- Ernests Gulbis
Ernests Gulbis is a tennis player from Latvia. He is currently ranked 86thth in the world for singles, and 195th for doubles. Considered one of the brightest young talents in men's tennis, he is the second-highest ranked player born in 1988 behind Juan Martin Del Potro. Gulbis is coached by Nikola Pilić, the former Yugoslavian tennis player and Croatian Davis Cup captain, and has been training at the Niki Pilic Tennis Academy in Germany since he was 12. - Valdis Zatlers
Valdis Zatlers (born March 22, 1955) is the 7th and current president of Latvia. He won the Latvian presidential election of May 31, 2007. He became President of Latvia on 8 July 2007. - Ivars Godmanis
Ivars Godmanis (born November 27 1951) is a Latvian economist and politician, best known as the first prime minister of Latvia after the country restored its independence from the Soviet Union. He is the current interior minister of Latvia. He was born in Riga. Godmanis served as prime minister from 1990 to 1993, focusing primarily on Latvia's difficult economic transition from a communist to a capitalist economy. He later served as finance minister from 1998 to 1999. - Artis Pabriks
Artis Pabriks (born March 22, 1966) is a Latvian politician and the current Foreign Minister of Latvia. Artis Pabriks has a degree in history from University of Latvia (1992) and a Ph.D. in political science from University of Aarhus, Denmark (1996). After finishing his Ph.D., he became the rector of Vidzemes augstskola, a newly founded regional college located in Valmiera, Latvia. He has taught at Vidzemes Augstskola since then. - Raimonds Pauls
Raimonds Pauls is a Latvian composer and piano player who is well-known and respected in Latvia and the former Soviet Union. Pauls was interested in music since his childhood years and attended the music school of Emils Dārziņš. In 1958, Pauls graduated from the Latvian State Conservatoire, Professor H. Braun's piano class. At that time he was already seen as an excellent piano player, he played in restaurants, learning jazz classics and contemporary songs. - Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko born Marcus Rothkowitz (September 25, 1903 - February 25, 1970) was a Latvian-born American painter and printmaker who is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he rejected not only the label but even being an abstract painter. - Dima Bilan
Dima Bilan (born Viktor Belan,, 24 December, 1981 in Karachay-Cherkessia) is a Karachay-Russian pop artist. Dima represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with "Never Let You Go", finishing second. - Sandra Kalniete
Sandra Kalniete (born December 22, 1952) is a Latvian politician. Between 1 May 2004 and 22 November 2004 she was Latvia's EU Commissioner. Kalniete was born in Togur, Tomsk Oblast, Russia where her family was deported from Latvia during the Soviet occupation. She studied art at Latvian Academy of Art from 1977 to 1981 and worked as an art historian, publishing a book, "Latvian textile art", in 1989. She joined politics in 1988, during Latvia's independence movement, … - Gidon Kremer
Gidon Kremer (born February 27, 1947) is a Latvian violinist and conductor. Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish origin, his father being a Holocaust survivor. He began to play the violin at the age of four, receiving tuition from his father and his grandfather, who were both professional violinists. He went on to study at the Riga School of Music and with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. - Andris Piebalgs
Andris Piebalgs (born 17 September 1957) is a Latvian politician and diplomat, currently serving as European Commissioner for Energy. - Guntis Ulmanis
Guntis Ulmanis is a Latvian politician and was the president of Latvia from 1993 to 1999. He was born in Riga. His grandfather's brother Kārlis Ulmanis was a prominent political figure in Latvia before World War II. <sup>1<;/sup> - Anatolijs Gorbunovs had been acting as president since the restoration of Latvian independence in 1990. - Alexei Shirov
Alexei Shirov (Aleksejs Širovs, Алексей Широв, a chess grandmaster. On the July 2007 FIDE rating list he was ranked number eleven in the world with an ELO rating of 2735. - Valdis Birkavs
Valdis Birkavs (born July 28 1942) is a Latvian politician. He was born in Riga. He was first elected to the Latvian parliament in 1990 and helped to found the Latvian Way party. After Latvian Way won the 1993 parliamentary elections, Birkavs became the prime minister, leading a coalition government of Latvian Way and Latvian Farmers' Union. He resigned after Farmer's Union left the government in the summer of 1994. - Arturs Irbe
Artūrs Irbe is a Latvian former professional Hockey goaltender in the National Hockey League who played for the San Jose Sharks, Dallas Stars, Vancouver Canucks and Carolina Hurricanes. - Imants Kalniņš
