- Rachael Ray
Rachael Domenica Ray (born August 25, 1968 in Glens Falls, New York) is an Emmy-award winning television personality and author, who currently hosts the syndicated talk/lifestyle program "Rachael Ray" and two Food Network series, "30 Minute Meals" and "Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels". Ray has also written a series of cookbooks based on the "30 Minute Meals" concept, and launched a magazine, "Every Day with Rachael Ray", in 2005. - Clifton Chenier
Clifton Chenier (June 25, 1925 - December 12, 1987) a Creole French speaking native of Opelousas, Louisiana, was an eminent performer of Zydeco music, a blend of Cajun and Creole music with R&B, jazz, and blues influences. He played the accordion. Chenier's career began in 1954, when he signed with Elko Records and released "Clifton's Blues", a regional hit. His first hit was soon followed by "Ay 'Tite Fille (Hey, Little Girl)" (cover of Professor Longhair), … - Paul Prudhomme
Paul Prudhomme is an American chef famous for his Cajun cuisine. The youngest of thirteen children, Prudhomme was reared on a farm near Opelousas, the seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. Members of his family had been active as cooks and in the restaurant business in and around Lafayette, Louisiana. In 1979, he and his late wife, Kay Hinrichs Prudhomme, opened K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen® in the French Quarter of New Orleans. - Michael Doucet
Michael Doucet (b. 1951) is a Cajun fiddler, singer and songwriter who founded the Cajun band BeauSoleil from Lafayette, Louisiana. In 2005 Doucet was one of 12 recipients of the National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA award, which recognizes artistic excellence, cultural authenticity and an artist's contributions, is the highest honor in U.S. folk and traditional arts. Doucet received a 1998 Grammy for work with Beausoleil. - Dewey Balfa
Dewey Balfa was a Cajun fiddler who contributed significantly to the popularity of Cajun music. Balfa was born in Mamou, Louisiana. He is perhaps best known for his 1964 performance at the Newport Folk Festival with Dewey Balfa, Gladius Thibodeaux and Vinus LeJeune, where the group received an enthusiastic response from over seventeen thousand audience members. After this, in 1965, he formed The Balfa Brothers. - Tab Benoit
Tab Benoit (born November 17, 1967 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States) is a blues guitarist, musician and singer. He plays a style that is a combination of Swamp blues, Soul blues and Chicago blues. He plays Fender guitars and writes his own music compositions. Benoit graduated from Vandebilt Catholic High School in Houma, Louisiana in May, 1985. - Doug Kershaw
Doug Kershaw, born January 24, 1936, is an American fiddle player from Louisiana known as "The Ragin Cajun"<sup>1</sup> - John Folse
John Folse is a noted Louisiana chef and restaurant owner, and a leading authority on Cajun and Creole cuisine and culture. In 1978, Folse opened Lafitte’s Landing Restaurant in the historic Viala Plantation House in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. The house and restaurant were destroyed by fire in 1998. In May 1999, Folse opened his former Donaldsonville home as the new Lafitte’s Landing Restaurant at Bittersweet Plantation, … - Justin Wilson
Justin E. Wilson (April 24, 1914 - September 5, 2001) was a southern American chef and humorist known for his brand of Cajun cuisine-inspired cooking and humor. He was a self-styled "raconteur". Wilson was born in Roseland in Tangipahoa Parish, one of the "Florida Parishes" east of Baton Rouge. He began his career as a safety engineer while he traveled throughout Acadiana. - Zachary Richard
Zachary Richard is a Louisiana singer, songwriter, and poet who works in both French and English. Born in Louisiana on September 8, 1950, Richard is a direct descendant of the original Acadian refugees and was heavily influenced by the styles of Zydeco, Cajun music, and New Orleans rhythm and blues found in Louisiana. He is a founding member of Action Cadienne, a group dedicated to the preservation of the French language in Louisiana. - James Carville
James Carville (born October 25, 1944), is an American political consultant, commentator, media personality and pundit. Known as the "Ragin' Cajun", Carville gained national attention for his work as the lead strategist of the successful 1992 presidential campaign of then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. Carville was the co-host of CNN's "Crossfire" until its final broadcast in June 2005. Since its cancellation, he has appeared on CNN's new program, … - Wayne Toups
Wayne Toups (born October 2, 1958 in Lafayette, Louisiana) is one of the most commercially successful American Cajun singers. He is also a songwriter. - Jenny Craig
Jenny Craig (born Genevieve Guidroz in 1932 in Berwick, Louisiana) is an American weight loss guru who founded Jenny Craig, Inc. Raised in New Orleans, Genevieve Guidroz married Australian Sidney H. Craig. Although neither had formal training in nutrition or exercise, Mrs Craig developed a weight loss regimen that led to creating a weight-loss company in the mid-1980s with her husband. - Jo-El Sonnier
