List of Venezuelan Americans

This is a list of notable Venezuelan Americans, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.

To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are Venezuelan Americans or must have references showing they are Venezuelan Americans and are notable.

List

Architects and builders

• Anita Berrizbeitia – Venezuelan landscape theorist, teacher, and author. Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
• Carlos Brillembourg – Venezuelan architect based in New York, founder of Carlos Brillembourg Architects
• Monica Ponce de Leon – Architect with offices in Ann Arbor, New York and Boston. Dean of the School of Architecture at Princeton University. First Hispanic architect to receive the National Design Award in Architecture
• Carolina Izsak – After the pageant as Miss Venezuela 1991 she completed architecture studies and currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts, US
• Domingo Marcucci – Venezuelan-born American 49er, shipbuilder and shipowner

Entrepreneurs and businesspeople

• Guido Antonini Wilson – Entrepreneur
• Mary Black-Suarez – Venezuelan executive producer and entertainment consultant. She is the founder of MBS Entertainment and co-founder of SOMOS Productions
• Adriana Cisneros – Venezuelan journalist. CEO and Vice Chairman of Cisneros Group
• Gustavo Cisneros – Venezuelan-born mass media entrepreneur
• Andres Gluski – CEO of AES Corporation
• Thor Halvorssen Hellum – Venezuelan-Norwegian businessman who served as CEO and President telephone company, CANTV and later as Special Commissioner for International Narcotic Affairs
• Janet Kelly – American-born editor owner of The Daily Journal (Venezuela)
• Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg – Venezuelan business woman and the current president and chief executive officer of Strategic Investment Group (SIG)
• Lorenzo Alejandro Laviosa López – Venezuelan entrepreneur, racketeer and businessman
• Beatriz Michelena – Venezuelan American operatic soprano and actress during the silent film era. She was the first Latina star and co-founded Michelena Studios a film production company with her husband
• Vanessa Neumann – Venezuelan graduated in Columbia University. Founder, President & CEO of Asymmetrica, a New York-headquartered global consultancy on brand integrity and counter-illicit trafficking. The relationship with Mick Jagger (2000-2002) made her famous among world press
• Bárbara Palacios – Venezuelan TV Host, writer and Miss Universe 1986. CEO of BP Inspiration, where she's the main motivational speaker
• Claudio Osorio – Venezuelan entrepreneur and convicted criminal based in Miami, Florida
• Luis Villanueva – Venezuelan American television and entertainment executive that has made significant contributions to the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic entertainment markets. He is currently President and CEO of SomosTV LLC
• Bill Watkins – Venezuelan-born former CEO of Seagate Technology, the world's largest manufacturer of hard drives

Artists and designers

• Julio Aguilera – Venezuelan-American painter and sculptor born in Caracas
• Devendra Banhart – Venezuelan American singer-songwriter and visual artist
• Jorge Blanco – Venezuelan artist who created the comic strip The Castaway/El Náufrago, which became an overnight success
• Nicolas Felizola – fashion designer
• Rodner Figueroa – former TV host from Univision, fashion designer and philanthropist
• Nina Fuentes, a.k.a. Nina Dotti – Venezuelan art collector, curator, philanthropist, business woman and art dealer
• Marisol Escobar – Venezuelan-American sculptor born in Paris
• Carolina Herrera – fashion designer. Also Founder and CEO of New York-based CH Carolina Herrera
• Camilo Him – Venezuelan-born American naturalized and Paris-based fashion photographer, artist and film director
• Tina Ramirez – dancer and choreographer, best known as the Founder and Artistic Director of Ballet Hispanico
• Angel Sanchez – fashion designer
• Nick Verreos – American fashion designer, fashion commentator and former Project Runway contestant
• Jhonen Vasquez – American comic book writer, cartoonist, and music video director
• Patricia van Dalen – Venezuelan visual artist based in Miami (Florida)
• Ron van Dongen – photographer

Comedians

• Julio Gassete – Venezuelan-born TV former comedian of Bienvenidos TV show. He lives currently in Miami, Florida
• Erika De la Vega – Venezuelan stand up comedy actress and fashion model

