All eventsConcerts, festivals and markets, tonight and this weekend
Annual festivalsJazz, techno, cars and parades: Michigan’s year, festival by festival
Holidays & seasonsPumpkin season, Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, the Fourth
Sports: games & scoresLions, Red Wings, Pistons, Tigers: live scores and trophies
ItinerariesReady-made day plans, stop by stop
Places to exploreMuseums, parks, neighborhoods and icons
Free museum daysFlip the calendar: when museums let you in for free
Metro Detroit mapWhat Metro Detroit is, and what every town is about
The Henry FordRosa Parks’ bus, Greenfield Village and the Ford Rouge Factory
RenCen: live trackerThe Renaissance Center’s past, present and future, up to the minute
Gordie Howe BridgeThe new bridge to Canada: live waits, tolls, and yes, you can walk it
ToursBy boat, by bike or on foot, with a local guide
Escape roomsOne hour, one lock and your crew
Plan a meetingVenues, hotels and what’s on in town on your dates
Detroit A–ZFrom limos to chambers of commerce: every business and service in one place
ShoppingDetroit-made brands, markets and shopping streets
Detroit with kidsZoo, science center and rainy-day ideas
Motor City cultureFactories, museums and car events
Wellness & rechargeA riverside sauna, spas, yoga and running trails
TransitBuses, trains and ferries with live departures
Driving in MichiganLicenses, rental cars, the rules and the yellow school bus
Lanes and left exitsKeep right? Here people pass on the right and exit on the left
Road work and potholesOrange barrels, detours, 45 mph: driving Michigan’s work zones
Mile roads: mile zero and 8 MileWhere the city counts from, and which Mile you’re standing on
People MoverThe free elevated loop above downtown
QLINE streetcarThe free streetcar on Woodward Avenue
DTW airportRed or blue terminal? We’ll show you.Your license in MichiganRental carsSpeed limitsMiles, gallons, MPGThe Michigan left and the rulesSchool busesTraffic lights, a Detroit inventionPulled over by policeDrinking and drivingWinter drivingWildlife on the roadGas and parking
DETROIT / A living lexicon / ¼
People who were born here, moved here or built their careers in Detroit: musicians, carmakers, athletes, writers, inventors, civil-rights leaders and a few notorious names. With their dates, their Detroit story and the places where they lived, worked and played, closed ones included.
Hungarian ties 31 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →
Origin and citizenship
Field
Connection
Born in
A–Z (family name)
31 people
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Theatre & dance · 1874–1926
Harry Houdiniillusionist, escape artist, stage and film performerBudapest-born escape artist who played Detroit's vaudeville houses for decades, leapt handcuffed off the Belle Isle Bridge in 1906 and died in the city on Halloween 1926.Danny Jacobsactor, voice actor, comedianDetroit-born voice of King Julien in The Penguins of Madagascar, who ran the Gem and Century Theatres in downtown Detroit in the early 2000s.
Comedy · born 1971Keegan-Michael Keyactor, comedian, writer, producerCo-creator of Key & Peele who grew up in Detroit, studied theater at the University of Detroit Mercy and co-founded Hamtramck's Planet Ant Theatre.
Film & TV · born 1945Ernie Hudsonactor, playwrightGhostbusters' Winston Zeddemore, who came to Detroit as a young man, wrote plays for the Black theater company Concept East and graduated from Wayne State in 1973.
Science & invention · 1923–2015
Carl Djerassichemist, novelist, playwrightChemist known as a father of the birth-control pill, who taught at Wayne State University in Detroit through most of the 1950s and later wrote plays and novels.
Film & TV · 1943–2019Max WrightactorALF's harried father Willie Tanner, born in Detroit and raised in Southfield, where he starred in high school musicals; he returned to act at the Jewish Ensemble Theatre in 2007.
Theatre & dance · 1893–1974Katharine Cornellstage actress, producerBroadway's 'First Lady of the Theatre', who learned her craft in Jessie Bonstelle's stock company on the stage of Detroit's Garrick Theatre around 1918–1920.
Film & TV · born 1970Matt Letscheractor, playwright, directorGrosse Pointe-born actor (The Mask of Zorro, The Flash's Reverse-Flash) and playwright, discovered at Jeff Daniels' Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea.
Music · 1932–1986Dorothy Ashbyjazz harpist, pianist, singer, composerDetroit-born pioneer who made the harp a bebop instrument, a product of Paradise Valley, Cass Tech and Wayne State who also ran a Black theater company in the city.
