List of people influenced by Ayn Rand
Novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982) has had a significant influence on a variety of people, including writers, artists and political figures. Individuals included in this list meet at least one of the following criteria:
* they have identified at some point in their lives as followers of Rand's philosophy of Objectivism; or
* they have been involved with self-identified Objectivist organizations, such as the Nathaniel Branden Institute, the Ayn Rand Institute, or The Atlas Society; or
* they have described Rand or her works as an important influence on their lives.
Individuals who do not meet those criteria, but have mentioned being a "fan" or enjoying Rand's works, are not included.
A
* John Aglialoro (1943- ), an American businessman and film producer.
* John A. Allison IV (1948- ), an American businessman and the former CEO and president of the Cato Institute.
* Gloria Álvarez (1985- ), a Guatemalan radio and television presenter, author, and libertarian political commentator.
* Martin Anderson (1936-2015), an economist, policy analyst, author, and advisor to President Ronald Reagan.
B
* Bob Barr (1948- ), a former member of the United States House of Representatives who was the Libertarian Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 election.
* Petr Beckmann (1924-1993), a statistician and physicist who advocated for libertarianism and nuclear power.
* David Bergland (1935- ), the Libertarian Party's nominee in the 1984 United States presidential election.
* Sonja Bernhardt (1959- ), an Australian businesswoman.
* Andrew Bernstein (1949- ), a professor of philosophy.
* Robert Bidinotto (1949- ), a novelist, journalist, editor, and lecturer.
* Harry Binswanger (1944- ), an American philosopher and former editor of The Objectivist Forum.
* Walter Block (1941- ), an American Austrian School economist and anarcho-capitalist theorist.
* Peter Boettke (1960- ), an American economist of the Austrian School.
* Barbara Branden (1929-2013), a Canadian writer, editor, and lecturer. Branden wrote two biographies of Rand, Who is Ayn Rand? (1962) and The Passion of Ayn Rand (1986).
* Nathaniel Branden (1957- ), an American composer, playwright, author, and producer. He worked on the 1997 documentary Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life.
* Yaron Brook (1961- ), an Israeli-born American entrepreneur, author, and former academic. Since 2000 he has served as the president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute.
C
* Bryan Caplan (1971- ), an American economist.
* Doug Casey, an American investment advisor and writer.
* Roy Childs (1946- ), an American novelist and essayist.
* Tyler Cowen (1962- ), an American economist and writer. He is a professor at George Mason University and is co-author of the economics blog Marginal Revolution.
* Mark Cuban (1958- ), an American businessman and television personality. He owns the Dallas Mavericks NBA team and appears on the television series Shark Tank.
D
* Steve Ditko (1927-2018), an American comic book artist and writer who created or co-created a number of characters, including Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Question, the Creeper, and Mr. A.
E
* Edith Efron (1958- ), a Canadian entrepreneur and politician who is an activist for the legality of cannabis.
* Alex Epstein (1980- ), an American author, energy theorist and industrial policy pundit. He is the founder and President of the Center for Industrial Progress, a for-profit think tank located in San Diego, California, and a former fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute.
F
* Bosch Fawstin, an Eisner nominated American cartoonist
* Malcolm Fraser (1930-2015), an Australian politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia and leader of the Liberal Party from 1975 to 1983.
G
* Pamela Geller (1958- ), an American political commentator and co-founder of the organization Stop Islamization of America.
* Terry Goodkind (1948-2020), an American novelist best known for his series of fantasy novels, The Sword of Truth.
* Allan Gotthelf (1986- ), an American television and movie actress.
* Robert Hessen (1936- ), (1960- ), a Canadian-American philosopher.
* Jonathan Hoenig (1975- ), an American investor and financial commentator.
* Erika Holzer, an American novelist and essayist, whose books include Double Crossing, Eye for an Eye, and Ayn Rand: My Fiction-writing Teacher.
