Australia is a hotbed of famous people, from singers and actors to athletes and writers. Choosing who is the most famous person in Australia is impossible for that very reason. Also, Australians have many things to be famous for, so we can't limit our choices to just one category. We let the Australian newspaper The Times inform our selection of the most famous Australians.
| The famous Aussies | Profession | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Julian Assange | Activist, journalist | WikiLeaks |
| Kylie Minogue | Singer, actress, entertainer | The Princess of Pop |
| Nicole Kidman | Actress | Considered to be among the best actresses of her generation. |
| Markus Zusak | Author | Considers failure as an integral part of success. |
| Anthony Albanese | Politician | Winning the 2025 election in a landslide |
| Rupert Murdoch | Business, publishing, multimedia | Being a media mogul |
| Steve Irwin | conservation, animal welfare | His entertaining presentations |
| Margaret Tucker | Author and activist | Fighting for Indigenous rights |
| Sam Kerr | Football | Being among the world's top football strikers |
| Gina Rinehart | Industry, business, mining | being Australia's wealthiest citizen |
| Tones and I | Singer, musician, record producer | Dance Monkey |
| Ned Kelly | Bushranger, outlaw | We still debate Ned's legacy! |
Julian Assange journalist
Julian might be the top answer to the question: "Who is the most famous Australian?". He is an entrepreneur and a businessman, a journalist and a global crusader for human rights.
Julian's family moved around Australia during his early childhood, finally settling in Melbourne. By that time, he was a teenager and already a whiz with computers. He fell in with the hacker community, earning a spot of trouble that marred his otherwise progressive initiatives.
Founding WikiLeaks gave his restless intelligence a project to focus on. He and his group initially earned praise for exposing powerful entities' dishonesty.
But then, he uncovered a particularly egregious abuse and suffered more than a decade of persecution for making the world aware of it.
Kylie Minogue
Who remembers Kylie in the 80s, all fresh-faced and big-haired? She was just 18 when her breakout song, The Loco-motion hit the airwaves. Music videos were just gaining traction then, and she was tailor-made for the medium.
Our Kylie has come a long way since those days of bomber jackets and bubblegum rock. She's still our Princess of Pop, but she's so much more polished and versatile. She's made her mark in acting and modelling, and her musical style has matured. It took her a long time to earn credibility as a serious entertainer, but now we're all in on Kylie.
Nicole Kidman
We had our pick of actors to choose from, so we settled on Nicole. She is among the top Australian celebrities, destined to find her place among the women who made Australian history.
Unlike Kylie, Nicole gained credibility almost from the start. She was 16 when she landed her first roles, first in the film Bush Christmas and then in the series Five Mile Creek. She took time away from the set just as her career was taking off to help her mother through her cancer battle.
The world and the studios were apparently fine with her stepping away; it was for the best possible reason, after all. It's quite a testament to her acting skill and popularity that Nicole could take two years off just as demand for her was growing.
With a career now spanning nearly 30 years, Nicole continues to delight audiences around the world.
Markus Zusak
Some books take their time to gain popularity and renown. Others rocket around the world at lightning speed, setting imaginations on fire. Markus Zusak has written both kinds.
As he relates, Markus tasted failure as often as he has sampled success. By no stretch could we label as failures his early books, The Underdog and When Dogs Cry. His next effort, The Messenger, earned a bit more praise. However, none of his titles quite measure up to The Book Thief.
Every success I've had has been wrapped in a gift box of failure.
Markus Zusak
Anthony Albanese
Australia, the country we know, is just over 125 years old. People built the infrastructure - the roads, the buildings and the schools. Along the way, we built community and our unique Australian culture. Our politicians created the legal framework that Australian society rests on.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is the most recent guide in our democratic adventure. He's been in politics for nearly 30 years, serving as a Member of Parliament (MP), Labor Party leader, and Leader of the Opposition. His sweep into the prime minister's office during the 2025 election made headlines around the world.
It would be an understatement to say we're living through stressful times. Anthony Albanese isn't a famous Australian politician only because of his landslide 2025 election victory.
Anyone willing to guide a nation during the current geopolitical storms may well qualify for legend status.
