READ Famous People From Iraq

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List of famous people from Iraq, including photos when available. The people below are listed by their popularity, so the most recognizable names are at the top of the list. Some of the people below are celebrities born in Iraq, while others are simply notable locals. If you're from Iraq you might already know that these prominent figures are also from your hometown, but some of the names below may really surprise you. This list includes people who were born and raised in Iraq, as well as those who were born there but moved away at a young age.

Examples include Sadettin Ergeç and Haifa Zangana.

If you want to answer the questions, "Which famous people are from Iraq?" or "Which celebrities were born in Iraq?" then this list is a great resource for you.

Madan Mohan is listed (or ranked) 1 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Died at 51 (1924-1975) Madan Mohan Kohli, better known as Madan Mohan, was a famed Hindi Film music director of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. He is particularly remembered for the ghazals he composed for the film ...more

Ali Larijani is listed (or ranked) 2 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 59 Ali Ardashir Amoli Larijani is an Iranian philosopher, politician and the current chairman of the Parliament of Iran. Amoli Larijani was the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council ...more

Samer Saeed Mujbel is listed (or ranked) 3 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Samer Saeed Mujbel age 30 Samer Saeed Mujbel Al Mamoori is an Iraqi midfielder. Samer plays currently with Al-Zawraa in Iraq, and for the Iraq national football team.

Adnan Taess is listed (or ranked) 4 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Adnan Taess age 38 Adnan Taess Akkar Al-Mntfage is an Iraqi middle-distance runner. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he competed in the Men's 800 metres.

Nuri al-Said is listed (or ranked) 5 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Died at 71 (1887-1958) Nuri Pasha al-Said was an Iraqi politician during the British Mandate and during the Kingdom of Iraq. He served in various key cabinet positions, and served eight terms as Prime Minister of ...more

Choman Hardi is listed (or ranked) 6 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 44 Choman Hardi is a contemporary Kurdish poet, translator and painter. She was born in Sulaimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan. In 1975 her family fled to Iran after the Algiers Accord but returned to Iraq ...more

Zaha Hadid is listed (or ranked) 7 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 67 Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid, DBE is an Iraqi-British architect. She received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004—the first woman to do so—and the Stirling Prize in 2010 and 2011. Her buildings ...more

Emmanuel III Delly is listed (or ranked) 8 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Emmanuel III Delly Died at 87 (1927-2014) Mar Emmanuel III Delly was the Patriarch Emeritus of Babylon of the Chaldeans and former Primate of the Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic sui juris Particular church of the Catholic ...more

Avi Shlaim is listed (or ranked) 9 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 72 Avi Shlaim FBA is an Iraqi-born British/Israeli historian. He is emeritus professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and a fellow of the British Academy. Shlaim is ...more

Al-Kindi is listed (or ranked) 10 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Died at 72 (801-873) Abu Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī, known as "the Philosopher of the Arabs", was an Iraqi Muslim Arab philosopher, polymath, mathematician, physician and musician. Al-Kindi ...more

Wafaa Bilal is listed (or ranked) 11 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 51 Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi American artist, a former professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently an assistant professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York ...more

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad is listed (or ranked) 12 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 43 Ghaith Abdul-Ahad is an Iraqi journalist who began working after the U.S. invasion and has written for The Guardian and The Washington Post and published photographs in The New York Times, The ...more

Abd al-Karim Qasim is listed (or ranked) 13 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Died at 49 (1914-1963) Abd al-Karim Qasim, was a nationalist Iraqi Army brigadier who seized power in a 1958 coup d'état, wherein the Iraqi monarchy was eliminated. He ruled the country as Prime Minister until ...more

Mohamed Al-Daradji is listed (or ranked) 14 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 39 Mohamed Al-Daradji is an Iraqi Dutch film director. Al-Daradji is a dual Dutch-Iraqi citizen. He studied theatre directing in Baghdad and fled to The Netherlands following the murder of his ...more

Muntadhar al-Zaidi is listed (or ranked) 15 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 39 Muntadhar al-Zaidi is an Iraqi broadcast journalist who served as a correspondent for Iraqi-owned, Egyptian-based Al-Baghdadia TV. As of February 2011, al-Zaidi works with a Lebanese TV channel. ...more

Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti is listed (or ranked) 16 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Died at 56 (1951-2007) Barzan Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti was one of three half-brothers of Saddam Hussein, and a leader of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service. Despite falling out of favour with Saddam at ...more

Thomas L. Saaty is listed (or ranked) 17 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 92 Thomas L. Saaty is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, where he teaches in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business. He is the inventor, architect, and primary theoretician of the ...more

Huner Saleem is listed (or ranked) 18 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 54 Huner Saleem, also transliterated as Huner Salim, is an Iraqi–Kurdish film director. He was born in the town of Aqrah in Iraqi Kurdistan. He left Iraq at the age of 17, and soon made his way to ...more

Jamal Nebez is listed (or ranked) 19 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 84 Jamal Nebez is a Kurdish linguist, mathematician and writer. He studied Islamic law, philosophy, theology, physics and mathematics at the University of Baghdad in the 1950s. In 1956, he prepared ...more

Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr is listed (or ranked) 20 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Died at 45 (1935-1980) Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr was an Iraqi Shia cleric, philosopher, and ideological founder of the Islamic Dawa Party, born in al-Kazimiya, Iraq. He is the father-in-law of Muqtada al-Sadr and cousin ...more

Albert Abdullah David Sassoon is listed (or ranked) 21 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Died at 78 (1818-1896) Sir Albert Abdullah David Sassoon, 1st Baronet, KCB, CSI, was a British Indian businessman and philanthropist.

Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim is listed (or ranked) 22 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim Died at 64 (1939-2003) Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, also known as Shaheed al-Mehraab, was a senior Iraqi Shia cleric and the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. He was assassinated in a ...more

Zainab Salbi is listed (or ranked) 23 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 48 Zainab Salbi is an Iraqi American author, women's rights activist, humanitarian, social entrepreneur, and media commentator who is the founder and former CEO of Washington-based Women for Women ...more

Sasson Gabai is listed (or ranked) 24 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 70 Sasson Gabai is an Israeli actor. Winner of an Ophir Award, Asia Pacific Screen Award, European Film Awards and Jerusalem Film Festival in 2007 as Best Actor in a highly acclaimed Israeli film ...more

Ovadia Yosef is listed (or ranked) 25 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Died at 93 (1920-2013) Ovadia Yosef was a Talmudic scholar, an authority on Jewish religious law, and the longtime spiritual leader of Israel's ultra-orthodox Shas party. Born in Iraq, he was the Sephardi Chief Rabbi ...more

Jim Al-Khalili is listed (or ranked) 26 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 55 Jameel Sadik "Jim" Al-Khalili OBE is an Iraqi-born British theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. He is currently Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public ...more

Salam Pax is listed (or ranked) 27 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Salam Pax age 45 Salam Pax is the pseudonym of Salam Abdulmunem, aka Salam al-Janabi, under which he became the "most famous blogger in the world" during and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Along with ...more

Raed Jarrar is listed (or ranked) 28 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Raed Jarrar is an Arab-American architect, blogger, and political advocate based in the U.S. Capital Washington, DC.. Jarrar was born in Iraq, and raised in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. He is ...more

Robin Ghosh is listed (or ranked) 29 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Robin Ghosh age 79 Robin Ghosh is a Bangladeshi musician and music composer. Famous playback singer Ahmed Rushdi has a notable contribution to Ghosh's success. Ghosh gained fame in the mid-1960s when Rushdi sang ...more

Dunya Mikhail is listed (or ranked) 30 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 53 Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi poet based in the United States.

Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz is listed (or ranked) 31 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Died at 60 (1913-1973) Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz was a politician, reformist, and writer. He was a pan-Arab nationalist and served as the Dean of Baghdad Law College and later as Prime Minister of Iraq. Al-Bazzaz main ...more

Al-Samawal al-Maghribi is listed (or ranked) 32 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Al-Samawal al-Maghribi Died at 50 (1130-1180) Al-Samawʾal ibn Yaḥyā al-Maghribī, commonly known as Samau'al al-Maghribi, was a Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physician. Though born to a Jewish family, he concealed his conversion to ...more

