Famous People Born In Cardiff

The charismatic Welsh footballer player, Gareth Frank Bale played for Southampton football club and Tottenham Hotspur extensively before joining Real Madrid in 2013 for a fees that exceeded Christiano Ronaldo’s earlier record fee. Known for his speed and accuracy, Gareth Bales is also the captain of Wales national team and plays for Tottenham Hotspur, on loan from Real Madrid.

British writer, Roald Dahl, is considered as one of the greatest children’s authors. He is one of the best-selling authors of all-time and had a career spanning decades. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, The Twits and Matilda are some of his classic works. He also wrote short stories and novels meant for adults.

Tom Ellis is a Welsh actor, who gained international prominence after he started playing Lucifer Morningstar in the American DC Comics-based series Lucifer. An alumnus of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, he began his career with a role in a BBC TV show. He eventually began appearing in American TV shows and films as well.

Welsh racing cyclist Geraint Thomas is a 2-time Olympic gold medal winner, apart from being a 3-time world champion and the 2018 Tour de France winner. Starting cycling at age 10, he is now an OBE and has also bagged numerous endorsement deals, such as the one with Continental Tyres.

British actress Perdita Weeks is known for her role in the CBS reboot series Magnum P.I. An alumnus of the Courtauld Institute of Art, she always knew she wanted to be an actress. She began acting as a child and her passion for the profession only intensified with time. She primarily acts on TV and a done a few films.

Charlotte Church is a Welsh actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, and television presenter. She achieved popularity after hosting her own chat show for Channel 4, The Charlotte Church Show. As a recording artist, Church has won many awards, including a Hollywood Reporters Young Star Award and Classical BRIT Award. She has also published an autobiography named Voice of an Angel.  

Colin Jackson is a Welsh former athlete who represented Wales and Great Britain during his career. Jackson, who specialized in hurdles, won the silver medal in the 110m hurdles at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. His world record for the 110m hurdles stood for more than ten years, while his world record for the 60m hurdles stood for almost 27 years.

Former Welsh rugby player Sam Warburton became the youngest to captain Wales in the 2011 World Cup. He also created a record for holding the most caps as a Wales captain. He has also won the European Challenge Cup for the Cardiff Blues and the Six Nations Championship for Wales.

Winner of 16 Paralympic medals, including 11 golds, Tanni Grey-Thompson is a former wheelchair racer, who won the London Marathon six times and held more than 30 world records. Also a successful television personality and patron of numerous charities, she was created a Life Peer in 2010 and made Baroness Grey-Thompson of Eaglescliffe in Stockton-On-Tees.

Martin Amis is a British novelist, memoirist, screenwriter, and essayist whose memoir, Experience, earned him the prestigious James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2000. Martin Amis' works have influenced several other British novelists like Zadie Smith and Will Self. In 2008, he was mentioned in The Times' list of 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

Best known for hosting music shows on various BBC Radio networks, singer-songwriter Cerys Matthews had also previously established the Welsh band Catatonia. She also writes and presents documentaries and has been a reporter for the TV magazine The One Show. Her album Tir has been the best-selling Welsh album in a decade.

Welsh venture capitalist and former journalist Michael Moritz was earlier associated with Time as a writer. Now a partner at Sequoia Capital, he has invested in and been part of the boards of organizations such as Google, PayPal, and Yahoo. He penned The Little Kingdom, the first-known history of Apple.

Known as Two Ton Tessie for her plus-size built, Tessie O'Shea was a Welsh entertainer who had begun performing at age 6. Known for her signature hats and striped stockings, she later soared to fame singing bawdy tracks. She also won a Tony Award for The Girl Who Came to Supper.

Acclaimed British screenwriter and novelist Andrew Davies is known for his adaptations of novels such as Bridget Jones’s Diary, House of Cards, and Pride and Prejudice. His original screenplays include A Poet In New York. Initially a grammar school teacher, he had later also been an English lecturer.

Welsh novelist and screenwriter Terry Nation was the man behind the Daleks, the monstrous villains of Doctor Who, which he claimed he had modeled on the Nazis. He also created the BBC sci-fi shows Survivors and Blake's 7. He was also Tony Hancock’s scriptwriter for the ITV series Hancock.

One of the most prominent modern Welsh poets, R. S. Thomas is remembered for his cold style of depicting the reality of his country. Born to a sailor, he grew up in port towns and grew up to become an Anglican priest. Many of his poems contain the character Iago Prytherch.

Brian Josephson was a 22-year-old graduate student when he discovered the Nobel Prize-winning Josephson effect. The British physicist had initially studied mathematics before deviating to physics. He was one of the few who believed in the credibility of parapsychological phenomena such as telepathy and also practiced Transcendental Meditation.

Reuben De Maid is a Welsh makeup artist and pop singer-signwriter. He rose to fame after performing live on NBC's musical competition show Little Big Shots. He also posts songs and makeup tutorials on his self-titled YouTube channel. 

Greville Janner had it all, a successful career as a barrister and an equally successful career as a Labour politician and MP, until he got embroiled in a dirty child abuse case. Though he was accused by 40 people, he eventually got away without a trial, due to dementia, and died at 87.

Apart from establishing himself as one of the most prominent Welsh poets of his time, Dannie Abse also worked full-time as a physician. The Cholmondeley Award-winning poet, known for volumes such as Pythagoras, White Coat, Purple Coat, and Running Late, was also a memoirist and an editor.

Though Welsh author Howard Spring had quit studies at age 11, he was able to start his career as a journalist due to his evening classes, while working as an office boy. He later soared to fame with his bestselling novel O Absalom!, later released as My Son, My Son.

Taz Alam went from being a bullied, nerdy schoolgirl from Cardiff to an online sensation with her spoken word poetry, using the pseudonym ClickForTaz on YouTube. While her poems, such as Dear Bully, revolve around depression, loneliness, and life, she also posts content such as food challenges.