Films and TV

• Cristina Abuhazi – Venezuelan actress, model, and TV host in Sony YouTube America Latina Network
• Arthur Albert – Venezuelan-born American cinematographer and television director
• Fred Armisen – actor, comedian, musician. He attended the School of Visual Arts (NYC)
• Elizabeth Avellán – American film producer, born in Venezuela
• Daniela Bascopé – Telenovela actress
• Maria Beatty – Venezuelan-born American filmmaker who directs, acts, and produces
• Fabiola Beracasa Beckman – Venezuelan film and television producer and philanthropist. Co-owner of The Hole Gallery, in New York City
• Horacio Bocaranda – film director
• Tatiana Capote – telenovela actress. Cuban-born, Venezuelan-raised
• Grecia Colmenares – actress of telenovelas who gained fame across Latin America, especially during the 1980s
• Gabriel Coronel – actor of telenovelas and model
• Jesse Corti – Venezuelan-born, American voice actor
• Alejandro Chaban – Venezuelan-born, telenovela actor
• Mara Croatto – Venezuelan-born Puerto Rican actress
• Pablo Fenjves – Venezuelan-born American screenwriter and ghostwriter based in Los Angeles, California
• Marieh Delfino – American actress
• Christina Dieckmann – Venezuelan-born actress
• Andrew Divoff – Venezuelan-born actor
• Wanda D'Isidoro – Venezuelan actress, born in Boston
• Silvana Gallardo (1953–2012) – American film and television actress
• Carlos González (cinematographer) – Venezuelan-born American cinematographer and director of film and television
• Brooke Haven – American pornographic actress
• Perla Haney-Jardine – Brazilian-born American actress. She is best known for her role in Kill Bill Vol. 2 as B.B. His father is Venezuelan
• Maria Elena Heredia – Venezuelan actress
• Alejandro Hernández Reinoso – Venezuelan film director, writer, humorist, singer-songwriter, composer
• Lilimar Hernandez – Venezuelan actress
• Betty Kaplan – Venezuelan film director, currently live in Los Angeles
• Moisés Kaufman – playwright, director and founder of Tectonic Theater Project. In 2016 was awarded with the National Medal of Arts
• Kamala Lopez – Actress, director, and political activist
• Alicia Machado – Venezuelan actress, Miss Universe 1996
• Wlly Martin – Venezuelan-born, telenovela actor at Nickelodeon
• Beatriz Michelena – American actress during the silent film era. She was of Venezuelan descent
• Vera Michelena – American actress, contralto prima donna and dancer who appeared in light opera, musical comedy, vaudeville and silent film. She was of Venezuelan descent
• Carlos Montilla – Venezuelan television and theater actor
• Lilibeth Morillo – actress
• Indira Páez – playwright
• Carlos Pena Jr. – American actor (Big Time Rush), singer, and dancer. His father is of Spanish and Venezuelan descent
• Clara Perez – film and television actress
• Antonio Piedra – producer, director, photographer and philanthropist
• Abraham Pulido – Venezuelan television and film director
• Édgar Ramírez – Venezuelan actor
• Julie Restifo – actress. American-born, Venezuelan-raised
• Génesis Rodríguez – actress, American-born
• Luis José Santander – American-born Venezuelan actor
• Sonya Smith – American-born Venezuelan actress
• Jason Silva – television personality, filmmaker, and public speaker
• Monica Spear – Miss Venezuela 2004 – actress of Telemundo network
• Laura Termini – Venezuelan-born American actress, producer, writer, and a Board Certified Health/Beauty Counselor AADP
• Tammy Trull – American actress of Venezuelan and Cuban descent
• Orlando Urdaneta – Venezuelan actor
• Wilmer Valderrama – Venezuelan actor
• Patricia Velásquez – Venezuelan actress and fashion model
• Franklin Virgüez – actor
• Henry Zakka – Venezuelan actor and producer
• Eglantina Zingg – actress, model and television host

Models

• Mariela Pérez Branger – Miss Venezuela 1967
• Jennifer Rovero – Playboy's Playmate of the Month for July 1999 and has appeared in numerous Playboy videos
• Rita Verreos – Venezuelan-born beauty pageant contestant, image consultant, model, actress, and reality television contestant

