- Owen Arthur
Owen Seymour Arthur, MP, BA, MSc. (born 17 October 1949) is the current Prime Minister of Barbados. He is leader of the Barbados Labour Party, which brought him to victory in general elections in September 1994. He won general elections again in January 1999 and 2003. Owen Arthur is currently the member of parliament for the constituency of Saint Peter. Owen Arthur was educated at the University of the West Indies - Cave Hill, Barbados and Mona, …
- Errol Barrow
The Rt. Ex. Errol Walton Barrow (January 21 1920 - June 1 1987) was a Caribbean statesman and the first Prime Minister of Barbados. Born into a family of political and civic activists in the parish of Saint Lucy, his sister Dame Nita Barrow also became a social activist, humanitarian leader and later Governor General of Barbados. Errol Barrow served in the Royal Air Force during World War II.
- Rupee
Rupert Clarke (born September 10, 1975; in Germany), best known by his stage name Rupee, is a soca musician from Barbados. He was born in military barracks in Germany to a German mother and a Bajan father, who was serving in the British armed forces at the time. He later migrated to Barbados. He is signed to Atlantic Records.
- Rihanna
Rihanna (born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on February 20 1988) is a Barbadian singer with musical influences from pop, R&B, reggae, dancehall, and dance. Rihanna became known around the world with chart hits such as "Pon de Replay", "SOS", "Unfaithful"; "Break It Off", and more recently with "Umbrella" and "Shut Up and Drive".
- George Lamming
George Lamming, is a novelist and poet. He was born in Barbados and teaches at Brown University.
- Evan Rogers
Evan Rogers is a New York- based producer who produced hits for Ruben Studdard, Wild Orchid, Christina Aguilera, and new-comer Rihanna's debut album. He writes and produces with his producer-family friend Carl Sturken who helped build the career of Barbadian singer Rihanna. "Evan Rogers" and Carl Sturken had been writing and producing since the mid 80's, with artists such as Cheryl Lynn and Brother Beyond.
- Corey Collymore
Corey Dalanelo Collymore (born 21 December, 1977 in Boscobelle) is a Barbadian cricketer whose speciality is seam bowling. He has represented the West Indies team in both Tests and ODIs cricket. In a side that so often chopped and changed he became one of their most experienced bowlers. His knowledge of putting the ball in the right place and his high work rate are qualities that have been highly sought after in the current West Indian team.
- Alison Hinds
Alison Hinds (born 1 June 1970) is a British female soca artist based in the Caribbean island of Barbados. She is one of the most popular soca singers in the world and has unofficially been given the nickname the "Queen of Soca". She has produced many popular songs that top charts even in countries which do not widely listen to soca.
- Frank Collymore
Frank Appleton Collymore (January 7, 1893 - July 17, 1980) was a famous Barbadian author, poet, stage performer and painter. His nickname was "Barbadian Man of the Arts". He was born at Woodville Cottage, Chelsea Road (where he lived all his life). Aside from being a student at Combermere School for Boys (from 1903 until 1910), he was also one of its staff members until his retirement in 1958, up to which point he was its Deputy Headmaster.
- Billie Miller
Dame Billie Antoinette Miller (born January 8 1944) is a Barbadian politician. Miller is currently a member of the Barbados Labour Party, she has been within the government of Prime Minister Owen Arthur since 1994. Billie Miller has served as the foreign minister of Barbados since 1994 and has also been deputy prime minister. She gave up the position of deputy prime minister during a cabinet reshuffle after the 2003 elections, …
- Obadele Thompson
Obadele Thompson (born March 30, 1976) is a sprint athlete from Barbados. In 2000, he became the first individual Olympic medalist for his island nation. Born in Saint Michael, Thompson attended Harrison College (the island's top school) before earning a scholarship, and graduated with honors with a degree in marketing and economics from the University of Texas at El Paso, United States.
- Clement Payne
Clement Osbourne Payne was a Barbadian pioneer in the Caribbean trade union movement. He is officially recognized as a "national hero". In 1937, Payne led black Barbadians to resist the white planter class. He organized several public meetings and aroused the ire of the police and government. Payne was expelled from Barbados in July of that year on the basis that he had lied to enter the country. Payne was under the impression that he was a Barbadian citizen, …
- Austin Clarke
Austin Ardinel Chesterfield Clarke, CM, O.Ont (born 26 July 1934) is a Canadian novelist, essayist and short story writer who lives in Toronto, Ontario. Born in St. James, Barbados, in 1955 Clarke moved to Canada, where he attended the University of Toronto. He was a reporter in the Ontario communities of Timmins and Kirkland, before joining the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and eventually became a freelance journalist.
