- Mighty Sparrow
Mighty Sparrow or Birdie (born Slinger Francisco, July 9, 1935, in Grandroy Bay, Grenada, West Indies) is a calypso singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Known as the "Calypso King of the World," he is one of the most well-known and successful calypsonians. He has won Trinidad's Carnival Road March competition nine times and has been named Calypso Monarch eight times, achieving both accolades more times than any other calypsonian.
- Machel Montano
Machel Jesus Montano (born November 1974) in Trinidad and Tobago) is a soca singer, record producer and songwriter based in the Caribbean. He is the frontman of the immensely popular soca band Xtatik, and is noted for his high energy, fast-paced, and often unpredictable on-stage performances. During his career, which spans over 25 years, he has recorded several songs alongside many of Caribbean music's most popular acts, such as Alison Hinds, Beenie Man, Calypso Rose, …
- V. S. Naipaul
Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, T.C. (born August 17, 1932, in Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago), better known as V. S. Naipaul, is a Trinidadian-born British writer of Indo-Trinidadian ethnicity and Bhumihar Brahmin heritage from Gorakhpur in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. Naipaul lives now in Wiltshire, England. Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001 and knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990.
- Lord Kitchener
Lord Kitchener (April 18, 1922 - February 11, 2000) was one of the most internationally famous calypsonians. Born Aldwyn Roberts in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago, he was the son of a blacksmith Stephen and homemaker Albertha. As Kitchener himself said, "I was born a calypsonian." Kitchener's success began after he moved to England and he soon became massively popular there. His fame continued throughout the 1950s, when calypso achieved international success.
- Basdeo Panday
Basdeo Panday- (born May 25, 1933) was Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1995 to 2001 and has served as Leader of the Opposition from 1976-1977, 1978-1986, 1989-1995 and 2001-2006. He was first elected to Parliament in 1976 as the Member for Couva North. He is the Chairman and interim party leader of the Opposition United National Congress. In 2006, Panday was convicted of failing to declare a bank account in London and imprisoned but as of March 20, 2007, …
- David Rudder
David Michael Rudder (b. May 6, 1953, Belmont, Trinidad and Tobago) is one of the top calypsonians of his generation. In 1977 he joined Charlie's Roots, one of the top bands in Trinidad and Tobago. He spent many years as one of the vocalists with the band. In 1986 he burst into prominence with his album "The Hammer" which produced two big hits, "The Hammer" (a tribute to the late pannist Rudolph Charles) and "Bahia Girl".
- Carlos Edwards
Carlos Edwards (born 24 October 1978 in Diego Martin) is a Trinidadian football player who currently plays as a midfielder for Sunderland.
- Kenwyne Jones
Kenwyne Jones (born October 5, 1984) is a Trinidadian football player, who is currently on the books of Southampton. He is a utility player, but has recently been playing as a striker. Jones began his professional career with Joe Public FC in his native Trinidad, and moved to W Connection in 2002 before being purchased by Southampton in July 2004. He debuted with the Trinidad and Tobago national team January 29 2003 in a game against Finland.
- Shaka Hislop
Neil Shaka Hislop (born 22 February 1969) is a professional football goalkeeper, currently playing for FC Dallas and the Trinidad and Tobago national football team.
- Jason Scotland
Jason Kelvin Scotland (born February 18, 1979 in Morvant, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Trinidadian footballer who plays as a striker for Welsh club Swansea City.
- Crazy
Edwin Ayoung (born (1944) at Maraval Road, Port of Spain), better known as Crazy is a Trinidad and Tobago calypsonian. Ayoung was born to Trinidadian Chinese father and a Venezuelan mother. Often called the "Loveable Lunatic of Soca", he is artistically underrated in his native land but one of the most commercially successful artists on international soca music scene. He pioneered parang soca and played a leading role in promoting chutney music soca.
- Anthony Joseph
Anthony Joseph is a Trinidad-born avant garde poet, novelist, Spoken word performer and musician. Joseph was born in Trinidad in 1966 and has lived in the United Kingdom since 1989. He is the author of two poetry collections ("Desafinado" in 1994 and "Teragaton" in 1997) and two spoken-word CDs ("Liquid Textology" and "Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band"), which combined poetry and Afro-Caribbean free jazz.
- Winston Dookeran
Winston Dookeran is a Trinidad and Tobago politician and economist. He currently serves as Political Leader of the Congress of the People (Trinidad and Tobago) and as Member of Parliament for the St. Augustine constituency. Dookeran was asked to serve as Prime Minister at the conclusion of the jamat coop in 1990. Dookeran spent some fifteen years teaching at the Economics Faculty of the University of the West Indies.
