List of Slovaks

Politics

Politicians (contemporary)

• Peter Pellegrini – Slovak politician
• Vladimír Mečiar – First and Third Prime Minister
• Jozef Moravčík – Second Prime Minister
• Mikuláš Dzurinda – Fourth Prime Minister
• Robert Fico – Fifth and Seventh Prime Minister
• Iveta Radičová – Sixth and First Female Prime Minister

• Michal Kováč – First President
• Rudolf Schuster – Second President
• Ivan Gašparovič – Third President
• Andrej Kiska – Fourth President
• Zuzana Čaputová – Fifth President and First Female President

• Pavol Hrušovský – Third and Sixth Speaker of Parliament
• Richard Sulík – Fifth Speaker of Parliament

• Timothy Hudak – Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada
• John Mika – Republican Congressman representing Florida's Seventh Congressional District
• Jesse Ventura – 38th Governor of the U.S. state of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, as well as an actor, author, and former professional wrestler. His parents were from Slovakia, and his legal name is James George Janos.

  Politicians (19th and 20th century)

• Alexander Dubček – First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and architect of the Prague Spring, later after Velvet Rovolution Chairman of Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia
• Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk – First President of Czechoslovakia; son of a Slovak father and Moravian mother
• Milan Rastislav Štefánik – Astronomer, scientist, politician, and general; one of the founders of Czechoslovakia
• Gustáv Husák –First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and President of Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s
• Štefan Marko Daxner – Slovak lower nobleman of Swiss descent, politician, lawyer, and poet who of outlined a program unifying the requests for national, cultural, political and social liberties
• Andrej Hlinka – Priest and founders of the Slovak People's Party
• Milan Hodža – Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia, politician and journalist
• Fedor Hodža – Politician and lawyer; the son of Milan Hodža.
• Vojtech Tuka – Slovak People's Party politician, teacher
• Alexander Mach – Slovak People's Party politician, journalist
• Martin Rázus – Politician, priest
• Jan Šverma – Partisan and communist politician
• Jozef Miloslav Hurban – priest, politician and Speaker of Slovak National Council
• Michal Miloslav Hodža – one of the leaders of a Slovak national movement and member of Slovak National Council, Lutheran priest, poet, linguist
• Vladimír Clementis – Communist politician
• Ľudovít Štúr – the leader of Slovak national movement, the author of the Slovak language standard, politician, poet, journalist, publisher, teacher, philosopher and member of the Hungarian Parliament

  Fighters, Warriors, Soldiers and Revolutionaries

• Jozef Gabčík – soldier who assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, architect of the Holocaust, under Operation Anthropoid.
• Jozef Miloslav Hurban – freedom fighter and leader of the 1848 Slovak National Uprising against the Hungarians.
• Rudolf Viest – Anti-Fascist military leader, member of the Czechoslovak government in exile, member of the Slovak National Council and the commander of the 1st Czechoslovak army during the Slovak National Uprising. First and only Slovak to reach the position of General in the interwar Czechoslovak Army.
• Ján Golian – Supreme Military Leader of the Slovak National Uprising against the Nazis. Golian was murdered by the Nazis in a concentration camp.
• Michael Strank – U.S. Marine during World War II; the leader of the group of U.S. marines who photographed in Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.
• Augustín Malár – WWII General who commanded the East Slovak units of the First Slovak Republic, a Nazi protectorate state. Died in a concentration camp.
• Jozef Turanec – Slovak General and Nazi sympathizer during World War II.
• Matej Kocak – United States Marine Corps sergeant during World War I, posthumously awarded both the U.S. Army and Navy Medals of Honor for action against the enemy on July 18, 1918. He was born in the town of Gbely, in Western Slovakia, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1906.
• Juraj Turzo VII. – Palatine of Hungary Leader of Hungarian army against Ottoman empire defender of the Slovaks against Hungarian nobility
• Ján Branislav Hergot – Freedom fighter who took part in 1848 Slovak Uprising, follower of Jozef Miloslav Hurban renowned for his great strength and many military exploits.