Imants Kalniņš is one of the most important composers in the history of Latvian music. Having studied classical, as well as choral music, he has written six symphonies, several operas (including the first rock opera in the USSR - "Ei, jūs tur!/ "Hey, you there!"), oratorios, cantatas, choir songs, a lot of movie and theater music. However, he is generally best known for his rock songs and is to be considered the first composer of intellectual rock music. - Mariss Jansons
Mariss Jansons (b. January 14, 1943) is a prominent Latvian conductor, the son of conductor Arvid Jansons. His mother, the singer Iraida Jansons, who was Jewish, gave birth to him in hiding in Riga, Latvia, after her father and brother were killed in the Riga ghetto. As a child, he first studied violin with his father. In 1946, his father won second prize in a national competition and was chosen by Yevgeny Mravinsky to be his assistant at the Leningrad Philharmonic. - Marian Pahars
Marians Pahars (born 5 August 1976) is a Latvian football player and a member of the Latvian national team. He has spent most of his career as a striker for Southampton in the English Football League Championship. He is now playing for Cypriot club Anorthosis Famagusta FC. His Latvian given name is "Marians"; however, most football media have internationalized his name as "Marian" since he began playing in England. - Marija Naumova
Marija Naumova (born June 23 1973) is a Latvian singer. Under the stage name Marie N, she sings a broad range of music ranging from pop, through musical theatre jazz, and has recorded several albums, with songs in Latvian, French, English, Russian and Portuguese. In 2002 she brought Latvia victory from the Eurovision Song Contest with her song "I Wanna". - Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal (November 9, 1936–June 28, 1992) was a Soviet-Latvian chess player, and the eighth World Chess Champion. - Aleksandrs Starkovs
Aleksandrs Starkovs or Aleksandr Starkov is a Latvian-Russian football coach who used to coach Skonto FC and Spartak Moscow. Starkovs has previously coached Skonto FC, Rīga (from 1992 to 2004) and Latvian national team (from 2001 to 2004). He took over Latvian national team after its disastrous performance in 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and lead the team to its biggest success ever, … - Ingrida Udre
- Isaiah Berlin
Sir Isaiah Berlin, OM (June 6 1909 – November 5 1997), was a political philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading liberal thinkers of the 20th century. Born in Riga, then part of the Russian Empire, he was the first Jew to be elected to a prize fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford. From 1957 to 1967, he was Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at the University of Oxford. - Marie N
Marija Naumova (born June 23 1973) is an ethnic Russian singer living in Latvia. Under the stage name Marie N, she sings a broad range of music ranging from pop, through musical theatre jazz, and has recorded several albums, with songs in Latvian, French, English, Russian and Portuguese. In 2002 she brought Latvia victory from the Eurovision Song Contest with her song "I Wanna". - Aivars Lembergs
Aivars Lembergs is a Latvian politician and businessman, who has been the mayor of Ventspils since 1988. Lembergs was born in Jēkabpils, Latvia. He studied economics in Latvia State University (now know as the University of Latvia), graduating in 1977. He then worked in various positions in the Communist party of Latvia, becoming mayor of Venstpils in 1988. He stayed in this position after Latvia became independent and has been re-elected five times. - Pēteris Vasks
Pēteris Vasks is a Latvian composer. Vasks was born in Aizpute, Latvia, to a family of a Baptist pastor. He trained as a double-bass player, and played in several Latvian orchestras before entering the State Conservatory in Vilnius in the neighboring Lithuania to study composition, as he was prevented from doing this in Latvia due to Soviet repressive policy toward Baptists. He started to become known outside Latvia in the 1990s. - Andrejs Rubins
Andrejs Rubins is a football midfielder from Latvia. As of September 2006 he has played 83 international matches and scored 8 goals for the Latvia national team. He debuted in 1998, and played at the Euro 2004. He started his career in FK Auda, and has since played for Östers IF, FC Skonto, Crystal Palace, Shinnik Yaroslavl, Spartak Moscow and now loaned back to Shinnik. - Sandis Ozolinsh
Sandis Ozolinsh, known in Latvian as Sandis Ozoliņš, is a Latvian ice hockey player, currently playing for the New York Rangers of the NHL. Ozolinsh was drafted in 1991 by the San Jose Sharks, as the 30th pick in the 2nd round. He has skated for the San Jose Sharks, Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, and Anaheim Ducks. - Renārs Kaupers
Renārs Kaupers is a Latvian pop singer. He is the lead singer of the Latvian pop/rock band Brainstorm, which came 3rd at the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 with their song "My Star". He hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 in Riga, Latvia, with co-host Marija Naumova (stage name Marie N), and also hosted "Congratulations", the 50th anniversary concert in Copenhagen, Denmark, with Katrina Leskanich. - Vits Rimkus