Jalal Barzanji is listed (or ranked) 33 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 64 Jalal Barzanji is a contemporary Kurdish poet and writer. He has served on the board of Writers' Union and was Executive Director of Ministry of Culture in Iraqi Kurdistan. He left ...more

Wijdan Ali is listed (or ranked) 34 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Wijdan Ali age 79 Princess Wijdan Ali was born in Baghdad, Iraq. She is the ex-wife of Prince 'Ali bin Naif of Jordan. She received her B.A. in history from Beirut University College in 1961, while studying art ...more

Ali Salah Hashim is listed (or ranked) 35 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Ali Salah Hashim age 31 Ali Salah Hashim is an Iraqi football striker playing for Al-Talaba.

Amjad Radhi is listed (or ranked) 36 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Amjad Radhi age 27 Amjad Radhi Yousif Al-Janabi, born 17 July 1990 is an Iraqi professional footballer who currently plays for Erbil FC in the Iraqi Premier League. He has previously played in the Iraqi Premier ...more

Ammo Baba is listed (or ranked) 37 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Died at 75 (1934-2009) Emmanuel Baba Dawud better known as Ammo Baba, was a former Iraqi and ethnic Assyrian Christian international football player and coach of the Iraq national football team. He scored the first ...more

Mohammed Amza Zubeidi is listed (or ranked) 38 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Mohammed Amza Zubeidi Died at 67 (1938-2005) Mohammed Amza az-Zubeidi was the Prime Minister of Iraq from 1991 to 1993. He is on the "Saddam's Dirty Dozen" list of people responsible for torture and murder in Iraq, playing a key ...more

Ahmad Ali Jaber is listed (or ranked) 39 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 35 Ahmad Ali Jaber is an Iraqi football goalkeeper. He is part of the Iraq national football team and still plays for Al-Zawraa in Iraq. He played in all four of Iraq’s matches in the 2004 AFC ...more

Ali Mutashar is listed (or ranked) 40 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Ali Mutashar age 28 Ali Mutashar is an Iraqi football Goalkeeper. He currently plays for Al-Talaba in Iraq and the Iraq Youth national team. and has been called for the Iraq National team by Jorvan Vieira.

Ali Abbas Al-Hilfi is listed (or ranked) 41 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Ali Abbas Al-Hilfi age 31 Ali Abbas is an Iraqi Australian footballer who plays for Sydney FC in the A-League and the Iraq national team.

Emad Mohammed is listed (or ranked) 42 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 38 Emad Mohammed Ridha is a coach and former Iraqi football striker. He has taken over coaching the last team he played for Al-Zawraa in September 2014 for the upcoming season.

Maggie Shavit is listed (or ranked) 43 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Maggie Shavit Died at 84 (1926-2010)

Sasson Somekh is listed (or ranked) 44 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Sasson Somekh age 85 Sasson Somekh is an Israeli academic and writer. He is professor emeritus of Modern Arab Literature at Tel Aviv University.

Bassim Abbas is listed (or ranked) 45 on the list Famous People From Iraq
age 38 Bassim Abbas Gatea Al-Ogaili simply known as Bassim Abbas, is an Iraqi professional footballer. He currently plays as a defender for Baghdad football club in Iraq and the Iraq national football

Joe Balass is listed (or ranked) 46 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Joe Balass age 52 Joe Balass is an Iraqi Canadian film maker. Of Jewish heritage, Balass is most known for Nana, George and Me, which is an autobiographical video by a young, gay Iraqi Jewish filmmaker who takes ...more

Abo of Tiflis is listed (or ranked) 47 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Abo of Tiflis Saint Abo of Tiflis or Abo Tbileli is a Christian martyr and the Patron Saint of the city of Tbilisi, Georgia.

Adnan Hamad is listed (or ranked) 48 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Adnan Hamad age 57 Adnan Hamad Majid Al-Abbassi, is an Iraqi football manager and former player. He was last working as manager of Bahrain.

Eliya Abulyonan is listed (or ranked) 49 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Eliya Abulyonan Died at 54 (1840-1894) Mar Eliya XIV [XIII] Abulyonan † was the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church from 1878 to 1894.

Samir is listed (or ranked) 50 on the list Famous People From Iraq
Samir age 63 Samir is a film producer.