  First Ladies

• Livia Klausová – first lady of the Czech Republic
• Silvia Gašparovičová – first lady of Slovakia

  Religion

Notable religious figures

• Blessed Pavol Peter Gojdič – martyr and Righteous among the nations
• Zdenka Schelingová
• Basil Hopko

  Religious Leaders

• Štefan Moyses – Bishop, patriot and the first president of the Matica Slovenská, the first Slovak cultural institution.
• Jozef Roháček – Protestant activist and scholar who translated the first Slovak Bible from the original languages
• Alexander Rudnay – Parish priest who became Archbishop of Esztergom, Prince Primate of the Kingdom of Hungary and a Cardinal.
• Ján Sokol – Priest and former Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Trnava
• Juraj Haulik – Croatian Cardinal of Slovak ethnicity and the first Archbishop of Zagrab. Acting Ban of Croatia for two separate terms.
• Jozef Tomko – Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and former Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples
• Róbert Bezák – former Archbishop of Trnava

  Science and technology

Philosophers, Polyhistors, Teachers

• Pavol Jozef Šafárik – poet, professor, polyhistor
• Jakob Jakobeus – poet, historian, priest, and writer

  Linguists, Humanists and Historians

• Anton Bernolák – Lower nobleman, Jesuit, author of the first Slovak language standard, which was based on western Slovak dialects.
• Ľudovít Štúr – Best known for his role in the development of the modern Slovak language. In 1844 he suggested that the central Slovak dialect be used as the literary language of the Slovaks, and in 1846 he codified the new language standard in his ''Nauka reči Slovenskej."
• Adam František Kollár – Lower nobleman, historian and jurist who rose to the ranks of Imperial-Royal Court Councilor and Chief Imperial-Royal Librarian of Empress Maria Theresa. Coined the term "ethnology."
• Janko Matúška – author of the Slovak national anthem
• Martin Hattala – linguist

  Inventors and Engineers

• Jozef Murgaš – inventor of the wireless telegraph. Murgas' "Rotary-spark-system" allowed for much faster communication, through the use of musical tones. He patented his new invention, which is now listed as the "Wireless Telegraphy Apparatus", as well as more inventions in this field. These patents would go on to form the foundations for the invention of the radio. Also devised a system which greatly improved the Morse code. His other patents include the spinning reel, the wave meter, the electric transformer, the magnetic detector, and an engine producing electromagnetic waves.
• Aurel Stodola – engineer and professor, enabled the construction of steam and gas turbines, constructor of a movable artificial arm in 1915
• John Dopyera – inventor of music instruments, invented the Dobro resonator guitar

• Ján Bahýľ – military engineer, inventor of the motor-driven helicopter. Bahýľ was granted 7 patents in all, including the invention of the tank pump, air balloons combined with an air turbine, the first petrol engine car in Slovakia and a lift up to Bratislava castle.
• Štefan Banič – inventor of the military parachute and of the first actively used parachute
• Ivan Alexander Getting – American physicist and electrical engineer, credited with the development of the Global Positioning System.

  Natural Sciences and Medicine

• Vojtech Alexander – revolutionary radiologist
• Daniel Carleton Gajdusek – American physician and Nobel Prize winner of Slovak descent
• Andreas Jaszlinszky – Jesuit physics professor
• Ján Jesenský – physician, surgeon, anatomist, rector of Charles University, Protestant activist and politician
• Ján Vilček – biomedical scientist, educator, inventor and philanthropist

  Geology, Mineralogy

• Dimitrij Andrusov – geologist and paleontologist, founder of modern Slovak geology
• Jan Veizer – geochemist and paleoclimatologist

  Archeology

• Andrej Kmeť – botanist, archaeologist
• Ján Kollár – pastor, writer, archaeologist, academic

  Physics

• Dionýz Ilkovič – physicist
• Stefan Janos – low temperature physicist living in Switzerland
• Joseph Klafter – Israeli chemical physics professor of Slovak descent; the eighth President of Tel Aviv University
• Ivan Wilhelm :cs:Ivan Wilhelm – nuclear physicist, former rector of Charles University in Prague

  Mathematics

• Jur Hronec – mathematician
• Igor Kluvánek – mathematician
• Samuel Mikovíny – Hungarian mathematician, engineer and map maker
• Tibor Šalát – mathematician, author of many mathematical textbooks in Slovak language
• Peter Štefan – mathematician
• Štefan Znám – mathematician

  Computer Science

• Juraj Hromkovič – Slovak computer scientist living in Switzerland

• Matthias Bel – 17th century astronomer. He made first relatively precise measurement of distance from Earth to Sun.