* John Hospers (1918-2011), a philosopher who became the first presidential candidate of the United States Libertarian Party. He had extensive discussions of philosophy with Rand during the 1960s, both in person and through letters, as documented in Letters of Ayn Rand.
J
* Penn Jillette (1976- ), a writer specializing in foreign policy. In 2010 he was appointed the Director of Policy Research for the Ayn Rand Institute.
K
* Selvaraghavan Kasthuri Raja (1975- ), an Indian film director, producer, script writer, screenwriter and lyricist who works mostly in Tamil language and Telugu language films.
* Michelle Marder Kamhi, an American art critic and co-author of the book What Art Is: The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand.
* David Kelley (1948- ), an American businessman and former CEO of The Gillette Company.
* Stephan Kinsella (1965- ), an American intellectual property lawyer and author.
* Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard (1966- ), a Danish political scientist and professor at the University of Copenhagen.
L
* Anton LaVey (1930-1997), founder of the Church of Satan.
* James G. Lennox (1948- ), a professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh.
* John David Lewis (1955-2012), a political scientist, historian and Objectivist scholar.
* Liu Junning (1961- ), a Chinese political scientist.
* Edwin A. Locke (1964- ), an American professor of philosophy at Auburn University and a libertarian blogger. He is an editor of the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.
* Leon Louw (1948- ), a South African intellectual, author, speaker and policy advisor.
* Donald Luskin (1939-2016), a Hungarian American philosopher who taught at Auburn University.
* John Mackey (1966- ), a Canadian politician and leader of the Freedom Party of Ontario.
* Gordon McLendon (1962- ), an American Tea Party activist who co-founded the Tea Party Patriots and later founded Citizens for Self-Governance.
* Mike Mentzer (1943- ), an American hedge fund manager and author.
* David Nolan (1943-2010), an American activist and politician who helped found the Libertarian Party and who invented the Nolan Chart.
P
* Neal Patterson (1949-2017), the CEO of Cerner Corporation and a co-owner of the Sporting Kansas City soccer team.
* Rand Paul (1963- ), a United States senator from Kentucky.
* Ron Paul (1935- ), a former United States congressman from Texas, who ran twice for the Republican Party presidential nomination and once as the Libertarian Party nominee.
* Michael Paxton (1957- ), an American filmmaker who directed the documentary Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life.
* Neil Peart (c. 1968- ), an American writer and academic.
* Kira Peikoff (1985- ), an American journalist and novelist.
* Leonard Peikoff (1965- ), an American actor of film and television.
*Lindsay Perigo (1951- ), a former New Zealand television and radio broadcasting personality, who was the first leader of the Libertarianz political party.
* Robert Prechter (1960- ), an American self described self-help guru, and founder of a multi-level marketing company NXIVM that has been described as a cult.
*Douglas B. Rasmussen (1937- ), an American economist and professor emeritus at Pepperdine University.
* John Ridpath (1921-1991), a screenwriter and producer who created the Star Trek franchise.
* T. J. Rodgers (1948- ), (1949- ), a retired biomedical researcher and libertarian author and activist.
* Paul Ryan (1970- ), a Republican member of Congress from Wisconsin. He was the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States in the 2012 election. In 2015 he became the 62nd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
S
* Joseph T. Salerno (1950- ), an American economist of the Austrian School, who is a professor and chair of the economics graduate program at Pace University.
* J. Neil Schulman (1960- ), an American political theorist whose works include Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical. He is the co-founder of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.
* Larry J. Sechrest (1946-2008), an American economist of the Austrian School, who advocated free banking and anarcho-capitalism.
* Ayelet Shaked (1976- ), an Israeli politician. She is a member of the Knesset, and from 2015 to 2019 she was Minister of Justice.
* George H. Smith (1961- ), a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. Her works include Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist, and she is on the board of directors of the Ayn Rand Institute.
* Ed Snider (1946-2010), an American journalist.
* Tom Stevens, an American politician and blogger, who founded the Objectivist Party.
* Gennady Stolyarov II, an American writer.
