Lists of New Zealanders
Film and TV
- Peter Arnett - TV journalist
- Jane Campion - film director
- Keisha Castle-Hughes - actress
- John Clarke - actor, comedian (moved to Australia)
- Russell Crowe - actor (born in New Zealand, but moved to Australia at age 4)
- Peter Jackson - film director
- Phil Keoghan - TV presenter (born in New Zealand)
- Lucy Lawless - actress (Xena Warrior Princess)
- Temuera Morrison - actor
- Ian Mune - actor, director, screenwriter
- Sam Neill - actor
- Karl Urban - actor
Inventors
- John Britten - designer of the Britten motorcycle
- Bill Hamilton - developed the modern jetboat
- Richard Pearse - outstanding early aviator/inventor
Literary
- Fleur Adcock - poet
- Sylvia Ashton-Warner - author
- James K. Baxter - poet
- A. R. D. Fairburn - poet
- Janet Frame - author
- Sam Hunt - poet
- Wihi Ihimaera - author
- Katherine Mansfield - author
- Ngaio Marsh - author
- Frank Sargeson - author
- Maurice Shadbolt - author
- C K Stead - author
Military
- Bernard, Lord Freyberg of Wellington - General, and Victoria Cross winner
- Alfred Hulme - awarded the Victoria Cross
- "Cobber" Kain - RAF fighter ace (first pilot to win a DFC in WW II)
- Sir Keith Park- RAF sector commander during the Battle of Britain
- Lloyd Alan Trigg - World War II pilot, (only person awarded the VC on recommendation of the enemy)
- Charles Upham - World War II soldier (only combat soldier to win the Victoria Cross twice)
- Nancy Wake - the most decorated servicewoman of World War II
Music
- Jack Body - composer
- Dave Dobbyn - singer, songwriter
- Neil Finn - singer, songwriter
- Tim Finn - singer, songwriter
- Marc Hunter - singer
- Dame Kiri Te Kanawa - opera singer
- Chris Knox - singer, songwriter
- Douglas Lilburn - composer, educator
- Jenny Morris - singer, songwriter
- Hayley Westenra - singer
Politics
- Georgina Beyer - world's first transsexual MP
- Jim Bolger - Prime Minister
- Helen Clark - New Zealand Prime Minister (1999 - )
- Don McKinnon - Secretary General of the Commonwealth
- Garnet Hercules Mackley - MP
- Mike Moore - Prime Minister and Director-General of the World Trade Organization
- Michael Joseph Savage - Prime Minister
- Richard Seddon - Prime Minister
- Jenny Shipley - Prime Minister 1997 - 1999 (NZ's first female prime minister)
- Julius Vogel - Prime Minister
Science
- Harold Gillies - pioneering plastic surgeon
- Ernest, Lord Rutherford of Nelson - scientist and winner of the Nobel Prize
- Maurice Wilkins - received the Nobel Prize for his part in the discovery of DNA
Sports
- Sir Peter Blake - champion yachtsman
- Possum Bourne - rally driver
- Don Clarke - rugby player
- Scott Dixon - racing driver
- Ian Ferguson - kayaker
- Bob Fitzsimmons - world boxing heavyweight champion (born in UK, raised in NZ)
- Sir Edmund Hillary - mountaineer
- Denny Hulme - world champion racing driver
- Jonah Lomu - rugby player
- Jack Lovelock - runner
- Arthur Lydiard - running coach
- Bruce McLaren - racing driver
- Colin Meads - rugby player
- Stan Meads - rugby player
- Peter Snell - runner
- Mark Todd - horseman
- John Walker - runner
Other
- Alexander Aitken - mathematician / soldier
- Rewi Alley - friend of China
- Jean Batten - Aviator
- Thomas Bracken - author of God Defend New Zealand and first to publish the phrase God's Own Country
- Ian Brackenbury Channell - The Wizard of Christchurch and of New Zealand
- Charles Goldie - artist
- Eve van Grafhorst, (born Australia) AIDS patient and activist
- Dr Fred Hollows - eye surgeon (moved to Australia)
- Hone Heke - Māori activist
- Rachel Hunter - supermodel
- Vaughan Jones - mathematician (Field's medallist)
- Len Lye - artist/film maker
- Ngaio Marsh - author and theatrical director
- Kate Sheppard - suffragist
- Te Kooti - Māori leader
See also: List of people by nationality,
Other Lists
- Prime Minister of New Zealand.
- Culture of New Zealand (for a list of Iconic Characters),
- New Zealand cinema (for a list of related people),
- New Zealand literature (for a list of New Zealand writers)