Curated category
21st-century American businesspeople
- Michael JacksonThe boy from Gary who was never allowed to be one. Listen to the craft beneath the spectacle, the making of Thriller, and the era he still shapes.
- MadonnaMadonna Louise Ciccone arrived in New York City in 1978 with thirty-five dollars in her pocket. It was the first time she had ever flown on a plane or ridden…
- Donald TrumpDonald Trump was born on the 14th of June 1946 at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, New York, the fourth child of a family that was already wealthy.
- LeBron JamesLeBron Raymonde James Sr. was born on the 30th of December 1984, at Cleveland Clinic Akron General, to a 16-year-old mother named Gloria Marie James.
- Kanye WestKanye Omari West was born on the 8th of June 1977, in Atlanta, Georgia, and by the time he was done reshaping American music, he had become one of the most…
- Jay-ZJay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter on the 4th of December 1969, in Brooklyn, New York City, and grew up in the Marcy Houses, a public housing project in the…
- Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg was born on the 18th of December 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and by the time he was twelve years old, he had already staged and filmed a…
- Quentin TarantinoQuentin Tarantino was born on the 27th of March 1963, in Knoxville, Tennessee, to a mother who let him watch R-rated films as a child and a father he never…
- Rupert MurdochRupert Murdoch kept a bust of Lenin in his rooms at Oxford. The young man from Melbourne who would one day own hundreds of newspapers, television channels…
- Elon MuskElon Reeve Musk sold a video game he wrote himself at age twelve for approximately $500. The game was called Blastar, built in BASIC, and sold to a magazine…
- George LucasGeorge Lucas was nearly killed before he ever made a film. On the 12th of June 1962, a few days before his high school graduation in Modesto, California…
- Dr. DreAndre Romell Young was born on the 18th of February 1965 in Compton, California, the son of Theodore and Verna Young. His middle name came from the Romells…
- Daniela AmodeiRiccardo Amodei was a leather craftsman born in Italy. He developed health problems during his children's childhood and died when they reached early…
- Birdman (rapper)Birdman was born Bryan Christopher Brooks on the 15th of February 1969 at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, without a given first name.
- Gwyneth PaltrowGwyneth Kate Paltrow was born on the 27th of September 1972 into a family already at home in Hollywood: her mother, Blythe Danner, was a stage and screen…
- Al GoreAl Gore won more votes than his opponent on Election Day 2000, yet still lost the presidency. That outcome, decided by a Supreme Court ruling of 5-4 in Bush…
- Mike LazzoMike Lazzo spent years in a shipping and receiving department before he reshaped American television animation. Born on the 10th of April 1958 in LaGrange…
- Clint EastwoodClinton Eastwood Jr. entered the world at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco on the 31st of May, 1930, weighing 11 pounds 6 ounces.
- Kevin FeigeKevin Feige was born on the 2nd of June, 1973, in Boston, Massachusetts, into a family with a quiet thread connecting him to Hollywood before he ever set…
- Mark ZuckerbergMark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on the 14th of May 1984 in White Plains, New York, and by his mid-twenties he had built the largest social network in human…
- MC HammerStanley Kirk Burrell grew up in a three-bedroom housing project apartment in East Oakland, California, with eight siblings and a mother who worked as a…
- Sean CombsSean Combs was born on the 4th of November 1969, in Harlem, New York City, and by the time he reached his mid-twenties he had reshaped American popular music…
- Bob IgerBob Iger started his career earning $150 a week doing menial labor on television sets. Decades later, he would oversee a company whose market capitalization…
- Ryan ReynoldsRyan Rodney Reynolds chose not to get paid for Deadpool to make sure the film would actually get made. That detail, small as it sounds, tells you almost…
- Kathleen Kennedy (producer)Kathleen Kennedy was supposed to be taking notes. In 1979, she was an assistant on the Spielberg production 1941. According to Spielberg, speaking in 2015…
- Adam SilverAdam Silver was born on the 25th of April, 1962, into a family already shaped by the law. His father Edward Silver was a senior partner at the prominent firm…
- Snoop DoggCalvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. was born on the 20th of October 1971, in Long Beach, California, to a Vietnam War veteran who walked out on the family just three…
- Bill GatesBill Gates was born on the 28th of October, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, and by age 31 he had become the world's youngest-ever billionaire.
- Eric SchmidtEric Schmidt was born on the 27th of April, 1955, in Falls Church, Virginia, into a family shaped by academia and government service.
- David ScottDavid Randolph Scott was born on the 6th of June 1932 at Randolph Field, near San Antonio, Texas. His middle name came directly from that base, a fitting…
- Allen KleinAllen Klein was the man who simultaneously managed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and he did it by weaponizing the fine print.
- JD VanceJD Vance took the oath as the 50th vice president of the United States at noon on the 20th of January 2025. Justice Brett Kavanaugh administered it.
- Dolly PartonDolly Rebecca Parton was born on the 19th of January 1946 in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Pittman Center, Tennessee.
- 50 Cent50 Cent was shot nine times at close range outside his grandmother's former home in South Jamaica, Queens, on the 24th of May 2000.
- Michael Collins (astronaut)Michael Collins orbited the Moon thirty times in July 1969 and never set foot on it. While Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the Sea of…
- Magic JohnsonMagic Johnson stood at the free throw line on the 7th of November 1991 and told the world he had HIV. He was 32 years old, five-time NBA champion, and…
- Shaquille O'NealShaquille Rashaun O'Neal was born on the 6th of March, 1972, in Newark, New Jersey, to a mother named Lucille and a biological father, Joe Toney, who would…
- Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger arrived in the United States in October 1968 at age 21, speaking little English and carrying little money.
- Sam Bankman-FriedSamuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried was born on the 5th of March 1992, in Stanford, California. His parents were Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, both professors…
- Warren BuffettWarren Buffett's senior yearbook photo at Woodrow Wilson High School carried a single caption: "likes math; a future stockbroker." He was seventeen.
- David SternDavid Joel Stern was born on the 22nd of September 1942 in Manhattan, and he died on the 1st of January 2020 - New Year's Day - after a brain hemorrhage he…
- George R. R. MartinGeorge Raymond Richard Martin was born on the 20th of September, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey, the son of a longshoreman.
- Lupe FiascoLupe Fiasco was born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco on the 16th of February 1982, in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in a household where one day the music was N.W.A…
- Jim Farley (businessman)James Duncan Farley Jr. now leads the company where his grandfather worked. In 1918, that grandfather held a job at Henry Ford's River Rouge Plant.
- George SorosGeorge Soros was born György Schwartz on the 12th of August 1930 in Budapest, into a prosperous Jewish family that would spend the next decade and a half…
- Donald SterlingDonald Sterling owned a professional basketball team for 33 years, and in nearly every one of those years, that team lost more games than it won.
- Jensen HuangJensen Huang founded Nvidia at age 30 in a Denny's restaurant booth in East San Jose, California, and has led the company every single day since the 5th of…
- Sam AltmanSam Altman got his first computer at age eight: an Apple Macintosh. Within a few years he was disassembling it to examine the hardware inside.
- Chris WeitzChristopher John Weitz was born on the 30th of November 1969 in New York City. His mother Susan Kohner worked as an actress while his father John Weitz…