Jo-El Sonnier (born October 2, 1946 in Rayne, Louisiana) is an American country music and Cajun music artist. - Kathleen Blanco
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (born December 15, 1942) is a Democratic politician from and the current governor of Louisiana. She was elected on November 15, 2003, defeating her Republican opponent Bobby Jindal, in the general election, by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent. She became the first woman to hold the office of governor of Louisiana. She is currently the fourth oldest governor in the United States. Blanco became a national figure following Hurricane Katrina. - Sammy Kershaw
Samuel Paul "Sammy" Kershaw (born February 24, 1958, in Kaplan in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana) is an American Country music singer and songwriter. He is a relative of Cajun music legend Doug Kershaw. - Amanda Shaw
Amanda Amaya Shaw (born 1990) is a Cajun fiddler, singer, and actress from Covington, Louisiana. Shaw studied classical violin starting at age 4, but began playing and performing Cajun music at 8. She and her band, the Cute Guys, appear regularly throughout the New Orleans area, including annual shows at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. - Shia Labeouf
Shia Saide LaBeouf (born June 11, 1986) is a Daytime Emmy Award-winning American actor and comedian. After growing up in California, he became known with a starring role in the Disney Channel series "Even Stevens". He made the transition to film roles with "Holes", a box office success, and has since appeared in several Hollywood films, including "Constantine" and "The Greatest Game Ever Played". - Nathan Abshire
Nathan Abshire was a Cajun accordion player who, along with Iry LeJeune, was responsible for the renaissance of the accordion in Cajun music in the 1940s. Abshire first performed on the accordion in public at age 8. He continued playing at dance halls and parties through his teenage years. In the 1930s, he performed with and learned from fiddler Lionel Leleux and accordionist Amédé Ardoin. In 1935, he recorded six songs with the Rayne-Bo Ramblers, … - Chris Ardoin
Chris Ardoin (born April 7 1981 in Lake Charles, Louisiana) is a zydeco accordionist and singer. He is one of the young artists that helped form nouveau zydeco, a new style of music that fused traditional zydeco with various styles including hip-hop, reggae and R&B. He was a child prodigy belonging to a musical dynasty (his father was Lawrence Ardoin and his grandfather, Bois Sec Ardoin). - Marc Savoy
Marc Savoy (b. near Eunice, Louisiana, United States, October 1, 1940) is an American musician and instrument builder of the Cajun tradition. He sings and plays the Cajun accordion. Savoy holds a degree in chemical engineering but his primary income is derived from his accordion-making business, based at his Savoy Music Center in Eunice, Louisiana. His wife is the singer and guitarist Ann Savoy, whom he met in 1975. He has performed with Dewey Balfa, D. L. Menard, … - Mary Gauthier
Mary Gauthier is an American folk singer-songwriter. Given up at birth by a mother she never knew, Mary was adopted by parents of the Italian Catholic persuasion in Thibodaux, Louisiana. At age 15, she ran away from home and stole her parents' car, and spent the next several years in drug rehabilitation, halfway houses, and living with friends; she spent her 18th birthday in jail. - Rockin' Sidney
Rockin' Sidney Simien was an American R&B, Zydeco, and soul musician who began recording in the late 1950s and continued performing until his death. Simien was born into a sharecropper's family in the tiny farming community of Lebeau, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. Sidney took up the guitar at an early age. He started his musical career at age 14 or 15 playing harmonica and guitar. His first gig was as backup for his uncle Frank Simien. - Edwin Edwards
Edwin Washington Edwards served as the Democratic governor of Louisiana for four terms (1972–1980, 1984–1988, and 1992 –1996), twice as many terms as any other Louisiana governor ever served. He was also Louisiana's first Catholic governor in the twentieth century and perhaps with the exception of Huey P. Long, was Louisiana's most popular governor. A colorful, powerful and legendary figure in Louisiana politics, Edwards was long dogged by charges of corruption. - Iry Lejeune
Iry LeJeune was a Cajun accordion player who single-handedly brought the Cajun accordion back to the fore in Cajun music in the mid to late 1940s. He is regarded as one of the best Cajun accordionists and singers of all time. - George Rodrigue
George Rodrigue, is a Cajun artist who grew up in New Iberia, Louisiana. Rodrigue began painting outdoor family gatherings framed by moss-clad oak trees in an area of French Louisiana known as Acadiana. He studied art formally at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (then named the University of Southwestern Louisiana) and the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. - Bobby Charles