Musicians

• Aldo Abreu – Venezuelan baroque flutist
• María Conchita Alonso – three time Grammy Award–nominated singer/songwriter and actress. Cuban-born, Venezuelan-raised, she is an American citizen
• Devendra Banhart – Singer and songwriter
• Augusto Brandt – Violinist and composer
• Andrea Burns – singer
• Ed Calle – saxophonist and composer from Miami, Florida, born in Venezuela. He has four nominations for Grammy Awards
• Mariah Carey – singer; her father Alfred Roy Carey was born in Venezuela
• Randy Carlos – Composer and Orchestra director named el "Rey de la Pachanga"
• Teresa Carreño – Venezuelan-born pianist and composer
• Sylvia Constantinidis – Venezuelan-born pianist, conductor, writer, music educator and composer. Former President of the Southeast Chapter of NACUSA (National Association of Composers of The United States of America)
• Tulio Cremisini – Venezuelan percussionist, composer and orchestra conductor
• Majandra Delfino – Alma Award-nominated Venezuelan-born American actress and singer
• Yasmin Deliz – American singer-songwriter, model and actress. She is daughter of Dominican father and a Colombian-Venezuelan mother
• Paul Desenne – Venezuelan cellist and resident composer at Alabama Symphony Orchestra
• Gustavo Dudamel – Orchestra conductor and violinist. He is the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Los Angeles, California
• Pedro Eustache – flautist – "World Music" woodwinds-reeds-wind synthesizers and composer
• Lorenzo Herrera – Former Venezuelan singer
• Hernan Hermida – vocalist of rock band Suicide Silence
• Enrique Hidalgo – Venezuelan composer
• Judith Jaimes – pianist
• Raphael Jiménez – associate professor of conducting and director of Oberlin College orchestras
• Pablo Manavello – Italian-born Venezuelan composer, guitarist, singer and songwriter
• Manu Manzo – Venezuelan-born singer and songwriter
• Eduardo Marturet – composer, music director and principal conductor of The Miami Symphony Orchestra
• Gustavo Matamoros – composer-sound artist
• Fernando Michelena – Venezuelan tenor. In US Michelena toured with the Emma Abbott Grand Opera Company. He was the father of Beatriz and Vera Michelena .
• Alfredo del Monaco – Venezuelan composer
• Silvano Monasterios – jazz pianist and composer
• Ricardo Montaner – Venezuelan singer and composer
• Gabriela Montero – pianist and composer
• Chris Moy – singer and a former member of the Menudo teen group
• Luis Perdomo – jazz pianist and composer
• Mario Campani – Italo-Venezuelan guitar player born in Caracas. Campani is currently performing with the hard rock band The White Wagon
• Alejandro Enrique Planchart – Venezuelan-American musicologist, conductor, and composer
• Edward Pulgar – Venezuelan violinist and conductor
• Rudy Regalado – Venezuelan Latin music leader, percussionist and composer
• Jose Luis Rodríguez "El Puma" – singer and actor
• Otmaro Ruiz – pianist and composer
• Juan Carlos Salazar – Singer, Cuatro-player and songwriter/composer in addition to being an engineer with an MBA, and university instructor
• Marger Sealey – Singer, composer and actress
• Alberto Šlezinger – Venezuelan-born singer, songwriter and composer
• Carmen Helena Téllez – Venezuelan-American music conductor
• Yva Las Vegass – Venezuelan-born singer and composer radicated in Seattle since 1980
• Zamora – Venezuelan pianist and composer nominated on Grammy Award 2010 in the "New Age" music category

