In America, celebrities are treated as heroes by most people. Whether they're athletes, movie stars, or performers, people are inspired and passionate about their success.
It'll be even easier to empathize and connect with these famous professionals if they experienced the same life experiences growing up as you did — in fact, you may have even seen some of them walking the streets of Fayetteville in the past.
Here are some famous people who were born or raised in Fayetteville, Fort Liberty and Cumberland County.
Brian Tyree Henry
Brian Tyree Henry is a film and television star who has recently made it big in Hollywood. He has appeared in films such as “Bullet Train,” “Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Eternals.” He is also best known for his role in the TV series “Atlanta,” in which he co-starred with Donald Glover and Lakeith Stanfield.
Henry was first nominated for an Academy Award in 2023 for his role as James in the film Causeway. He is a 2000 graduate of E.E. Smith High School.
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Victoria “Porkchop” Hoodie
Victoria “Porkchop” Parker is a drag star who grew up in Fayetteville. She placed ninth on season one of “RuPaul's Drag Race,” becoming the first queen ever to be eliminated. Porkchop, whose real name is Victor Bowling, attended E.E. Smith High School and performed at Cape Fear Regional Theatre as a child.
Capels
Jeff Capel III, a former star player at Duke University and current college basketball coach at the University of Pittsburgh, was a star player at Southview High School prior to his college and coaching career.
His father, Felton Capel, who died in 2018, was a known civil rights leader, and his grandfather, Felton Capel Sr., was chosen by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to help end racial segregation in Southern states.
Jimmy Herring
Jimmy Herring played guitar in a number of popular bands, including Widespread Panic, and is also known for playing with the Allman Brothers Band and The Dead. Herring grew up in Fayetteville and attended Terry Sanford High School.
Affion Crockett
Affion Crockett is a television and film actor and comedian from Fayetteville. He is best known for his appearances on “MTV's Wild 'N Out” and for his performances in films such as “A Haunted House 1 & 2,” “Pixels,” and “A Hip Hop Story.” He has also traveled the country as a stand-up comedian and has his own comedy special called “Mirror II Society,” produced by LOL Studios.
Cal Koonce
Cal Koonce was born in Fayetteville and raised in Hope Mills, and played professional baseball from 1962 to 1971, most famously with the 1969 championship-winning New York Mets. He served as a Hope Mills town councilman and died of cancer in 1993.
J. Cole
J. Cole, aka Jermaine Cole, is a two-time Grammy Award-winning artist who grew up in Fayetteville. His album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, went triple platinum with tracks like “No Role Modelz” and “Fire Squad.” He is also the founder of the Dreamville Foundation, which serves underserved urban youth with a focus on Fayetteville. J. Cole also headlines his own Dreamville Festival, held annually in Raleigh.
J. Harrison Gee
J. Harrison Gee is an award-winning actor born and raised in Fayetteville. He is known for his Broadway roles as Lola in Kinky Boots and Jerry/Daphne in Some Like It Hot. In 2023, Gee made history by winning the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical as the first non-binary-identifying performer to win the award.
Dennis Smith Jr.
Dennis Smith Jr. plays for the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA. Smith has played as a guard for six teams over seven seasons. Before going pro, he played at Trinity Christian School in Fayetteville. He was then scouted by North Carolina State University, where he played one season before being drafted ninth overall by the Dallas Mavericks in 2017.
Charles Chesnutt
Charles Chesnutt, considered the first black author to achieve national acclaim, was born in Cleveland to emancipated black parents from Fayetteville in 1858 and grew up here. His best-known works are stories dealing with racial discrimination after the Civil War and during Reconstruction, some of which are set in the fictional town of “Patesville,” a loose spoof of Fayetteville.
Jerry Richardson
Jerry Richardson, former owner of the Carolina Panthers, was born in Spring Lake in 1936. He owned the Panthers from 1995, when the team advanced to North Carolina, until 2017. Under his ownership, the Panthers appeared in the Super Bowl in 2003 and 2015. Richardson was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in 1959 and caught a touchdown pass from Johnny Unitas in the championship game that year. He passed away in March 2023.
Bill Curtis
Bill Curtis is a hip hop artist from Fayetteville, best known for performing with the band Fatback. His song “King Tim III (Personality Jock)” predates the Sugarhill Gang's multi-platinum hit “Rapper's Delight,” although the latter is often cited as the first commercially released rap song. Curtis formed the Fatback Band in the early 1970s. As a youth, he was a member of the E.E. Smith High School band.
Raymond Floyd
Raymond Floyd is a retired professional golfer from Fayetteville. He retired from competitive golf in 2010, having won four major championships and 22 PGA Tour titles. Floyd was inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame in 1989.
Gallagher
Born in what was then Fort Bragg, Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr. was a 1980s comedian known for his prop and observational acts. An early staple of MTV and Comedy Central, he was also known for his appearances on “The Tonight Show,” “The Michael Douglas Show” and “The Merv Griffin Show.” Gallagher died in 2022 at the age of 76.
Jimmy Ray
Jimmy Ray is a former professional and college football player and coach from Fayetteville. Ray is a graduate of E.E. Smith High School and a member of the Michigan State Athletics Hall of Fame. He is known as the first black quarterback in the South to win a national title with the 1966 Michigan State team.
Elizabeth McRae
Elizabeth McRae was a three-time Academy Award nominee who grew up in Fayetteville. She was best known for her performances in soap operas such as “General Hospital” and “Days of Our Lives,” and was perhaps best known for her role as Lou Ann Poovey on “Gomer Pyle.” McRae also appeared in films such as “The Conversation” and “Everything's Ducky.” She died in May at Highland House Rehabilitation & Healthcare in Fayetteville. She was 88 years old.
Morey
Morey, or Morae Ruffin, is a rapper from Fayetteville who is signed to Interscope Records. He has collaborated with some of the most popular artists of his generation, including J. Cole, 21 Savage, and Lil Tjay. The music video for Morey's song “Quicksand” has been viewed over 220 million times on YouTube.
Julianne Moore
Julianne Moore is an Academy Award-winning actress born in what is now Fort Liberty. Her father was a paratrooper, colonel, and military judge. Moore has appeared in films such as “Far Away,” “Boogie Nights,” and “The Kids Are All Right.” In 2015, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as a professor with Alzheimer's disease in “Still Alice.” She has been nominated for an Academy Award four times.
Chip Beck
Chip Beck is a former professional golfer from Fayetteville. Beck won four times on the PGA Tour and was a three-time All-American at the University of Georgia. He was a former student at St. Patrick Catholic School.
Natasha Yvette Williams
Natasha Yvette Williams is an actress and performer originally from Fayetteville. She is known for her Broadway roles as Zelma in “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” Sophia in “The Color Purple,” and Mama Morton in “Chicago.” She was nominated for a Tony Award in 2023 for her performance in “Some Like It Hot.”
Super Bowl Winner
- Dwayne Allen, tight end for the 2017 Super Bowl winning New England Patriots.
- Joshua Williams, cornerback for the 2022 and 2023 Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs;
- Brad Edwards, safety for the 1991 Super Bowl winning Washington Redskins.
Public safety reporter Joseph Pierre can be reached at jpierre@gannett.com..