  Astronomers (20th century)

• Milan Rastislav Štefánik
• Milan Antal
• Antonín Bečvář
• Ladislav Brožek
• Ľubor Kresák
• Dušan Kalmančok
• Ľudmila Pajdušáková
• Vladimír Porubčan
• Juraj Tóth

  Astronauts / Cosmonauts

• Ivan Bella – the first cosmonaut of Slovakia
• Eugene Cernan – U.S. astronaut, last man to set foot on the Moon, son of the Slovak immigrant Ondrej Čerňan.
• Michael Fincke – U.S. astronaut, current American record holder for time in space, grandson of Margaret Hornyak Fincke

  Culture

Literature

Music

Classical

Composers

• Alexander Albrecht – composer, conductor, teacher
• Ján Levoslav Bella – composer, author of the first Slovak opera "Kováč Wieland"
• Juraj Beneš – composer
• Ján Cikker – composer, teacher
• Ernő Dohnányi – Hungarian conductor, composer, and pianist.
• Viliam Figuš-Bystrý – composer, teacher
• Tibor Frešo – composer, conductor
• Vladimír Godár – composer
• Frico Kafenda – composer, teacher, pianist, conductor
• Dezider Kardoš – composer, teacher
• Ladislav Kupkovič – composer, conductor
• Peter Machajdik – composer, organizer
• Ján Móry – composer
• Alexander Moyzes – composer
• Mikuláš Schneider-Trnavský – composer
• Eugen Suchoň – the most important Slovak composer, author of the first Slovak national opera "Krútňava", teacher
• Iris Szeghy – woman composer

  Conductors

• Peter Breiner – conductor, composer, pianist
• Ondrej Lenárd – conductor
• Ľudovít Rajter – conductor, teacher, composer
• Bystrík Režucha – conductor
• Ladislav Slovák – conductor

  Instrumentalists

• Marián Lapšanský – pianist,
• Peter Michalica – violinist
• Marcel Buntaj – drummer, pianist, composer

  Opera Singers

• Peter Dvorský – tenor
• Edita Gruberová – soprano
• Jozef Kundlák – tenor
• Lucia Popp – soprano
• Luba Orgonasova – soprano

  Jazz

• Peter Lipa – an important current Jazz singer, composer
• Laco Deczi – Jazz musician, trumpet player, composer
• Martin Valihora – Jazz musician, drummer

  Popular Music (20th century)

• Jaroslav Filip – musician, composer, vocalist, actor, playwright
• Marika Gombitová – singer, composer, musician since the second half of the 1970s
• Dave Grohl – drummer of Nirvana, singer of Foo Fighters
• Pavol Hammel – singer, composer, musician
• Jana Kirschner – musician, composer, vocalist
• :sk:Jana Kocianová – singer, musician, jazzman, gospels singer reached her height the 1970s
• Ján Lehotský – composer, musician, singer of Modus
• Peter Lipa – musician, composer, vocalist, scatman, jazzman, co-organiser of BJD festival
• Laco Lučenič – musician, producer, member of Modus
• Richard Müller – the best-known current Slovak pop-rock singer
• Vašo Patejdl – the most important Slovak pop composer in the 1980s and 1990s, singer, musician
• Jozef Ráž – current singer of Elán
• Dežo Ursiny – composer, rock singer, musician in the 1960s and 1970s
• Marián Varga – rock composer, musician in the 1960s and 1970s
• Miroslav Žbirka – singer, composer from the 1970s to the 1990s
• Sui Vesan – folk musician