Sports

• Bob Abreu – Venezuelan baseball player
• Luis Aparicio – Baseball player. Hall of Fame of MLB
• Nestor Aparicio – Sportswriter and radio personality
• Junior Alvarado – jockey
• José de Armas – professional tennis player
• Manuel Azpurua Sosa – thoroughbred racehorse trainer
• Josh Barfield – Venezuelan-born American major league Baseball player
• Jesus Armando Bracho – Venezuelan jockey winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey in 1992 but was suspended, then surrendered his award to Rosemary Homeister, Jr. for falsifying his racing papers
• Miguel Cabrera – Baseball player. In 2012 became the first player since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 to win the Triple Crown in batting
• Alfonso Carrasquel – Venezuelan-born Major League Baseball player
• Abel Castellano Jr. – Venezuelan jockey
• Javier Castellano – Venezuelan jockey, recipient of three Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey in the row (2013, 2014 and 2015)
• Eibar Coa – Venezuelan jockey winner of the Breeder's Cup Sprint 2010
• Daniel Dhers – World Champion BMX cycle ryder
• Milka Duno – Venezuelan-born Indycar driver
• Juan Pablo Galavis – professional footballer
• Ozzie Guillén – former major league professional baseball player and manager of Chicago White Sox and Miami Marlins
• Ramon Dominguez – jockey, recipient of three Eclipse Award in the row (2010, 2011 and 2012)
• Marcy Hinzmann – American pairs figure skater. Her mother was born in Venezuela
• Carlos Hernández (catcher) – Venezuelan baseball player
• Gonzalo López Silvero – Cuban-born sports narrator of Venevision
• AnnMaria De Mars – American judoka
• Richard Mendez – Football narrator of ESPN Deportes
• Amleto Monacelli – Professional ten-pin bowler, member of American Bowlers Association Halls of Fame
• Julianna Peña – American mixed martial artist
• Eddie Pérez – Venezuelan-American former professional baseball player and current coach
• C.J. Perry – American professional wrestling valet, professional wrestler, model, actress, dancer, and singer. Her mother was born in Venezuela
• Alex Popow – Venezuelan racing driver
• Enzo Potolicchio – Venezuelan racing driver and businessman
• Ronda Rousey – American mixed martial artist, judoka and actress
• Antonio Sano – thoroughbred racehorse trainer.
• Sam Shepherd – American naturalized as a Venezuelan, in order to be able to play with the Venezuelan national basketball team
• Giovanni Savarese – Venezuelan head coach of the newly formed New York Cosmos soccer club
• Donta Smith – American naturalized as a Venezuelan, in order to be able to play with the Venezuelan national basketball team
• Rafael Suárez – Venezuelan Olympian fencer and US international team fencer
• Edwin Valero – Undefeated southpaw Venezuelan boxer and former two weight world champion who fought up to light welterweight
• María Alejandra Vento-Kabchi – former professional tennis player
• Cheche Vidal – Venezuelan American soccer player and businessman
• Gregor Blanco – Venezuelan Major League Baseball player

Journalists, TV hosts and anchors

• Luis Alfredo Alvarez – TV host ESPN Latin America
• Fernando Alvarez – TV host ESPN Latin America
• José Aristimuño – journalist, press sub secretary of Democratic Party
• Eli Bravo – journalist, TV host
• Carlos López Bustamante – journalist spent part of his life in US, where he died in Chicago
• Nelson Bustamante – Venezuelan-born TV host and writer
• Chiquinquirá Delgado – Venezuelan TV host, model, and actress of Univision network in the United States
• George Duran – Venezuelan-born restaurateur, TV personality, TV producer, and published author
• Lorena Garcia – Venezuelan-born restaurateur, philanthropist, TV personality, TV producer, and published author
• Raúl González – TV host and actor. In Venezuela, he hosted a kids' TV show Supercrópolis. He became one of the hosts on TV show Despierta América of Univisión television network
• Eva Golinger – Attorney, RT Network TV host and editor of the Correo del Orinoco International
• Alejandra Oraa – Venezuelan television anchor currently working for CNN en Español
• Reinaldo Herrera – former director of Vanity Fair magazine
• Elizabeth Pérez – Cuban-Venezuelan Emmy – winning television journalist and presenter working for CNN en Español
• Ana Julia Jatar – Venezuelan journalist owner of MasMedia Boston
• Rafael Poleo – a Venezuelan journalist and politician
• Beatrice Rangel – Venezuelan politician analyst
• Carolina Sandoval – Journalist, broadcaster, writer, TV presenter, and actress
• Daniel Sarcos – Venezuelan TV host, model, and actor of Telemundo network in the United States
• James Tahhan – Venezuelan-born restaurateur known as "Chef James", TV personality, TV producer, and published author
• Juan Vene – Journalist
• Patricia Zavala – Venezuelan TV host and model. She hosts E! Entertainment Television's Coffee Break

Military

• Renato Beluche – Louisiana merchant and privateer at service of Simon Bolivar army who died in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela
• José Manuel Hernández – Popular Venezuelan caudillo, army general, congressman, presidential candidate and cabinet member who was also involved in numerous insurrections. Lived in exile in US from 1911 to his death in 1921
• Narciso López – Venezuelan soldier and adventurer, known for four filibuster expeditions aimed at liberating Cuba from Spain in the 1850s
• José Antonio Páez – Venezuelan leader who fought the War of Independence. President of Venezuela once it was independent of the Gran Colombia (1830–1835; 1839–1843; 1861–1863). He lived in New York City during his years in exile and died there in 1873
• Patricia Spanic – twin sister of soap opera actress Gabriela Spanic, captain in the US Army

