Curated playlist
1987 births
- Daniela AmodeiDaniela Amodei started college on a classical flute scholarship. She now leads Anthropic as its president.
- Lionel MessiLionel Messi's first Barcelona contract was written on a paper napkin. He was 13 at the time.
- Griffin McElroyA millipede in West Virginia's hills is named after Griffin McElroy's family.
- Michael B. JordanMichael B. Jordan won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Sinners, a 2025 period horror film in which he played twin brothers. The win made him the seventh Black performer in history to take an Oscar in a lead acting category. It is a…
- Kendrick LamarKendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018, the first for a piece outside classical and jazz.
- Maria SharapovaMaria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004 at 17, beating top seed Serena Williams.
- Hilary DuffHilary Duff was a child actor cast in the pilot of the NBC comedy Daddio, and producers removed her from the cast before it aired. A week later she won the title role in a new Disney Channel series. Years after that, in 2026, Time named…
- Elliot PageOn the 1st of December 2020, the Canadian actor Elliot Page announced on social media that he is a trans man. He shared his new name, Elliot, and said his pronouns were he and they. The post carried weight because its author had been in…
- KeshaKesha's big break in 2009 came from walking into a recording session by accident.
- J. D. DillardJ. D. Dillard's father was the second African-American ever selected to fly for the Blue Angels.
- Yi JianlianYi Jianlian's own agent warned the Bucks not to draft him. Milwaukee took him sixth overall in 2007 anyway.
- Krysty Wilson-CairnsKrysty Wilson-Cairns wrote the script that launched her career during quiet hours behind a Soho pub bar.
- Chelsea ManningChelsea Manning is an American activist and whistleblower who, as a young Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, copied nearly 750,000 classified or sensitive military and diplomatic documents and passed them to WikiLeaks. To carry the files…
- Ajmal KasabAjmal Kasab is the name most often given to the one gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks who was taken alive, yet accounts of him spell it in at least a dozen different ways. Qasab, Kasav, Kasar, Qasam and Kamaal all appear in the record.…
- James Holmes (mass murderer)James Eagan Holmes, an American born in 1987, made a phone call to a mental health crisis hotline in the moments before he carried out the 2012 Aurora theater shooting. By his own account, he hoped someone might talk him out of it at the…
- Cynthia ErivoCynthia Erivo, whose surname is pronounced uh-REE-voh, belongs to a very small group. She has been nominated for an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award. She has won every one of them except the Oscar. That set of four honors is known…