Famous People From South Carolina

A high-school drop-out, Chris Rock worked at restaurants before stepping into stand-up comedy. He gained fame with SNL and earned his first role through Eddie Murphy. Known for voicing Marty in the Madagascar franchise, Chris also created the series Everybody Hates Chris and was voted Comedy Central’s fifth-greatest stand-up comedian.

Referred to by honorific nicknames, such as Godfather of Soul, James Brown was a prominent figure of 20th century music. A progenitor of funk music, Brown influenced the development of many music genres. An inductee of the Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame, Brown is ranked seventh in Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list.

Big Show is a professional wrestler. Known for his large frame and athleticism, Show is one of the most popular WWE wrestlers of all time. He has won several world championships in WWE. Big Show's large frame is attributed to a condition called acromegaly, which he used to his advantage and established himself in the wrestling world.

A versatile actor and an inspiration for a generation of black youths, Chadwick Boseman is best remembered for portraying notable real life black figures like Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall and James Brown in their biopics. His excellent performance in Black Panther, though, turned him into a household name.

A popular American actress and Tony Award winner, Mary-Louise Parker is best known for her performance in the television miniseries, Angels in America, in 2003. Since 2007, she has been contributing articles to Esquire magazine. A dedicated transcendental meditation practitioner, Mary-Louise Parker has claimed that transcendental meditation has changed everything in her life.

Born to Indian immigrant parents, Nikki Haley went on to become the first Indian-American to hold an office in South Carolina and later became its governor—the first woman and second Indian American to be appointed governor in the US. A published author, she has also served as the US ambassador to the United Nations.

MLB player Joseph Jefferson Jackson, or Shoeless Joe, was associated with the Philadelphia Athletics, the Cleveland Naps/Indians, and the Chicago White Sox. He was dragged into the Black Sox Scandal, through which the 1919 Chicago White Sox team members conspired to fix the World Series, leading him to be banned.

Actress, Madelyn Cline, is best known for her role in the Netflix teen drama series Outer Banks. As a child, she began appearing in TV commercials and developed a keen interest in acting. She quit college as a teenager to pursue her passion. She started her career playing minor roles in films and eventually graduated to more serious roles.

In 2021, golfer Dustin Johnson made it to the Forbes list of the world’s highest-paid athletes. He has won numerous top championships, including the FedEx Cup and the Masters Tournament of 2020. He is also a six-time World Golf Championship winner, with only legendary golfer Tiger Woods ahead of him.

Aziz Ansari is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He is credited with creating the popular comedy-drama television series Master of None. His acting skills in the series earned him a Golden Globe, making Ansari the first Asian-American actor to receive the honor. In 2016, he was named in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world list.

Eartha Kitt was an American actress, comedian, dancer, and singer-songwriter. Renowned for her distinctive singing style, Kitt recorded several chartbusting songs during the 1950s. Also a well-known activist, Eartha Kitt established a non-profit organization called the Kittsville Youth Foundation, which helped underprivileged youths in Los Angeles. She was also an ardent advocate for same-sex marriage and LGBT rights.

Anna Camp is an American actress who has made her mark in films, television and theatre. Her notable roles include that of villainous Sarah Newlin in the HBO vampire drama True Blood and Aubrey Posen in the Pitch Perfect film series. Her performance in the Off-Broadway play All New People earned her a nomination for the Drama Desk Award.

Mike Colter is an American actor known for portraying the eponymous character in the popular streaming television series Luke Cage. Thanks to his association with Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2015, Mike Colter is often credited with playing an important role in improving Marvel Television's business over the last few years.

An actor remembered for his role in the television series The Famous Jett Jackson, Lee Thompson Young was a popular young star who died too soon. Interested in acting from an early age, he made his debut as a teenager and went on to have a successful career. Sadly, he suffered from depression and died by suicide, at the age of 29. 

Ainsley Earhardt is an American journalist and television personality known for her association with Fox News. A co-host of popular daily morning news/talk program Fox & Friends, Ainsley Earhardt has been an important member of Fox News Channel since 2007. She has also had quite an impact as a writer, having published children's books, such as Take Heart, My Child.

Mary McLeod Bethune was an American civil rights activist, educator, womanist, humanitarian, and philanthropist. She is credited with founding the National Council of Negro Women. Bethune also played a key role in the creation of the Black Cabinet while serving as an adviser to Franklin Roosevelt. In 1973, Bethune was made an indutee of the National Women's Hall of Fame.

John B. Watson was the first to introduce the theory of behaviorism to psychology. He believed human behavior, like animal behavior, should be studied under objective and experimental conditions. One of his experiments included conditioning the fear of white rats into an 11-year-old boy he named Little Albert.

Jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and singer Dizzy Gillespie developed the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge, modifying it with innovative harmony and rhythm. He popularized the bebop style of music and was famous for his signature horn-rimmed spectacles. His contribution to modern jazz earned him the title of the Ambassador of Jazz.

Actress and singer, Shawnee Smith, is best known for her role of Amanda Young in the Saw horror franchise. She began acting as a child and joined the Screen Actors Guild when she was just nine. Making her feature film debut as a young teenager, she went on to establish herself as a popular character actress in the ensuing years. 

William Gibson is an American-Canadian essayist and speculative fiction writer. He is widely credited with pioneering cyberpunk, a science fiction subgenre. His early works, which he produced during the late-1970s and early-1980s, helped create an iconography for the information age even before the dawn of the Internet in the 1990s. William Gibson is also credited with coining the term cyberspace.

Shanola Hampton is an American actress known for her portrayal of Veronica Fisher in the popular comedy-drama television series Shameless, for which she received critical appreciation. In 2013, she won the Best Actor award at the American Black Film Festival for her performance in the drama film Things Never Said, in which she played Kalindra Stepney.