Politics

• Luigi Boria – Venezuelan-born mayor of Doral, Florida
• Peter Camejo – (1939–2008) was an American activist and politician. He is of Venezuelan descent.
• Cipriano Castro – President of Venezuela. Expatriated by Juan Vicente Gomez regime in 1908, spent the rest of his life in exile, mostly in Puerto Rico, where he died in 1928
• Philip Giordano – former Republican mayor of Waterbury, Connecticut, and a convicted sex offender. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela, to Italian parents and his family moved to the United States when he was two years old
• P. Michael McKinley – American diplomat and the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan
• Irene Sáez – Venezuelan politician and beauty queen who was crowned Miss Universe 1981
• Al Santos (mayor) – Mayor of Kearny, New Jersey, and a Democrat, born in Venezuela

Science

• Cristina Amon – Venezuelan-born dean of the University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering
• Baruj Benacerraf – Venezuelan-born American immunologist, 1980 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of the major histocompatibility complex genes
• Manuel Blum – Venezuelan-born computer scientist who received the Turing Award in 1995
• José Luis Cordeiro – Venezuelan mechanical engineer. Futurologist at Singularity University
• Humberto Campins – professor of Physics and Astronomy at University of Central Florida.
• Tobias Bluzmanis – Expert in locks and locksmithing
• Melchor Centeno Vallenilla – Electrical engineer
• José Esparza – Venezuelan virologist known for his efforts to promote the international development and testing of vaccines against HIV/AIDS
• Humberto Fernandez Moran – Venezuelan research NASA scientist winner of the John Scott Award, for his invention of the diamond knife
• Hugo Gaggioni – Venezuelan electronic engineer, CTO of Sony America.
• Niklaus Grünwald – Venezuelan-born biologist. He is currently a research scientist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service
• Werner Hoeger – Venezuelan-born professor emeritus (active) of exercise science at Boise State University
• Evelyn Miralles – Venezuelan engineer leader of NASA virtual reality laboratory
• William Nazareth – Venezuelan mathematician
• William H. Phelps, Jr. – American-born Venezuelan ornithologist and businessman
• William H. Phelps, Sr. – Venezuelan American ornithologist and businessman
• L. Rafael Reif – Venezuelan electrical engineer and inventor. President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Aldemaro Romero Jr. – Venezuelan biologist, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
• Gustavo Adolfo Romero – biologist, curator of Herbarium of Harvard University
• Gabriel A. Rincon-Mora – Venezuelan-American electrical engineer, scientist, professor, inventor, and author
• Santiago Schnell – Venezuelan-born biophysical chemist and computational physiologist who holds an Associate Professorship in Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan
• Jorge Falcon Sillet – Veterinary. Master of Science of University of California. 1985. CEO of Equine Performance Service, US
• Andres Tremante – Venezuelan mechanical engineer of Florida International University

Economists

• Ricardo Hausmann – economist, writer
• Leopoldo Martínez Nucete – economist, director of Center for Democracy and Development in the Americas (Miami, Florida)
• Moisés Naím – economist, Foreign Police chief editor, writer, TV-host
• Francisco Monaldi – economist, professor at Harvard University
• Laura Palacios – economist, professor at Columbia University

Writers

• Antonio Arraiz – Venezuelan writer
• Perla Farías Lombardini – Telemundo writer
• Boris Izaguirre – Spanish Venezuelan writer and Telemundo TV host
• T. J. MacGregor – Venezuelan-born writer
• Susana Rotker – writer, essaist
• Miguel Tinker Salas – Venezuelan historian, writer and professor at Pomona College (Califorrnia)

Activists

• Mery Godigna Collet – Venezuelan artist, writer, philanthropist and environmental living in Austin, Texas
• Thor Halvorssen Mendoza – Venezuelan human rights advocate and film producer
• Nancy Navarro – Social activist. In 2010, President Obama appointed her to the Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics
• Victor Pineda (activist) – social development scholar and disability rights advocate
• Luis Posada Carriles – Cuban-born Venezuelan naturalized former CIA agent. Anticastrist activist
• Jeanmarie Simpson – American peace activist and theatre artist. His father is Venezuelan.
• Sylvia Rivera – American bisexual transgender activist and trans woman

Others

• Patricia Phelps de Cisneros – Art collector and philanthropist
• Tanya Capriles Brillembourg – Art collector and philanthropist

See also

• Venezuelan American
• Venezuelan people
• List of Venezuelans
• List of Americans