Vits Rimkus is a football striker from Latvia. As of February 2007 he has played 63 international matches and scored 10 goals for the Latvia national team. He debuted in 1995, and played at Euro 2004. He started his career in DAG Riga, has since played for Amstrig, FC Winterthur, 1. FC Nürnberg, Erzgebirge Aue, FC Skonto, FK Ventspils, FK Valmiera and FC Rostov, and has now returned to FK Ventspils. - Aspazija
Aspazija was the pen name of Elza Pliekšāne, a Latvian poet and playwright. Aspazija is the Latvian transliteration of Aspasia. - Viestards
Viestards was one of the greatest Semigallian leaders in the 13th century, sometimes referred to as King of Semigallia. His capital was Tērvete. During the first decades of the 13th century he was allied with the Livonian Order against Lithuanians, who looted Semigalia on several occasions. In 1205, joint forces defeated Lithuanians and killed duke Žvelgaitis. When German crusaders broke the peace treaty and attacked the Semigallian castle in Mežotne, … - Igors Stepanovs
Igors N. Stepanovs is a Latvian football defender. As of April 2007 he has played 92 international matches and scored 3 goals for the Latvia national team. He made his debut in 1995, and played at Euro 2004. He started his club career at Skonto-Metāls, and has since played for Skonto Riga, Arsenal (though he never became a first team regular), K.S.K. Beveren, Grasshopper-Club Zürich and FK Jūrmala. - Mischa Maisky
Mischa Maisky (born January 10, 1948 in Riga) is a celebrated cellist who won 6th Prize at the Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1966. Maisky began studies with Mstislav Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory whilst pursuing a concert career throughout the Soviet Union. In 1970, he was imprisoned in a labor camp near Gorky for 18 months. After his release, he emigrated to Israel to avoid further persecution by the Soviet regime. - Andrejs Pumpurs
Andrejs Pumpurs and a prominent figure in the Young Latvia movement. Growing up on both banks of the Daugava river, he was one of three children from the civil parish chosen by the Lutheran minister for the German class of the church school in Lielvārde. Unable to continue his education after completion of the three year course, due to his family's poverty, but working as a raftsman and doing odd jobs with his father, Pumpurs was exposed to the Latvian oral tradition, … - Inessa Galante
Inessa Galante, born as Inese Galante (12 March 1954 in Riga), is a Latvian soprano. She was born to a musical family. Her parents were both singers, and she entered the music academy in Riga in 1977. (Apparently there is some misunderstanding about her father being a singer. According to herself, he was not.) She soon began to appear in concerts in Latvia and other eastern-bloc countries, particularly at the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg, Russia. - Ina Druviete
Ina Druviete (born May 29, 1958 in Riga, Latvia) was the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia in 2004-2006. Ina Druviete graduated from the University of Latvia in 1981 with a degree in the Latvian language and literature. Gradually she became a respected reasearcher in this field and was awarded several grants (Fulbright Foreign Scholarship among them). She has published approximately 250 publications, mainly on linguistics, … - Sergei Zholtok
Sergei Zholtok was a Latvian (ethnic Russian) Professional Hockey Center who played 10 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild and Nashville Predators. - Imants Bleidelis
Imants Bleidelis is a football midfielder from Latvia. As of April 2007 he has played 99 international matches and scored 10 goals for the Latvia national team. He debuted in 1995, and played at the Euro 2004. He started his career in FC Skonto, who sold him to Southampton F.C. for £600,000, where he joined his fellow-countryman Marian Pahars. His spell there turned out to be a fiasco as he played only 2 league games in three seasons, and he moved on to play for Viborg FF, … - Edward Leedskalnin
Edward Leedskalnin was an eccentric Latvian emigrant to the United States and amateur sculptor who, it is alleged, single-handedly built the monument known as Coral Castle in Florida. He was also known for his unusual theories on magnetism. - Juris Kronbergs
Juris Kronbergs is a Latvian-Swedish poet and translator, living in Stockholm. In Latvia, he is best known for his poetry, written in Latvian. His most acknowledged book is "Vilks vienacis" (Wolf One-Eye, 1996), which has been published in Swedish, English and Estonian translations. In Sweden, Kronbergs is the most prolific translator of Latvian literature into Swedish. Since the late 1970s, he has translated numerous volumes of poetry and fiction by Imants Ziedonis, …
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