others.
14. Óscar Torres
Full name: Óscar Jose Torres Martinez
Date of birth: 18 December 1976
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Profession: Former professional basketball player
Óscar Torres holds a distinction that no one can take away: he was the first Venezuelan-born player in NBA history. Standing 6’6″, he was introduced to basketball at 14 by a high school coach who spotted him playing indoor football, and by 18 he was playing in Venezuela’s top professional league.
He earned an NBA roster spot with the Houston Rockets in 2001 after impressing at summer league and later played for the Golden State Warriors, totalling 82 NBA games. His career really flourished in Europe, where he won the Russian Championship and Russian Cup with CSKA Moscow in 2007 and scored 36 points in a single Serie A game in Italy. He represented Venezuela at the 2002 and 2006 FIBA World Championships and remained a key part of the national basketball programme for years.
15. Baruj Benacerraf
Full name: Baruj Benacerraf Larsy
Date of birth: 29 October 1920
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Date of death: 2 August 2011
Profession: Immunologist
Baruj Benacerraf’s path to the Nobel Prize was anything but straightforward. Despite an excellent academic record at Columbia University, he was rejected by numerous American medical schools due to anti-Semitism and his foreign background. Only the Medical College of Virginia accepted him. He went on to win the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Jean Dausset and George Snell, for discovering the genetic factors that regulate immune responses.
His work laid the foundation for cancer immunotherapies, including the checkpoint inhibitors now saving lives worldwide. As Professor and Chairman of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and President of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, he mentored over 80 students and fellows and helped transform Dana-Farber into a research powerhouse. He published over 300 papers across his career and received the National Medal of Science in 1990.
16. Jacinto Convit
Full name: Jacinto Convit García
Date of birth: 11 September 1913
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Date of death: 12 May 2014
Profession: Physician, immunologist
Jacinto Convit never charged a single patient in his entire career. That fact alone says a great deal about the man. As a medical student, he visited a leprosarium where patients lived with deformed faces and amputated limbs, and it defined the rest of his life. He spent decades travelling by horse and mule into the Amazon jungle and the Andes to treat leprosy patients in remote communities.
In 1987, he developed a combined vaccine that made Venezuela the first country to close all its leprosaria. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1988. Rather than resting on that achievement, he spent his final years working on cancer immunotherapy. He published his last scientific study at age 100 and passed away that same year, 2014, having also received the Prince of Asturias Award and France’s Legion of Honor. His famous quote: “Every time they throw a stone at us, we should give back a rose, because love is the only antidote to hate.”
17. Humberto Fernández-Morán
Full name: Humberto Fernández-Morán Villalobos
Date of birth: 18 February 1924
Place of birth: Maracaibo, Venezuela
Date of death: 17 March 1999
Profession: Physician, research scientist
Humberto Fernández-Morán earned his medical degree with distinction from the University of Munich in 1944, in the middle of World War II. His most celebrated invention, the diamond knife (1955), revolutionised microscopy and surgery by enabling ultra-thin sectioning of biological tissues. His inspiration, by his own account, came partly from flying over Angel Falls and recognising that diamond’s extreme hardness could produce blades far superior to any existing alternative.
For years, diamond knives produced in Venezuela were provided free of charge to researchers worldwide by his personal insistence. The knives were later used to cut sections of lunar rock samples brought back by Apollo astronauts. He founded the Venezuelan Institute for Neurological and Brain Studies in 1954, supervised Venezuela’s first nuclear reactor, and went on to hold positions at MIT, Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the University of Chicago.
18. María Corina Machado
Full name: María Corina Machado Parisca
Date of birth: 7 October 1967
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Profession: Politician, engineer
María Corina Machado, known as the Iron Lady of Venezuela, is an industrial engineer who became the most prominent opposition leader in her country’s modern history. She won the opposition primary in 2023 with 92% of the vote and was subsequently barred from running in the 2024 presidential election. She backed Edmundo González Urrutia instead, whose vote tallies showed a clear victory that Maduro’s government refused to recognise.
She won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, with the Norwegian Nobel Committee honouring “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela.” Having spent months in hiding, she secretly escaped the country to reach Oslo for the December 10, 2025 ceremony. She was also named to Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2025. In January 2026, she met President Trump at the White House, a meeting that drew considerable international attention.
19. Sascha Fitness
Full name: Sascha Barboza
Date of birth: 19 December 1984
Place of birth: Maracaibo, Venezuela
Profession: Fitness influencer, nutritionist, author
Sascha Barboza became Latin America’s most recognisable fitness influencer before “fitness influencer” was even a job title. She started sharing tips on Twitter in 2010 and built what’s now Sascha Fitness Corp, a supplement and fitness company founded in Hialeah, Florida in 2015. One of her signature commitments: she doesn’t do paid third-party sponsorships, prioritising credibility over quick revenue.
Her product line spans protein powders, supplements, energy bars, and workout accessories sold exclusively through e-commerce. She’s published two bestselling books and hosts the podcast Naturalmente Sascha on Spotify. Her Instagram following stands at around six million, with nearly two million YouTube subscribers. She was named to HOLA! USA’s Top 100 Latina Powerhouse list in 2020. Her estimated net worth is around $3 million, with monthly earnings reportedly between $80,000 and $120,000.
20. Evaluna Montaner
Full name: Evaluna Mercedes Reglero Rodríguez de Echeverry
Date of birth: 7 August 1997
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Profession: Actress, singer, TV presenter
Evaluna Montaner is the youngest daughter of Argentine-Venezuelan singer Ricardo Montaner, making her something close to Latin music royalty by birthright. She’s carved her own path, though. Her acting career began with Nickelodeon’s Grachi and included a role in Hot Pursuit (2015) alongside Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara.
She married Colombian singer Camilo Echeverry in February 2020 and the couple have two daughters, Índigo (born April 2022) and Amaranto (born August 2024). They’ve made a point of protecting their children’s privacy by never showing their faces publicly, which is a quietly unusual choice for a couple whose combined social media following runs into the tens of millions. Evaluna’s own Instagram following sits at around 20.9 million. Her estimated net worth is around $5 million, though the household’s combined wealth with Camilo is considerably higher.
