List of Sri Lankan Americans

This is a list of notable Sri Lankan American citizens, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants, but does not include Sri Lankan nationals living or working in the U.S. The list includes a brief description of the reason for their notability.

Academics

Rohan Abeyaratne – academic and engineer
Athula Attygalle – professor in mass spectrometry
Ananda Coomaraswamy – philosopher
Sarath Gunapala – solid-state physicist, senior research scientist and group supervisor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Shelton Gunaratne – Professor Emeritus of Mass Communications at Minnesota State University Moorhead
Ratnajeevan Hoole – professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Michigan State University
Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa – freemason, theosophist and president of the Theosophical Society Adyar
Nalin Kulatilaka – Professor of Finance at School of Management
Patrick Mendis – educator, diplomat, author, and executive in US government service
Anura C. Perera – science writer, astronomer
Nalin Samarasinha – astronomer, first Sri Lankan to have an asteroid named after him
Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah – Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Harvard University
Siva Sivananthan – professor, scientist and Director of the Microphysics Laboratory at the University of Illinois
Sam Weerahandi – former professor; the first ASA Fellow of Sri Lankan origin
Keerthi Premadasa - Professor in Mathematics

Architecture

Raj Barr-Kumar – former president of the AIA

Artists

Anne Cherubim – painter
Fabianne Therese - actor

Business

Namal Nawana – CEO of Smith & Nephew
Raj Fernando – chairman and CEO of Scoutahead.com and philanthropist
Sanjay Kumar – businessman
Kumar Mahadeva – entrepreneur and CEO
Chamath Palihapitiya – venture capitalist, software developer
Raj Rajaratnam – founder of Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund management firm, convicted of insider trading
Bandula Wijay – inventor, businessman, and diplomat. Invented "Nested Loop" vascular stent.

Film

Thushari Jayasekera – actress, writer, emcee, and performance artist; with her role on NBC's Outsourced (2010-2011), she is the first American actress of Sri Lankan origin to play a principal role in a primetime show on a major American TV network
Chandran Rutnam – film director, producer, screenwriter
Fabianne Therese – actress, director
Bernard White – actor, screenwriter, film director
Gina Zamparelli – Los Angeles-based concert promoter, daughter of Maureen Hingert
Sanjit De Silva – actor, known for roles in The Company Men and American Desi

Military

John Kingsman Beling – Rear Admiral of the United States Navy

Musicians

DeLon – rapper and record producer; first Sri Lankan-American to appear on the Billboard charts^[1]^[2]
Clarence Jey – US Billboard and Grammy-credited record producer and songwriter^[3]^[4]
Ranidu Lankage – rapper
Ruwanga Samath – record producer and the president of The Bird Call Productions

Politicians

Basil Rajapaksa – former Member of the Sri Lankan Parliament
Gotabaya Rajapaksa – 8th President of Sri Lanka; US citizen from 2003 to 2019

Rebels

Visvanathan Rudrakumaran – chairman of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, a pro-LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam) organization (the LTTE has been described as a terrorist organization by the US, the European Union and many other countries)

Religion

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen – teacher and Sufi mystic
Witiyala Seewalie Thera – founder/president and abbot of the Minnesota Buddhist Vihara, Deputy Chief Sangha Nayaka of North America

Singers

Danielle de Niese – opera singer
Sean Panikkar – opera singer
Tharanga Goonetilleke – opera singer

Sports

Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam – Olympian for 1952 and 1956 Olympic Games
Barney Henricus – 1938 British Empire Games boxing gold medallist
Christine Sonali Merrill – Olympian for 2012 Olympic Games, engineer
Roy Silva – cricketer who has represented the US in Twenty20 International
Tiana Sumanasekera – member of the U.S. national gymnastics team
Sunil Weeramantry – chess trainer, author

Writers

Indran Amirthanayagam – author
V. V. Ganeshananthan – fiction writer, essayist, and journalist
Patrick Mendis – educator, diplomat, author, and executive in US government service
Mary Anne Mohanraj – speculative fiction writer and editor who helped found Strange Horizons^[5]
Nayomi Munaweera – author
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha – poet, writer, educator, social activist
Romesh Ratnesar – journalist, author
Rosemary Rogers – best-selling author of romance novels in the US; has been on the New York Times best-sellers list
Sunil Yapa – fiction writer, author of Your Heart Is a Muscle The Size of a Fist (2016), which he promoted as a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers

Others

Rifqa Bary – author, subject of the Rifqa Bary controversy
Natalie and Nadiya Anderson – twin sisters who had competed in The Amazing Race and Survivor
Upeshka De Silva – professional poker player

References

^ DeLon (2011-01-14). "DeLon - Home". Delonmusic.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-09. Retrieved 2011-05-23.
^ Top Music Charts - Hot 100 - Billboard 200 - Music Genre Sales^{[permanent dead link]}
^ Yang, Jeff (19 October 2013). "Why Alison Gold's 'Chinese Food' Caused a Stir - Speakeasy - WSJ". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
^ "Blow Your Pants Off album credits". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 2 August 2012. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
^ Harper Collins Archived 2016-01-31 at the Wayback Machine "She was concerned that as one of the first Sri Lankan-Americans writing in English, her depiction of Sri Lankan culture might be taken as overly authentic and authoritative."