29 Famous People From Bristol

Bristol actors, musicians and porn stars.

As a pretty awesome city Bristol has it’s fair share of famous Bristolians. We take a look at the most famous people who were born in and around Bristol.

1. Russell Howard

Comedian Russell was born in Bristol. Eventually he even studied economics at UWE.

2. Banksy

Still unconfirmed on who Banksy actually is, but a recent Daily Mail report has him supposively as a former pupil at the public Bristol Cathedral School.

3. Stephen Merchant

Merchant’s career actually began performing stand up comedy at Bristol’s own Comedy Box.

4. James May

The former Top Gear presenter was born back in 1963 in Bristol.

5. Maisie Williams

Star of Game of Thrones, Maisie was born in Bristol before moving to Bath. She’s now regularly seen out and about at various Bristol nights out.

6. Ben Collins, aka The Stig

‘The White Stig’ was born in Bristol, but ended up spending the first 10 years of his life in California.

7. Massive Attack

One of the most famous artists from Bristol, Massive Attack have been going strong since 1988 and made their return to the Bristol music scene during their amazing Clifton Down gig in 2016.

8. Hannah Murray

Best known for playing Cassie in Bristol based Skins and now Gilly in Game of Thrones. Hannah’s parents actually work at Bristol University.

9. Stephen Lansdown

Co-Founder of Hargreaves and Lansdown, and also one of the major shareholders of Bristol City Football Club, Bristol Rugby, and Bristol Flyers. He’s basically pretty minted.

10. Josie Gibson

Josie Gibson’s fantastic Bristolian voice was a fantastic addition to Big Brother 2010, in particular her amazing ‘face ripped off by a chimpanzee’ moment.

11. Judd Trump

Born in 1989, Bristol’s most famous snooker player has hit more than 450 century breaks during his career.

12. Justin Lee Collins

Hailing down from Southmead, Bristol. Justin’s fallen on err, hard times recently.

13. Lee Evans

Hailing from Avonmouth, he and his family left Bristol when he was 12 to move to Essex.

14. Cathy Barry

One of the UK’s most famous pornstars and she hails from little old Bristol. If you’ve ever seen one of her movies, that becomes apparent immediately.

15. Roni Size

Drum and Bass DJ who rose to prominence in 1997 as the founder of Reprazent.

16. Ian Holloway

‘Ollie’ has one of the most spectacular Bristolian accents that you’ll hear on TV. He’s a Kingswood native, where he grew up in a council house which his mother still currently lives in.

17. Damien Hirst

Bristol born Hirst, is reportedly the UK’s richest living artist.

18. Marcus Trescothick

Marcus represented Somerset County Cricket since 1993.

19. J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling was born in Yate, just outside of Bristol, a few miles south of a town called Dursley (yep, those Dursleys). Her father also an engineer for Rolls Royce in Bristol.

20. David Prowse

Bodybuilder, weightlifter and probably best known for playing Darth Vader in the original Star Wars movies. David was also the original Green Cross Code man.

21. John Cleese

Born in Weston (that basically counts) Cleese is actually a Bristol City FC fan. He even had an exhibition at Clifton College when he was 13.

22. Cary Grant

Might be one most famous Bristolians of all time. Cary was a definitive leading man in Hollywood during its classical era. Born in Horfield he eventually became an American citizen in 1942.

23. Portishead

A fantastic Bristol band named after the nearby town Portishead.

24. John Challis

John Challis is best known for playing Aubrey “Boycie” Boyce in the BBC series Only Fools and Horses, and the lesser known spin-off The Green Green Grass. Good Bristol lad.

25. Eats Everything

Since the huge ‘Entrance Song’ came out in 2011, Dan Pearce aka. Eats Everything has risen to become one of the biggest DJs in the UK. He even played a set in a Bristol chip shop a couple of years back.

26. Gary Mabbutt

Ex-Spurs and Bristol Rovers. He was capped more times for England than any other Bristolian footballer.

27. Sir Bernard Lovell

Born at Oldland Common, Bristol back in 1913. Sir Bernard Lovell was an English physicist and radion astronomer. He was the leader of the team that built (at the time) the larest radiotelescope int eh world – the Jodrell Bank telescope. Sadly he passed in 2012 at the age of 98.

28. Colin Trevor Pillinger

Born in Kingswood, Colin was a famous English planetary scientist. He was actually the principal investigator for the infamous Beagle 2 Mars lander. Has also sadly passed in 2014 at the age of 70.