- Red Plastic Bag
Red Plastic Bag (real name Stedson Wiltshire) is a calypsonian from Barbados. He has won the Barbadian calypso monarch competition several times. Red Plastic Bag began performing in 1979. He combined the sounds of reggae and soca, and has become one of the most popular performers in Barbados and throughout the Caribbean. His biggest hit, "Ragga Ragga", has been recorded in seven different languages.
- Arturo Tappin
Arturo Tappin is a smooth jazz and jazz/reggae saxophonist from Barbados. He has performed with Roberta Flack, Monty Alexander, and on an album by Luther Vandross. He is based in New York City, but is strongly linked to his homeland. In the late 1980s he organized the International Barbados/Caribbean Jazz Festival, which he performs at in many years. Arturo Tappin began his musical career, with formal training at Berklee College of Music.
- Tony Cozier
Winston Anthony "Tony" Cozier (born 1940 in Barbados) has been a cricket writer and commentator for West Indian cricket since 1958. Cozier is the son of Barbados journalist, Jimmy Cozier (who was the managing editor for the "St Lucia Voice" and founder of the "Barbados Daily News") and he studied journalism at Carleton University, Ottawa.
- Ian Bradshaw
Ian David Russell Bradshaw (born 9 July, 1974) is a Barbadian cricketer who played for West Indies as a left-arm medium-fast bowler and a left-handed batsman. He captained the West Indies U-19 team, but his senior debut came two months before his 30th birthday, when he was selected to play in the last three One-Day Internationals of the seven-match series against England. After taking five wickets in the three matches, he bcame a permanent fixture.
- Paule Marshall
Paule Marshall (born April 9, 1929) is an American author. She was born Valenza Pauline Burke in Brooklyn to Barbadian parents and educated at Brooklyn College (1953) and Hunter College (1955). Early in her career, she wrote poetry, but later returned to prose. She was chosen by Langston Hughes to accompany him on a world tour in which they both read their work, which was a boon for her career.
- Ashley Cole
Ashley Cole (born 20 December 1980, Whitechapel, England) is an English footballer of Barbadian descent. Cole plays left back for Chelsea and for the England national team, a position from which he often uses his strong pace to try and support the forward players
- Mighty Gabby
Anthony "Mighty Gabby" Carter (born March 30, 1948) is a legendary Barbadian calypsonian and the Cultural Ambassador for the island of Barbados. He is the youngest calypsonian to win the calypso crown in Barbados at age 19 in 1968 and went on to win the Calypso king title again in 1969, 1976, 1985, 1999, 2000. He has penned over 700 songs and was awarded Folk Singer Of The Year in 1977, 1978 and 1979.
- Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was an American politician, educator and author. She was a Congresswoman, representing New York's 12th District for seven terms from 1968-1983. In 1968, she became the first African American woman elected to Congress. On January 23, 1972, she became the first African American candidate for President of the United States. She won 162 delegates.
- David Comissiong
David Comissiong is a Barbadian-born political activist, founder of the Clement Payne Movement, and once served as head of the government's Commission for Pan-African affairs. He is a frequent critic of globalization and United States hegemony. He is one of the key Pan-Africanist in Caribbean politics. Comissiong is an attorney by profession. He is married with two daughters.
- Philo Wallace
Philo Alphonso Wallace (born August 2, 1970 in Haynesville) is a Barbadian cricketer who plays for the West Indies. Having first attempted to get into cricket in 1990, he made the big time in 1997-98 after hitting 198 runs in two Test matches. He formed an opening partnership with Guyanese batsman Clayton Lambert that for a brief period was hailed as a possible successor to the legendary Greenidge/Haynes partnership that dominated the 1980s.
- Stede Bonnet
Stede Bonnet was an early 18th century English pirate, sometimes called the "the gentleman pirate", since he had lived as a moderately wealthy landowner before turning to a life of crime. Bonnet was born into a wealthy English family on the island of Barbados and inherited the family estate after his father's death in 1694. In 1709, he married Mary Allamby and engaged in some level of militia service. Supposedly, Bonnet turned to piracy as a result of his marriage problems.
- Patrick Husbands
Patrick Husbands (born May 22, 1973, in Bridgetown, Barbados) is a Canadian jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. The son of a jockey, he began riding as a young boy, turning professional in his home country where he rode successfully until emigrating to Toronto, Ontario in 1994. Racing out of Woodbine Racetrack, in 2003 Husbands won the Canadian Triple Crown aboard the colt Wando.
- Eugene Melnyk
Melnyk, who founded Biovail almost 20 years ago and held numerous positions in the company before stepping down last year, said late on Friday that he bought about 4.7 million shares, or 2.9 percent, of the outstanding shares, at C$10.86 each for a total value of C$50.7 million.
