A number of noted individuals are or were transgendered.

The word transgender, for the purposes of this article, is an umbrella term that can include transmen and transwomen, who may identify themselves as transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, androgynous cross-dressers or transvestites, drag queens, drag kings or those intersexual people whose gender identity differs from the gender they were assigned; or people who use similar terms to describe themselves. See those pages for an explanation of these terms. People on the list have been described according to their self-identification. This article is not sorted by transgender behaviour.

Regarding historical persons, please also note that for individuals at least until the beginning of the 20th century, there were no names for transgender behaviour, and therefore we have no statements that are a clear documentation for their reasons to behave the way they did; most of the time, we have no statements by themselves at all. All we can say is that by today's standards, these people or their behaviour would be considered transgendered.

Please note that these people have been selected for this list because their fame or notoriety was in some way due or connected to their transgender behaviour.

• Nadia Almada, Big Brother UK 2004 winner; transsexual.
• April Ashley, a model
• Mianne Bagger, golfer, transsexual woman
• Georgina Beyer, New Zealand's (and the world's) first transsexual mayor (1995) and member of parliament (2002)
• Kate Bornstein, transsexual author, playwright, performance artist and gender theorist
• Sara Davis Buechner (née David Buechner), concert pianist
• Lady Bunny, drag performer
• Meryn Cadell, writer and singer-songwriter
• Patrick Califia, a writer
• Wendy Carlos, American transsexual composer and electronic musician
• The Lady Chablis, drag queen
• Parinaya Charoemphol aka Nong Toom, transsexual Thai actress and former kickboxer
• Lynn Conway, transsexual computer scientist, electrical engineer and transgender advocate
• Caroline Cossey, also Tula, British transsexual model, author, and Bond girl
• Jayne County, US rock singer (previously famous as 'Wayne County')
• Ginger Coyote, San Francisco punk scenester and founder of Punk Globe magazine. Singer in the White Trash Debutantes.
• Candy Darling, part of Andy Warhol's Factory and subject of The Velvet Underground song "Candy Says", and Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side"
• Michelle Dumaresq, transsexual professional mountain bicyclist
• Jackie Enx, transsexual drummer for the heavy metal band Rhino Bucket
• Bulent Ersoy, Turkish transsexual singer
• Leslie Feinberg, transgender activist and author
• Lauren Harries, famous as child prodigy 'James Harries'
• Harisu, transsexual model, singer and actress
• Mary Ann Horton, (also Mark Horton), transgendered (bi-gendered) Internet pioneer
• Dana International, Israeli pop singer
• Eddie Izzard, a comedian who cross-dresses and calls himself an "executive transvestite"
• Michelle Josef, Canadian musician
• Kamikawa Aya, or Aya KAMIKAWA Tokyo municipal official (first transgendered person to seek elected office in Japan)
• Taff al-Khalifa, transsexual man, member of Bahrain's royal family, now exiled
• Jennifer Jane Leitham, transsexual jazz bassist
• Angela Morley, (née Wally Stott), composer and conductor
• Hedda Lettuce, drag performer
• Shirley Q Liquor, drag queen
• Jan Morris, transsexual author
• Terri O'Connell, stock car racer, previously paricipated in NASCAR under the name T.J. Hayes
• Dee Palmer, (née David Palmer), transsexual musician
• Larry Paciotti, porn movie director, transvestite
• Pauline Pantsdown, Australian drag queen and musician
• Grayson Perry, artist whose work sometimes features his female alter ego, Claire. Winner of the 2003 Turner Prize for art
• Angela Piland, a model
• Dr. Renee Richards, transsexual, professional tennis player
• Joan Roughgarden, professor of biology; evolution and ecology expert
• RuPaul, AKA RuPaul Andre Charles, American drag queen
• Jason Saffer, AKA Jolene Sugarbaker, drag performer and comedian
• Melissa Sklarz, the first openly transgender public official in New York State, Democratic county judicial delegate in Manhattan
• Sandy Stone, transgender activist and author
• Margaret Stumpp, transsexual co-manager of Quantitative Management department at Prudential Financial Inc.
• Terre Thaemlitz, musician
• Pussy Tourette, drag performer and singer
• Holly Woodlawn, US drag queen, part of Andy Warhol's Factory and featured in Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side"