  Fine arts

Painters, Graphic Artists

• Janko Alexy – painter
• Blažej Baláž – painter, graphic artist
• Mária Balážová – painter, graphic artist
• Miloš Alexander Bazovský – painter, graphic artist
• Martin Benka – painter, illustrator
• Albín Brunovský – graphic artist, painter, illustrator
• Lajos Csordák – painter
• Ľudovít Fulla – painter, graphic artist, illustrator
• Mikuláš Galanda – painter, graphic artist, illustrator
• Ian Hornak – draughtsman, painter, printmaker
• Július Jakoby – painter
• Ján Kupecký – painter
• Anton Lehmden – Austrian painter; born in Slovakia
• Palo Macho – painter
• Jozef Teodor Mousson – painter
• Koloman Sokol – painter
• Karl Sovanka – painter, sculptor
• Martin Vargic – graphic artist, illustrator
• Andy Warhol

  Sculptors

• Fraňo Štefunko – sculptor

  Photographers

• Dezo Hoffmann – photoreporter and photographer
• Tono Stano – photographer; his photograph Sense inspired the poster for the film Showgirls.

  Architects

• Bohuslav Fuchs – architect; a Czech also active in Slovakia
• Dušan Jurkovič – architect

  Film and Theatre

Actors

• Andrej Bagar – actor, director
• Barbora Bobuľová – actress
• Milan Kňažko – actor, former Slovak Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Culture
• Jozef Kroner – actor, starred in the first Czechoslovak, Czech and Slovak film awarded by Oscar: The Shop on Main Street
• Juraj Kukura – well-known Slovak actor, who has also been working in Germany.
• Barbara Nedeljáková – actress, starred in the Hollywood horror film Hostel
• Paul Newman – US actor, director, entrepreneur, philanthropist, of ethnic Slovak mother
• Emília Vášáryová – actress
• Jon Voight – American actor with Slovak ancestry
• Karol L. Zachar – actor, director
• Tomáš Raček – Slovak actor, who has also been working in Canada
• Michael Stroka – US TV actor

  Filmmakers

• Paľo Bielik – director, actor
• Dušan Hanák – director
• Juraj Herz – Slovak director and actor born in Kežmarok
• Juraj Jakubisko – director
• Ján Kadár – director
• Dušan Rapoš – Slovak director
• Ivan Reitman – probably the most prominent film director and producer born in Slovakia
• Martin Šulík – director
• Pavol Barabáš – documentarist, noted for filming people living in extreme conditions
• David Dobrik – Youtuber

  Law

• William T. Dzurilla – international attorney and law clerk to Justice Byron White of the United States Supreme Court.
• Peter Tomka – Vice-President of the International Court of Justice

  Sports

• Ivan Bátory – cross-country skiing
• Imre Bugár – ethnic Hungarian athlete
• Karol Divín – figure-skating
• Paulína Fialková - biathlete
• Bohumil Golián – volleyball-player
• Jozef Gönci – sport shooter
• Jozef Krnáč – judo
• Anastasiya Kuzmina – Russian born biathlete
• Martina Moravcová - swimmer, twice Olympic silver medalist
• Ondrej Nepela – figure-skating
• Jozef Plachý – athlete
• Jozef Pribilinec – race walker, Olympic gold medalist
• Jack Quinn – baseball player
• Richard Réti – Austrian-Hungarian, later Czechoslovak chess grandmaster
• Jozef Sabovčík – figure-skating
• Peter Sagan – cyclist, 3 times UCI World Champion
• Alojz Sokol – athlete, pioneer of the Olympic movement in historic Hungary
• Anton Tkáč – cyclist
• Yvonne Tobis – Israeli Olympic swimmer, born in Bratislava
• Július Torma – boxer
• Elmer Valo – baseball player
• Veronika Velez-Zuzulová - alpine ski racer
• Petra Vlhová - alpine ski racer
• Ján Zachara – boxer
• Radoslav Židek – snowboarder, first Slovak medallist from independent Slovakia at the Winter Olympics