Thorsten KayeactorDaytime Emmy-winning soap star (The Bold and the Beautiful's Ridge Forrester) who played classical repertory with Wayne State's Hilberry company and blogs for the Red Wings.Lonette McKeeactress, singer, songwriterStar of Sparkle, The Cotton Club and Broadway's Show Boat, a Detroit child prodigy who sang at the city's record hops and clubs from age seven and cut her first record at fourteen.
Literature · born 1960Kathe Kojanovelist, short-story writer, theatre directorDetroit-born author of the Bram Stoker Award–winning horror novel The Cipher who still lives in metro Detroit and directs the immersive theatre company nerve.
Shelton Brookscomposer, pianist, vaudeville performerCanadian-born songwriter who grew up in Detroit, where he first made his name, and wrote "Some of These Days" and "At the Darktown Strutters' Ball".
Theatre & dance · born 1951Roz Ryanactress, singer, comedianDetroit nightclub singer who jumped to Broadway in Ain't Misbehavin' (1978) and became the longest-serving Matron 'Mama' Morton in Chicago.
Theatre & dance · 1910–1998Roger L. Stevenstheatrical producer, arts administrator, real estate executiveDetroit-born real estate dealmaker turned Broadway producer of West Side Story, founding chairman of the Kennedy Center and the National Endowment for the Arts.Dennis Rowlandjazz singer, actorDetroit-born jazz singer who worked as a singer and actor in the city before Count Basie hired him in 1977 as his band vocalist for seven years.
Theatre & dance · 1937–2026Woodie King Jr.theatre producer, director, filmmakerDetroit-raised founder of Concept East Theatre and New York's New Federal Theatre, a Ford welder turned producer who championed generations of Black playwrights.
Theatre & dance · 1871–1932Jessie Bonstelletheater director, actress, company managerPioneering stage director who ran Detroit's Garrick Theatre stock company and in 1925 founded the playhouse that became the Detroit Civic Theatre, today's Bonstelle Theatre.
Theatre & dance · born 1940
Garth Faganchoreographer, dancer, company directorJamaican-born choreographer who spent the 1960s dancing and studying in Detroit before founding Garth Fagan Dance and winning a Tony for The Lion King.Yuval Sharonopera directorMacArthur-winning opera director who was artistic director of Detroit Opera from 2020 to 2025 and staged opera in parking garages and a gutted movie palace.Cholly Atkinsdancer, choreographerTap dancer turned Motown house choreographer who created the stage moves of the Temptations, Supremes and Four Tops.James Jewellradio director, producer, actorCorktown-raised WXYZ dramatic director who helped shape The Lone Ranger, chose its William Tell Overture theme and gave Tonto the word 'kemo sabe'.Ron Milnerplaywright, theatre directorDetroit playwright of the Black Arts Movement, raised on Hastings Street in Black Bottom, co-founder of Concept East Theatre and author of What the Wine-Sellers Buy and Checkmates.
Literature · born 1971Jessica Care moorepoet, performer, playwright, publisherDetroit poet and performer who won Showtime at the Apollo five times, founded Moore Black Press and Black Women Rock!, and lives and works in downtown Detroit.James M. Nederlandertheatrical producer, theater ownerDetroit-born head of the Nederlander Organization, which grew from a Detroit opera house lease into Broadway's second-largest theater owner; a ten-time Tony winner.Joseph Z. Nederlandertheater owner and operator, producerDetroit-born Nederlander brother who stayed home to run the family's Detroit theaters, rebuilt the Fisher Theatre in 1961 and helped open Pine Knob Music Theatre.John Toddradio and stage actorVeteran Shakespearean stage actor who voiced Tonto on WXYZ's The Lone Ranger from February 1933 to the final broadcast in 1954, and died in Detroit.Paul McPharlinpuppeteer, puppet maker, historian of puppetryDetroit puppeteer who staged some twenty productions in the city (1928–1937), founded the Marionette Fellowship of Detroit and co-founded the Puppeteers of America.Bruce Millantheater founder, artistic directorDetroit-born co-founder of the Detroit Repertory Theatre (1957), whose 61 years as its artistic director and color-blind casting made him a pillar of Detroit theater.The lexicon keeps growing. Every entry lists its sources at the bottom. Dates were checked against Wikidata and Wikipedia. The texts are our own. Famous people's places among the sights ↗