Rupert Murdoch
Of all Australia's famous businesspeople, none is more famous or infamous than Rupert Murdoch.
This media mogul got his start upon his father's death, when he was just 21 years old.
The family owned a small Adelaide-area newspaper called The News. Young Rupert wasted no time buying other newspapers around Australia before setting his sights on the rest of the world.
At the height of his empire, his company, News Corporation, had a stranglehold on media in Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA. Speculation grew about the legality of his business tactics.
He faced several investigations, which ultimately led Rupert to step back from many of his concerns.
Steve Irwin
Such is the level of fame for this famous Australian conservationist that we hardly need to explain why he's on our list.
Has there ever been such a quintessentially Australian personality as Steve? Among iconic Australians, his love of nature and for every creature, big and small, calls to our Australian spirit. His loss at such a young age shocked our nation and the world. In Australia, we celebrate Steve's life and legacy every November 15, a tribute to all he's done to promote Australian wildlife conservation.
Margaret Tucker
Margaret was 13 years old when she was taken from her family. She was old enough to have built a strong memory of her people and way of life; those sustained her during her 11 years in service. Margaret found an outlet for her trauma through writing and activism.
- Margaret helped found the Australian Aborigines' League (AAL)
- She represented the AAL at the Day of Mourning protest
- Was a part of the delegation that met with PM Joseph Lyons to discuss Aboriginal Peoples' issues
- Became active in the Moral Rearmament Movement
- Founded the United Council of Aboriginal and Islander Women
- Wrote her memoirs titled If Everyone Cared
Margaret was recognised for her work on Indigenous Peoples' cause in 1968, when she was awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. She ranks among the most recognised Aboriginal Australians for her efforts.
Sam Kerr
Chelsea Striker Sam ranks among Australia's most famous athletes. She's one of the world's top football strikers and among the all-time leading scorers in the American Women's National Soccer League.
Sam began playing professionally when she was 15 years old, first with Perth Glory and then moving to Sydney FC.
She earned her first international cap in 2009. Ten years later, during the World Cup tournament, she became the first female football player to score a hat trick.
Besides being a driving presence and force for the Matildas, Sam inspires kids around the world through her writing.
The first instalment of her children's book series, Kicking Goals, was published in 2021.
Gina Rinehart
As an only child, Gina was destined to take over her family's mining concerns. Her life's path was so conclusive that Gina abandoned her higher education pursuits to learn the business from her father.
Gina essentially grew up in boarding schools. Being away from her family from a young age taught Gina self-reliance and independence.
It also helped her see the world unclouded by parental influence. So, when she stepped into her father's role as the head of the family business, she likely felt no need to cling to traditional ways of mining.
As one of many captains of industry, it's not likely that Gina's portrait will feature on Australian money in the future.
Still, she is a remarkable Australian for how she revolutionised the mining industry, her business savvy and quiet philanthropy.
According to the 2025 Financial Review Rich List, Gina is the richest person in Australia.
Tones and I
Who has not felt the urge to jump out of their chair when they hear the opening notes of Dance Monkey? This international hit topped all the charts and finally broke White Christmas' record of 24 weeks at the top of Australian music rankings.
Tones, also known as Toni Watson, discovered her singing abilities early in life. She learnt to play keyboards and drum pads while in secondary school and, by her 2009 graduation, was ready for a brisk busking career. Her native Melbourne was the perfect city to test those waters, but so was a new video-sharing platform called YouTube. All of that exposure led to a record deal and, as they say, the rest is history.
Ned Kelly
Of all the historically famous Australians to know, Ned Kelly reigns supreme. He was a 19th-century bushranger, an outlaw who led a gang into a crime spree that shook the country. His life was short and brutal, roaming and terrorising Australia before dying in a shootout with the police at 26 years old.
Today, controversy surrounds Ned Kelly, and not just over his missing head. Some historians believe he was a champion of the poor, fighting for their rights and dignity. Others maintain his hardscrabble childhood made him an uncaring, antisocial man. No matter how you interpret his actions and life, Ned remains one of Australia's most fascinating people.
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