- Charles Duncan O'Neal
Charles Duncan O'Neal (1879 - 1936) was a Barbados physician and political figure. He founded the radical Democratic League in 1924. One of the two main bridges over the Careenage in the capital-city Bridgetown are named the Charles Duncan O'Neal Bridge.
- Paul Ifill
Paul Ifill (born October 20 1979 in Brighton, England) is an English/Barbadian football player, who currently plays in the midfield for Crystal Palace, where he wears the number 11 shirt.
- Lloyd Erskine Sandiford
Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford (born March 24, 1937) is a Barbadian politician. He served as Prime Minister of Barbados from 1987 to 1994. Sandiford was born in Barbados and studied at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in English. He then studied at Britain's University of Manchester, receiving his Master's degree in economics and social studies.
- Carl Moore
Carl Moore is a Barbadian jazz critic, journalist, radio broadcaster and former head of the Barbados Broadcasting Association.
- Edward Kamau Brathwaite
Kamau Edward Brathwaite is one of the major voices in the Caribbean literary canon. Brathwaite is the 2006 International Winner of the Sixth Annual Griffin Poetry Prize, the richest prize for poetry in the world. His recent volume of poetry, Born to Slow Horses, was the work recognized for the Griffin Poetry Prize. A holder of a Ph.D. from the University of Sussex and co-founder of the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM), Brathwaite's name is seminal for a literary critic, …
- Jackie Opel
Born Dalton Sinclair Bishop in Bridgetown, Barbados, Jackie Opel possessed a rich, powerful voice with a six-octave range. He was known as the Jackie Wilson of Jamaica, and was a gifted dancer. In the early 1960s, he was discovered by Byron Lee, the band master of the Dragonaires, who brought him to Jamaica. There, he started performing with the Skatalites as one of their lead singers. He recorded as a solo artist first on Coxsone Dodd's Studio One label, …
- Grandmaster Flash
Joseph Saddler (born January 1, 1958 in Bridgetown, Barbados), better known as Grandmaster Flash, is a hip hop musician and DJ; one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, becoming the first hip hop artists so honored.
- Grantley Herbert Adams
Sir Grantley Herbert Adams, CMG, QC, (April 28, 1898 - November 28, 1971) was a Bajan politician. He served as the first Premier of Barbados, as the island proceeded towards self-governance and then as the first and only Prime Minister of the West Indies Federation. He was president of the Barbados Workers' Union from 1941 to 1954, after serving as leader of the Barbados Labour Party from 1938. Grantley Adams later became the first Premier of Barbados, …
- Soweto Kinch
Soweto Kinch is a British jazz alto saxophonist and rapper. He was born in London in 1978 to a Barbadian father, who is a playwright, and British-Jamaican mother, who is an actress. Kinch began playing saxophone at the age of nine after learning clarinet at primary school. After meeting Wynton Marsalis four years later he discovered and became passionate about jazz, first concentrating on piano and later, in his teens, focusing on alto saxophone.
- Mark McCammon
Mark McCammon (born August 7, 1978 in Barnet, London) is an Barbados football (soccer) player. He currently plays for Doncaster Rovers and is a Barbados international. McCammon played four games for Cambridge United on a non-contract basis between August 1997 and March 1999. He signed for Charlton Athletic on 9 March 1999 and played with them until July 2000. He had a loan spell at Swindon Town between 2 January 2000 and 7 February 2000 while with Charlton.
- Andrea Blackett
Andrea Blackett (born 24 January 1976 in London) is a Barbadian athlete who specializes in the 400 metres hurdles. She is also an assistant women's track coach at her alma mater, Rice University. As a collegian, Blackett earned a national title as a member of Rice's indoor 4x400 metre relay squad in 1997. Her highest individual finish came in a 2nd place effort in the 400 metres hurdles in 1997.
- Grynner
Grynner (rhymes with "miner", real name Macdonald Blenmen) is a popular calypsonian from Barbados. Like his compatriot Mighty Gabby, his songs often feature political and social commentary. He has been named the Barbados Crop Over Road March "Tune of the Crop" winner seven times (1983-85, 1988-90, and 1998).
- Gregory Goodridge
Gregory Ronald St Clair Goodridge (born July 10, 1971 in Barbados) is a former professional footballer. He has captained the Barbados national team and played professionally in the English Football League. Goodridge, a pacy winger, signed an 18 month contract with Torquay United on the February 7, 1994, but due to work permit problems had to wait until the 24th March to complete his signing from St. Vincent side Lambada, …
- Marlon Harewood
Marlon Harewood (born August 25, 1979) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Aston Villa. He started his career at Nottingham Forest, had a successful spell on loan to FC Haka before joining West Ham United in 2003 and then Aston Villa in 2007.