- Earl Lovelace
Earl Lovelace is a Trinidadian novelist, journalist, playwright, and short story writer. Lovelace was born in Toco, Trinidad and Tobago, in 1935. He worked at the "Trinidad Guardian" as a proofreader from 1953 to 1954, and then for the Department of Forestry and the Department of Agriculture. He studied at Howard College from 1966 to 1967, and received an MA in English from Johns Hopkins University in 1974.
- C. L. R. James
Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901-19 May 1989) was an Anglo-Trinidadian journalist, socialist theorist and writer.
- Hector Sam
Hector Sam (born February 25, 1978 in Mount Hope) is a professional Trinidadian football player who plays as a striker. He currently plays for Notts County. He attended Queen's Royal College in Trinidad for a short stint, before beginning his career at San Juan Jabloteh in his native country. He moved to Wrexham in 2000. After five years with Wrexham, he signed for Port Vale as a free transfer Sam left Port Vale in 2006 and signed for Walsall, …
- Lord Invader
Rupert Grant, more commonly known as Lord Invader, was a prominent calypsonian with a very distinctive, gravelly voice. He was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in 1915, and died in New York in 1962. Invader became active in calypso in the mid-1930s. He wrote many calypsos; his most famous, "Rum and Coca-Cola", was plagiarised by Morey Amsterdam and became a hit for the Andrews Sisters.
- Maximus Dan
Maximus Dan (Edghill Thomas) b. 1979, Carenage, Trinidad and Tobago. He is of the current crop of Dancehall-Soca stars; most notable among his cohorts is Bunji Garlin. After working with Jamaican producer Danny Browne between 1997 and 2000 and producing heavily Dancehall Reggae influenced music, Maximus Dan moved more in the direction of Soca and has developed his own unique blend styles.
- Black Stalin
Black Stalin (born Leroy Calliste, September 24, 1941) is a leading calypsonian. Born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, Stalin began singing calypso in 1959, but did not join a calypso tent until 1962 when he joined the "Southern Brigade". In 1967 he joined Kitchener's "Calypso Revue" tent and managed to place in that year's Calypso Monarch competition.
- Heather Headley
Heather Headley (born October 5, 1974) is a Trinidadian Tony Award-winning and Grammy Award-nominated R&B and soul singer and actress.
- George Padmore
George Padmore (1902-1959), born Malcolm Nurse, was a Trinidadian communist and later a leading Pan-Africanist with anti-communist sympathies. Through his work with communism and decolonisation Padmore was one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century. He was born in Arouca, Trinidad. In 1924 he travelled to Fisk University in Tennessee where he studied medicine.
- Roaring Lion
Roaring Lion (born Rafael de Leon, Aroquita, Trinidad, British Trinidad and Tobago, February 22, 1908; d. July 11, 1999) was one of the greatest calypsonians (calypso singer/composers) of the 20th century. His 65-year career began in the early 1930s and he is best known for his compositions "Ugly Woman" (1933), "Mary Ann" and "Netty, Netty," which are still performed today.
- Lloyd Best
Lloyd Algernon Best (b. February 27 1934 - d. March 19 2007) was a Trinidadian intellectual, columnist, professor, and economist. Best attended the Tacarigua Anglican School and Queen's Royal College, in Port of Spain. He won an island scholarship and graduated from the University of Cambridge and Oxford University. In 1957 Best joined the Faculty of the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica as a Research Fellow. He remained as a Professor in Economics until 1976, …
- Destra Garcia
Destra Garcia (born in Laventille, Trinidad and Tobago November 10, 1977) is a Soca singer and songwriter based in the Caribbean. Destra is noted for her high energy performances, harmonious vocal skill and eccentric fashion style.
- Chalkdust
Hollis Urban Lester Liverpool, better known as Chalkdust (or Chalkie) (born 1941) is a leading calypsonian from Trinidad and Tobago. He has been singing calypso since 1967 and has recorded over 300 calypsos. He is a seven-time winner of Trinidad's Calypso Monarch competition, most recently in 2005.
- Stokely Carmichael
Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael (June 29, 1941 - November 15, 1998), also known as Kwame Ture, was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party.
