List of people from La Jolla

This is a list of notable people who were born or who lived a significant amount of time in La Jolla, San Diego, California.

Sports

 * Buzzie Bavasi - Major League Baseball executive, lived in La Jolla from 1968 until death in 2008
 * Rolf Benirschke - placekicker for San Diego Chargers, graduated from La Jolla High School
 * Dan Bilzerian - professional poker player, lives in La Jolla
 * Debbie Bramwell-Washington - IFBB professional bodybuilder
 * Chase Budinger - NBA player for Minnesota Timberwolves, born in La Jolla
 * Conor Chinn - professional soccer player for New York Red Bulls, born in La Jolla
 * Jonathan Compas, former center for Tampa Bay Buccaneers, other NFL teams, and member of the Boston Fitzgibbon family.
 * Gerry Driscoll - championship sailor, businessperson, lived in La Jolla until death in 2011
 * Dick Enberg - sportscaster for NBC and CBS Sports, resided in La Jolla
 * Doug Flutie - quarterback for San Diego Chargers and other NFL teams
 * J. J. Isler - yachtswoman, two-time Olympic medalist and America's Cup competitor, born in La Jolla
 * Gene Littler - professional golfer, 1961 U.S. Open champion, graduated from La Jolla High School
 * John Michels - played for Super Bowl XXXI champion Green Bay Packers, born and raised in La Jolla
 * Rey Mysterio - World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) professional wrestler
 * Joanne Overleese, M.D. – one of few doctors to have played in All-American Girls Professional Baseball League history, born in La Jolla
 * Xander Schauffele - professional golfer, 2017 Tour Championship winner, born in La Jolla
 * Junior Seau - linebacker for San Diego Chargers and other NFL teams, lived in La Jolla
 * Bob Skinner - Major League Baseball player, coach, manager, scout, born in La Jolla
 * Joel Skinner - manager and third base coach of Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians, born in La Jolla
 * Craig Stadler - professional golfer, graduated from La Jolla High School in 1971
 * Alexandra Stevenson - professional tennis player and 1999 semifinalist at Wimbledon, born in La Jolla
 * Lou Thesz (1916-2002) - professional wrestler
 * Bradley Zimmer - outfielder for MLB's Cleveland Indians, born in La Jolla

Actors and actresses

 * Gary Erwin - TV personality and member of docu-series, Addicted to Beauty, which aired on the Oxygen (TV channel)
 * Shane Harper - actor and musician
 * Charlotte Henry - actress
 * Izetta Jewel - stage actress, women's rights activist and local radio personality
 * James Maslow - actor, songwriter and singer
 * Danica McKellar - actress
 * Zoe McLellan - actress
 * Gregory Peck - actor, born in La Jolla
 * Robin Wright - actress, attended La Jolla High School
 * Autumn Reeser - actress (The O.C.), born in La Jolla and lived there until age 17
 * Cliff Robertson - actor, born in La Jolla
 * Raquel Welch - actress, attended La Jolla High School

Film and television executives

 * Donald De Line - studio executive and film producer (Pretty Woman) at Walt Disney Productions and its Touchstone Pictures division since 1985, native La Jollan
 * Gore Verbinski - director of Pirates of the Caribbean, attended La Jolla High School

Writers

 * Tucker Carlson - political commentator, journalist, writer, television talk show host, raised in La Jolla
 * Raymond Chandler - noir novelist, moved to La Jolla and uttered the aphorism about La Jolla, "A nice place — for old people and their parents"
 * Deepak Chopra - spiritual writer, ran his Center for Well Being in La Jolla until recently
 * Peter Economy - author, editor, ghostwriter, and publishing consultant
 * Debbie Ford - self-help author of best-selling The Dark Side of the Light Chasers (1998)
 * Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel - children's author, long-time resident of La Jolla, namesake of the Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego
 * Audrey Geisel - Seuss' widow
 * Anne Rice - novelist and author of Interview with the Vampire, moved to La Jolla from New Orleans in March 2005
 * Alan Russell - best-selling mystery and crime novelist, attended La Jolla High School