Bobby Charles, born Robert Charles Guidry on February 21, 1938, in Abbeville, Louisiana, is a singer and songwriter. An ethnic Cajun, Charles grew up listening to Cajun music and the country and western music of Hank Williams, Sr. At age 15, however, he heard a performance by Fats Domino, an event that "changed my life forever," he recalled. Charles helped to pioneer the south Louisiana musical genre known as swamp pop. - Hunter Hayes
Hunter Hayes (born 1991 in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana) is a Cajun musician and songwriter who began performing at the age of three. He plays over 11 different instruments, including the diatonic accordion, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums and more. He appeared on America's Most Talented Kid but lost to singer Tori Kelly. He has written many songs, and at least half of the songs on his album 'Make a wish' are his own original compositions. - Kevin Naquin
Kevin Naquin is a Cajun accordion player in south Louisiana. Naquin is the lead singer and accordion player in the Cajun band Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys. In 2000, he won the CFMA - 2000 Album of the Year with his album "Pour La Premiere Fois" and CFMA - 2000 Song of the Year. He has recorded with Swallow Records and Bayou Groove Productions. - Jake Delhomme
Jake Christopher Delhomme (born January 10, 1975 in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana) is an American football quarterback for the Carolina Panthers NFL franchise. - Tom Rigney
Tom Rigney is a San Francisco Bay Area musician specializing in Zydeco and Cajun music. He is an electric violinist and Cajun fiddler. He is the leader of the American roots music band, Tom Rigney and Flambeau. In February of 2004, his music was featured in the Alameda Civic Ballet production of Fiestive Les Bons Temps (The Good Times) at the Alameda Education Foundation Mardi Gras Gala. - Eddy Raven
Eddy Raven (born August 19, 1944 in Lafayette, Louisiana) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Born Edward Garvin Futch, he learned to play the guitar from his father and by the time he was 13, he had his first band. An outstanding baseball player, he attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana on a baseball scholarship but any hopes of a Major League career were dashed by a severe injury. - Joe Falcon
Joseph Falcon was a Cajun accordion player in southwest Louisiana, best known for the first recording of a Cajun song entitled "Allons à Lafayette" in 1928. He and his wife Cleoma Breaux left for New Orleans to record the first Cajun record and went on to perform across southern Louisiana and Texas. - Al Berard
Al Berard, born 1960 in Cecilia, Louisiana, is a Cajun musician, recording artist, and composer in addition to being considered a world-renowned cajun fiddler. Berard, influenced by the Cajun songs heard as a young child growing up in South Louisiana, began playing guitar at age eleven. - C. C. Adcock
Charles "C. C." Adcock is a rock 'n' roll musician from Lafayette, Louisiana, noted for his Cajun, zydeco, and swamp pop-influenced sound, and for his efforts to preserve and promote swamp pop music. Adcock has recorded two solo albums, the self-titled "C. C. Adcock" (produced by Tarka Cordell), issued in 1994 on the major Island Records label, and reissued in 2000 on the Evangeline label, under the title "House Rocker"; and" Lafayette Marquis", … - Rod Bernard
In the 1950s and early 1960s singer and songwriter Rod Bernard (born 1940) helped to pioneer the musical genre known as "swamp pop", which combined New Orleans-style rhythm and blues, country and western, and Cajun and black Creole music. He is generally considered one of the foremost musicians of this south Louisiana-east Texas idiom, along with such notables as Bobby Charles, Johnnie Allan, Tommy McLain, and Warren Storm. - Barry Jean Ancelet
Barry Jean Ancelet is a Cajun folklorist and expert in Cajun music and Cajun French. He has written several books, and under the pseudonym Jean Arceneaux he has written Cajun French poetry. - John Breaux
John Berlinger Breaux (last name pronounced BRO) was a United States senator from Louisiana from 1987 until 2005. He was also a member of the U.S. House from 1972 to 1987. He was considered one of the more conservative national legislators from the Democratic Party. Breaux was a member of the New Democrat Coalition. - Billy Tauzin
Wilbert Joseph Tauzin, II, usually known as Billy Tauzin, (born June 14 1943), American politician of Cajun descent, was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1980 to 2005, representing Louisiana's 3rd congressional district. A lifelong resident of Chackbay, Louisiana, a small town just outside Thibodaux, … - Austin Pitre
Austin Pitre (23 February 1918-8 April 1981) was a Cajun music pioneer from Louisiana, United States. Pitre claimed to be the first musician to play the accordion standing up, rather than sitting down. Along with his band, the Evangeline Playboys, Pitre recorded Cajun dancehall hits such as the Opelousas Waltz. Pitre died from a lawn mower-related accident in 1981.
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