• Gwen Araujo, US pre-operative transsexual girl, murdered 2002 [1]
• Danielle Bunten Berry, US software developer, formerly Dan Bunten, author of several titles for Electronic Arts in the 1980s, died of cancer
• Jackie Curtis, US drag queen who had a friendship with the famous pop artist, Andy Warhol
• Lili Elbe, Danish transsexual, one of the first women to undergo a crude form of sexual reassignment surgery, through five operations which were completed by 1930. Fifteen months after her final surgery, she either died from complications or faked her own death to avoid the media attention. She is the subject of the 1933 book Man Into Woman, although it is likely she was never biologically male, but rather born intersexual, supposedy with rudimentary ovaries which would conflict with the speculative diagnosis of Klinefelter's Syndrome
• Bella Evangelista, also known as Elvys Perez, drag performer who was murdered in Washington, D.C. [2]
• Tyra Hunter, US transsexual woman, died 1995
• Marsha P Johnson, transgender activist, involved in Stonewall (UK), co-founder of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR).
• Christine Jorgensen, one of the first Americans to have sexual reassignment surgery in 1952
• Pepper LaBeija, Harlem, New York drag queen, subject of the documentary Paris Is Burning
• Cam Lyman millionaire transman, disappeared in 1987, found murdered in 1997.
• Glen Milstead, actor and drag performer also known as Divine, star of many John Waters films
• Sylvia Rivera, transgender activist, resisted police at Stonewall on June 27, 1969
• Brandon Teena, US transsexual boy who was murdered, subject of the film Boys Don't Cry [3]
• Billy Tipton, woman who lived as a male jazz musician
• Ed Wood, Jr., film-maker with transvestite tendencies

It is often difficult to construe the gender and sexual identity of pre-modern individuals. In many societies, those whom Western society might consider homosexual or bisexual are or were considered transgendered. Therefore, see also List of famous gay, lesbian, or bisexual people.

• Achilles, dressed in women's clothing at the court of Lycomedes
• Alfhild, beautiful maiden in Norse mythology who dressed as a man to avoid marrying King Alf
• Chevalier d'Eon
• Christina of Sweden
• Roman Emperor Elagabalus
• Guan Yin, Bodhisattva of Compassion, who has both been depicted as male and female, and, according to the Lotus Sutra, has the ability to change form in order to help people.
• Heracles, was dressed as a woman when enslaved by Omphale
• James Barry, surgeon who masqueraded as a man throughout her life in order to be able to practice medicine
• Pope Paul II, Catholic pope known to have worn women's clothes and was nicknamed "Our Lady of Pity"
• Deborah Sampson, 18th century Massachusetts woman who disguised herself as male to serve in the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War
• Hannah Snell, 18th century woman who used a male uniform and fought alongside British marines
• In Eastern Orthodoxy, Venerable Onuphrius is supposed to had been a virtuous young girl who, in order not to lose her virginity to a persistent suitor, had her wish to become a man granted by divine intervention.
• The Norse god Thor put on the wedding gown and veil of his enemy's bride, married his enemy, and then slew him at the end of the ceremony.
• Tiresias, soothsayer to Oedipus from Greek mythology changed into a woman and back in an unrelated tale

• Azure C., a transsexual model on the American soap opera The City. The first transsexual portrayed on American soaps, she was played by Carlotta Chang from 1995 to 1996.
• Myra Breckinridge, transsexual character in two best-selling novels by Gore Vidal, Myra Breckinridge and Myron, and a a well-known film.
• Hayley Cropper, transsexual character in the popular British soap opera Coronation Street. First transsexual portrayed on British soaps, since 1998. Unusually for a fictional portrayal of a transgender person, the character is played by a cisgendered (non-transgendered) woman.
• Frank N Furter, the transvestite lead character in the cult musical Rocky Horror Show and Rocky Horror Picture Show.
• Emily Howard, the "unconvincing transvestite" character in the BBC sketch show Little Britain.
• Ava Moore, transsexual character in the American drama Nip/Tuck, played by Famke Janssen from 2004.
• Mrs. Anna Madrigal, transexual landlady in the Tales of the City novels, and TV mini-series. Her name is a scramble of "a man and a girl."
• Roberta Muldoon, former football player in The World According to Garp.
• Hedwig Robinson, "internationally ignored song stylist" and lead role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch

• Wheelwright, Julie (1989). Amazons and Military Maids: Women Who Dressed As Men in Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness. London: Pandora Books. ISBN 0-04-440494-8

• List of transgender-related topics
• List of famous gay, lesbian or bisexual people
• Transgenderism

• Remembering Our Dead
• Successful TransMen
• Transsexual Women's Successes