Music

 * J.J. Cale - singer-songwriter and guitarist, lived and died in La Jolla
 * Robin Crosby - rock musician who played electric guitar for the metal band Ratt, born and attended high school in La Jolla
 * Warren DeMartini - rock musician who plays electric guitar for the metal band Ratt, attended high school in La Jolla
 * Michael Franks - musician, singer and recording artist, born in La Jolla
 * Amelita Galli-Curci - Italian operatic coloratura soprano, lived and died in La Jolla
 * Sam Hinton - folk singer and marine biologist
 * Andy Skib - guitarist and keyboardist in David Cook's band

Visual and performance art

 * Armi Kuusela - winner of the first Miss Universe beauty pageant in 1952, lives in La Jolla with her husband, Albert Williams

Crime

 * Ivan Boesky - financier convicted of insider trading, lived in La Jolla for several years
 * Betty Broderick - convicted of second degree murder, lived in La Jolla, found guilty on December 11, 1991 and sentenced to 32 years to life in prison for the murders of ex-husband Dan Broderick and his second wife, Linda Kolkena
 * Andrew Cunanan - infamous spree killer of Gianni Versace and three others, graduated from The Bishop's School in 1987

Government and politics

 * David Hall - former Governor of Oklahoma, moved to La Jolla following his release from federal prison with his wife, former Oklahoma First Lady Jo Evans Hall; died 2016
 * Hyrum Rex Lee - former American Samoa Governor; lived with his wife, First Lady Lillian Lee, in a $5 million high-rise condo in the Shore Towers until their deaths in 2001 and 2010, respectively.
 * John McCain - United States Senator from Arizona, 2008 Presidential nominee of the Republican Party, owned a home in La Jolla with his wife, Cindy McCain
 * Geoffrey R. Pyatt - United States Ambassador to Ukraine, born in La Jolla in 1963
 * Mitt Romney - former Governor of Massachusetts and the Republican nominee for the 2012 presidential election, and his wife, former Massachusetts First Lady Ann Romney, purchased a $12 million vacation home in La Jolla in 2008

Business and finance

 * David C. Copley - former owner of the San Diego Union-Tribune and member of the Forbes 400 until his death in 2012
 * Benjamin Graham - economist and value investor, lived in La Jolla at the end of his life
 * Trip Hawkins - 64th employee at Apple Computer and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company and Digital Chocolate, graduated from Muirlands Junior High and La Jolla High School
 * Irwin Mark Jacobs - electrical engineer, co-founder and chairman of the board of Qualcomm
 * William Lerach - securities lawyer whose cases include Enron
 * Joseph Tsai-founder of Alibaba Group
 * Ted Waitt - founder of Gateway, Inc.

Science and technology

 * Geoffrey Burbidge and Margaret Burbidge - astronomers holding positions at UCSD after many years, reside near La Jolla Shores
 * Francis Crick - Nobel Prize in medicine winner for his work to identify the essential structure of DNA, long-time resident of La Jolla
 * Hillman Curtis - web designer
 * Lawrence J. Fogel - inventor of active noise cancellation, studied artificial intelligence, long-time resident of La Jolla
 * Robert Galambos - researcher who discovered how bats use echolocation
 * Clive Granger - 2003 Nobel Prize in Economics winner; long-time resident of La Jolla
 * Kary Mullis - Nobel Prize in Chemistry-winning biochemist and surfer from La Jolla, invented the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method of DNA analysis
 * Walter Munk - oceanographer, lived and died in La Jolla
 * Leslie Orgel - research chemist, lived in La Jolla from 1964 to 2007
 * Sally Ride - astronaut, lived and died in La Jolla
 * Carl Rogers - psychologist and researcher of psychotherapy
 * Jonas Salk - virologist and founder of Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla who developed the first successful inactivated polio vaccine
 * Ellen Browning Scripps - philanthropist, founder of Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Scripps College, member of the Forbes 400
 * K. Barry Sharpless - Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner, lives in La Jolla
 * Benjamin Elazari Volcani - microbiologist