List of people from Charleston, South Carolina
The following people were all born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Charleston, South Carolina, United States :
Athletes
- Luther Broughton, NFL player
- Nehemiah Broughton, NFL player
- Kwame Brown, basketball player
- Garrett Chisolm, NFL player
- Beth Daniel, professional golfer
- Zola Davis, NFL and XFL player
- Carlos Dunlap, NFL player
- Oronde Gadsden, NFL player
- AJ Green, NFL player
- Harold Green, NFL player
- Anthony Johnson, NBA player
- Katrina McClain Johnson, Olympic gold medalist; retired WNBA player
- Byron Maxwell, NFL player
- David Meggett, NFL player
- Bud Moore, NASCAR driver
- Langston Moore, former NFL player
- Ovie Mughelli, NFL player
- Josh Powell, NBA player
- Laron Profit, NBA player
- Robert Quinn, NFL player
- Art Shell, NFL player and coach
- Roddy White, NFL player
- Khris Middleton, NBA player
- Edmond Robinson, NFL player
- Brandon Shell, NFL player
- Javon Kinlaw, NFL player
Entertainers
- Angry Grandpa, internet personality
- Stephen Colbert, comedian
- Jonathan Mangum, actor
- Joel Derfner, musical theater composer
- Andy Dick, comedian
- Thomas Gibson, actor
- Shanola Hampton, actress
- Lauren Hutton, actress
- Mabel King, actress
- Logan Marshall-Green, actor
- Will Patton, actor
- Grace Peixotto, madam
- Darius Rucker, lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish, and country star
- Elise Testone, singer, American Idol contestant
- Melanie Thornton, singer, member of La Bouche
Military figures
- Mark Wayne Clark, United States Army general; Supreme commander of the United Nations Command
- Samuel Wragg Ferguson, Confederate States Army general
- Benjamin Huger, Confederate States Army general
- Stephen Dill Lee, Confederate States Army general; 1st president of Mississippi State University
- Robert Charlwood Richardson, Jr., United States Army general
- William Childs Westmoreland, United States Army general; 25th chief of staff of the United States Army
Political figures
- William Aiken, Jr., Governor of South Carolina
- Judah P. Benjamin, U.S. Senator from Louisiana, Confederate States Secretary of State and Attorney General
- James Francis Byrnes, U.S. Representative and Senator, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Secretary of State, and Governor of South Carolina
- Floride Calhoun, Second Lady of the United States; wife of John C. Calhoun
- John C. Calhoun, U.S. Representative and Senator, Vice President, Secretary of State, and Secretary of War
- Henry William de Saussure, second director of United States Mint; intendant of Charleston
- William Drayton, Sr., associate justice of South Carolina Supreme Court
- Christopher Gadsden, American Revolutionary War leader
- James Gadsden, U.S. minister to Mexico; president of the South Carolina Railroad Company
- Robert Young Hayne, Mayor of Charleston 1836-1837; United States Senator 1823-1833; Governor of South Carolina
- Thomas Heyward, Jr., signer of the Declaration of Independence
- Fritz Hollings, United States Senator from South Carolina; Governor and Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina
- James Ladson, American revolutionary and lieutenant governor of South Carolina
- Henry Laurens, American Revolutionary War leader
- Burnet Maybank, Charleston mayor 1931-1935; South Carolina governor 1939-1941; United States Senator from South Carolina
- Burnet Maybank III, lawyer; two-time head of South Carolina Department of Revenue
- Christopher Memminger, signer of the Confederate States Constitution; Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury 1861-1864
- William Porcher Miles, lawyer; Mayor of Charleston 1855-1857; U.S. Representative from South Carolina; member of the Confederate Congress; designed the Confederate battle flag
- Thomas Parker, U.S. District Attorney for S.C. 1792–1820; married daughter of William Henry Drayton, Mary Drayton
- Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, American Revolutionary War leader; United States Ambassador to France; Federalist candidate for President in the 1804 and 1808 United States presidential elections
- Joel Roberts Poinsett, botanist, politician, and diplomat; U.S. Representative; United States Ambassador to Mexico, Secretary of War; founded precursor to the Smithsonian Institution; namesake of the poinsettia
- Joseph P. Riley, Jr., Mayor of Charleston 1975-2015
- Joseph O. Rogers, Jr., member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Clarendon County 1955-1966; Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1966; reared in Charleston; spent adult years in Manning
- Edward Rutledge, signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence; Governor of South Carolina, 1798-1800
- John Rutledge, President of South Carolina, 1776-1778; Commander and Chief of South Carolina forces during Revolutionary War; Governor of South Carolina, 1779-1782; second Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; signed the U.S. Constitution
- James Skivring Smith, President of Liberia, 1871-1872
- George Alfred Trenholm, Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury
- Bill Workman, Charleston native; mayor of Greenville, 1983-1995; economic development specialist
Scientists
- Robert Furchgott, biochemist and Nobel Laureate
- Ernest Everett Just, biologist
- William Charles Wells, physician
Slavery-related people
- Benjamin Smith, slave trader
- Joseph Wragg, pioneer of the large-scale slave trade
Writers and artists
- Alexander Aikman, publisher, King's Printer, and House of Assembly member
- Louisa Wells Aikman, 18th century author
- Frank Birnbaum, 20th century Jewish cantor
- David Carson, graphic designer
- Joel Derfner, writer
- Shepard Fairey, artist known for Andre the Giant "Obey" and Barack Obama "Hope" stencil pieces
- Arthur Freed, Hollywood producer, composer, and writer
- Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr., author, Cheaper by the Dozen
- Dubose Heyward, writer and lyricist, Porgy and Bess
- Jessica Hische, illustrator
- Robert Jordan, novelist, author of The Wheel of Time series
- Alexandra Ripley, author, Scarlett
- Eden Royce, gothic horror writer
- Stella F Simon, photographer
- Philip Simmons, ironworker
- William Gilmore Simms, poet, novelist, and historian
- Merton Simpson,, abstract expressionist artist, African art collector, musician
- Frank Lebby Stanton, lyricist; columnist for the Atlanta Constitution; author of the lyrics of "Just Awearyin' for You"
- Norb Vonnegut, author
- Nikki DuBose, former model turned author and activist
Other
- William Abbott, manager of the New Charleston Theatre
- Garland Bayliss, historian and administrator at Texas A&M University; taught at the Citadel in the mid-1950s
- Rick Brewer, former administrator at Charleston Southern University; current president of Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana
- Septima Poinsette Clark, educator, civil rights activist; "grandmother" of the Civil Rights Movement"
- Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, well-known African American mob boss
- Sallie Krawcheck, Citigroup chief financial officer
- Samuel Maverick, firebrand rancher from whom the term "" was coined
- William Ephraim Mikell, Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, summer home in Charleston
- Robert Mills, architect
- Vanessa Joy Lachey , Miss USA 1998, MTV VJ, and Entertainment Tonight correspondent
- George B. Rabb, zoologist
- David Stahl, conductor
- Elizabeth Timothy, first female newspaper publisher in America
- Lewis Timothy, first American librarian
- Denmark Vesey, freedman tried and executed for allegedly plotting a slave revolt
- J. Waites Waring, United States District Court for District of South Carolina judge; part of three-judge panel that heard school desegregation case Briggs v. Elliott
- Reuben Greenberg, first black police chief of Charleston