- Kelvin Jack
Kelvin Jack (born 29 April, 1976) is a Trinidadian football goalkeeper who currently plays for Gillingham. Jack started his career in English football with Reading in 2004, but did not make any appearances for the club. Jack was later sold to Scottish Premier League team Dundee, where he stayed despite their relegation to the Scottish First Division. In 2006, Jack was called up to the Trinidad and Tobago national football team for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
- Clayton Ince
Clayton Ince (born July 12 1972) is a Trinidadian football player. He plays as a goalkeeper for English League Two side Walsall. He has earned 63 caps playing for Trinidad and Tobago, his debut coming on April 4 1997 against Barbados (the game ended in a 1-0 defeat for Trinidad and Tobago). Ince was born in Arima. Somewhat unusually, he began his footballing career as a defender before converting to become a goalkeeper.
- Superblue
Austin Lyons (1956), better known as Superblue, Super Blue, and Blueboy, is a Trinidad and Tobago calypsonian, soca musician and lyricist. Born in Point Fortin, Trinidad, he became famous from his first foray into the calypso tent world in 1980 with "Soca Baptist" a song he penned in 1979. "Soca Baptist" also won him his first Carnival Road March Monarch in 1980, …
- Lord Beginner
Lord Beginner (born Egbert Moore) was a popular exponent of the Caribbean musical form Calypso, helping to spark a renaissance of the genre in the 1940s and '50s. Hailing from Port of Spain in Trinidad, Beginner recorded and toured in New York with other leading members of Trinidad's "Old Brigade" of calypsonians, before emigrating to England with fellow calypsonian Lord Kitchener in 1948. The pair arrived near London on the "Empire Windrush", …
- Ras Shorty I
Ras Shorty I (October 6, 1941-July 12, 2000) was a soca musician, known as the Father of Soca and The Love Man. He was born Garfield Blackman in Lengua, Trinidad and Tobago, and rose to fame as Lord Shorty with his 1963 hit "Clock and Dagger". He was working in calypso at the time, writing songs and performing. In the 1970s, he began experimenting with the calypso and blending it with the local chutney, …
- Growling Tiger
Neville Marcano (1915-1993), known as the Growling Tiger, is a Trinidadian calypsonian. Originally a boxer who won the Trinidad bantamweight championship in 1929, Tiger was active in calypso from his teens. He was a member of the Old Brigade of calypso singers, which included Lord Beginner, Attila The Hun, the Roaring Lion, and Lord Pretender. In 1935, he went to New York with Attila and Lord Beginner to record for the Decca label.
- Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson was a Trinidadian citizen convicted in Canada of plotting to attack Hindus. He is present on the US Transportation Security Administration's no-fly list, without a date of birth or middle initial. As a result, anyone named "Robert Johnson", one of the most common names in America, faces problems boarding an airplane in that country.
- Rikki Jai
Rikki Jai is an Trinidadian chutney-soca artiste born Samraj Jaimungal in Friendship Village, San Fernando. Jai attended St Paul's Anglican Primary school afterwhich he won a scholarship to Naparima College. His debut hit single, Sumintra (1988), told the tale of an Indo-Trinidadian woman from Debe who informed her boyfriend of her preference for soca over the music of Indian artist Lata Mangeshkar.
- Mighty Terror
Fitzgerald Henry, better known as the Mighty Terror, was a Trinidadian calypsonian. He had four daughters who all live in the USA.
- Kamla Persad-Bissessar
Kamla Persad-Bissessar (born April 4, 1952 in Siparia) is a Trinidad and Tobago politician and lawyer, was the first woman to serve as Attorney General, acting Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition of Trinidad and Tobago. She is a member of the Opposition United National Congress. Since 1995 she has served as Member of Parliament for Siparia.
- Trevor McDonald
Sir Trevor McDonald OBE (born George McDonald on 16 August, 1939) is a Trinidadian-born British television presenter. Until 2005, he was a newscaster with ITN, notable for having been the first black news anchor in the UK. McDonald was seen as a part of the broadcasting establishment, and was knighted in 1999. His clear, confident delivery and serious attitude made him one of British television's most trusted reporters.
- Ramesh Maharaj
Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, a human rights lawyer, and former Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago, is the leader of National Team Unity, a political party in Trinidad and Tobago. Maharaj made his name as a human rights lawyer in the 1980s; his most notorious clients were the Jamaat al Muslimeen. Dr.
- Mustapha Matura
Mustapha Matura (1939-) is a Trinidadian playwright living in London.
- Denyse Plummer
Denyse Plummer is a calypso singer from Trinidad and Tobago. The blue-eyed daughter of a white father and black mother, she initially had trouble being taken seriously as a performer in a genre traditionally seen as Afro-Caribbean, but was eventually recognized as a leading calypso performer. She reportedly likes horses and animals