  Football

• Jozef Adamec – former footballer
• Peter Dubovský – footballer
• Marek Hamšík – midfielder, currently playing for Italian side SSC Napoli
• Karol Jokl – footballer
• Marek Mintál – footballer
• Ľubomír Moravčík – footballer
• Ján Popluhár – footballer
• Viliam Schrojf – footballer
• Martin Škrtel – footballer, currently playing for Fenerbahçe SK
• Jozef Vengloš – football manager and former footballer, managed Aston Villa, Celtic FC, the Czechoslovak and the Slovak national teams, current director of FIFA's Technical Study Group.
• Vladimír Weiss senior – Head coach of Slovakia national football team
• Vladimír Weiss junior – winger, considered as one of the most talented Slovak players of his generation

  Ice hockey

• Ľuboš Bartečko –
• Peter Bondra –
• Zdeno Cíger –
• Pavol Demitra –
• Vladimír Dzurilla –
• Marián Gáborík –
• Jozef Golonka –
• Jaroslav Halák –
• Michal Handzuš –
• Marcel Hossa –
• Marián Hossa –
• Zdeno Chára –
• Igor Liba –
• Vincent Lukáč –
• Stan Mikita –
• Ladislav Nagy –
• Žigmund Pálffy –
• Dárius Rusnák –
• Jozef Stümpel –
• Miroslav Šatan –
• Anton Šťastný –
• Marián Šťastný –
• Peter Šťastný –
• Róbert Švehla –
• Ladislav Troják –
• Ľubomír Višňovský –

  Tennis

• Karol Beck
• Dominika Cibulková
• Karina Habšudová
• Daniela Hantuchová – Slovakia's most successful female player
• Martina Hingis – Košice born, retired Swiss female tennis-player
• Dominik Hrbatý
• Martin Kližan
• Karol Kučera
• Miloslav Mečíř
• Magdaléna Rybáriková
• Marián Vajda – coach of a world top tennis-player Novak Djokovic

  Water sports

• Juraj Bača – speed canoeing
• Jana Dukátová – water slalom
• Peter and Pavol Hochschorner – water slalom
• Elena Kaliská – water slalom
• Slavomír Kňazovický – speed canoeing
• Michal Martikán – water slalom, Olympic gold medalist, Atlanta 1996, Beijing 2008
• Juraj Minčík – water slalom
• Martina Moravcová – swimmer
• Michal Riszdorfer – speed canoeing
• Richard Riszdorfer – speed canoeing
• Erik Vlček – speed canoeing

  Figure Skating

• Karol Divín
• Ondrej Nepela
• Jozef Sabovčík

  Modelsports

• Jozef Gábriš – born in Bratislava. Most popular and successful Control Line aerobatics pilot of former Czechoslovakia.

  Other

Historical personalities

• Móric Beňovský – Hungarian globetrotter, explorer, soldier, writer, and the King of Madagascar with Slovak ancestry.
• Juraj Jánošík – the Slovak equivalent of Robin Hood, the topic of many Slovak legends, books and films
• Matúš Čák Trenčianský Oligarch of Upper Hungary known as Lord of the Váh and Tatras, he is considered a Folk hero by some Slovaks for not accepting foreign kings as rulers of the Kingdom of Hungary.
• Štefan Parmenius Štítnický - Hungarian Navigator and chronicler of Slovak origin, member of Humphrey Gilbert's expedition.
• Ádam Jávorka Kuruc insurgent of Slovak ethnicity later became General of the Polish hussars
• Juraj Šucha Hungarian soldier of Slovak ethnicity fought against the Turkish invaders
• Pribina first Slavic prince

  Models

• Kamila Filipcikova – High Fashion Slovak Model
• Viera Schottertova – model
• Adriana Sklenaříková – model, face of "Wonderbra" adverts
• Michaela Hlaváčková

  Miscellaneous

• Shlomo Breznitz - Israeli author, psychologist, and president of the University of Haifa
• Ľudovít Lačný – chess composer, FIDE master
• Sándor Petőfi – Hungarian national poet, born to a Slovak mother
• Rudolf Vrba – Auschwitz survivor, author of the Vrba-Wetzler report
• Miriam Roth, Israeli writer and scholar of children's books, kindergarten teacher, and educator
• Vladimír Valach, diplomat and banker
• Hanna Zemer, Israeli journalist