* John Stossel (1947- ), an American author and television journalist. He hosts the show Stossel on the Fox Business Channel.
T
* Alex Tabarrok (1966- ), an American economist and writer. He is a professor at George Mason University and is co-author of the economics blog Marginal Revolution.
* Chris Tame (1949-2006), a British libertarian political activist who founded the Libertarian Alliance.
* Peter Thiel (1967- ), an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist who co-founded PayPal and Palantir Technologies.
* Clarence Thomas (1948- ), an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He previously served as an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
* Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005), an American author and founder of the gonzo journalism movement. His works include Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Rum Diary.
* Monroe Trout (1962- ), a retired financial speculator and hedge fund manager.
V
* Vince Vaughn (1970- ), an American actor, screenwriter, and producer.
W
* Jimmy Wales (1966- ), an American Internet entrepreneur who co-founded .
* Don Watkins, an American author, columnist, and professional speaker. In 2006 he was appointed a fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute.
* they have identified at some point in their lives as followers of Rand's philosophy of Objectivism; or
* they have been involved with self-identified Objectivist organizations, such as the Nathaniel Branden Institute, the Ayn Rand Institute, or The Atlas Society; or
* they have described Rand or her works as an important influence on their lives.
Individuals who do not meet those criteria, but have mentioned being a "fan" or enjoying Rand's works, are not included.
A
* John Aglialoro (1943- ), an American businessman and film producer.
* John A. Allison IV (1948- ), an American businessman and the former CEO and president of the Cato Institute.
* Gloria Álvarez (1985- ), a Guatemalan radio and television presenter, author, and libertarian political commentator.
* Martin Anderson (1936-2015), an economist, policy analyst, author, and advisor to President Ronald Reagan.
B
* Bob Barr (1948- ), a former member of the United States House of Representatives who was the Libertarian Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 election.
* Petr Beckmann (1924-1993), a statistician and physicist who advocated for libertarianism and nuclear power.
* David Bergland (1935- ), the Libertarian Party's nominee in the 1984 United States presidential election.
* Sonja Bernhardt (1959- ), an Australian businesswoman.
* Andrew Bernstein (1949- ), a professor of philosophy.
* Robert Bidinotto (1949- ), a novelist, journalist, editor, and lecturer.
* Harry Binswanger (1944- ), an American philosopher and former editor of The Objectivist Forum.
* Walter Block (1941- ), an American Austrian School economist and anarcho-capitalist theorist.
* Peter Boettke (1960- ), an American economist of the Austrian School.
* Barbara Branden (1929-2013), a Canadian writer, editor, and lecturer. Branden wrote two biographies of Rand, Who is Ayn Rand? (1962) and The Passion of Ayn Rand (1986).
* Nathaniel Branden (1957- ), an American composer, playwright, author, and producer. He worked on the 1997 documentary Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life.
* Yaron Brook (1961- ), an Israeli-born American entrepreneur, author, and former academic. Since 2000 he has served as the president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute.
C
* Bryan Caplan (1971- ), an American economist.
* Doug Casey, an American investment advisor and writer.
* Roy Childs (1946- ), an American novelist and essayist.
* Tyler Cowen (1962- ), an American economist and writer. He is a professor at George Mason University and is co-author of the economics blog Marginal Revolution.
* Mark Cuban (1958- ), an American businessman and television personality. He owns the Dallas Mavericks NBA team and appears on the television series Shark Tank.
D
* Steve Ditko (1927-2018), an American comic book artist and writer who created or co-created a number of characters, including Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Question, the Creeper, and Mr. A.
E
* Edith Efron (1958- ), a Canadian entrepreneur and politician who is an activist for the legality of cannabis.
* Alex Epstein (1980- ), an American author, energy theorist and industrial policy pundit. He is the founder and President of the Center for Industrial Progress, a for-profit think tank located in San Diego, California, and a former fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute.
F
* Bosch Fawstin, an Eisner nominated American cartoonist
* Malcolm Fraser (1930-2015), an Australian politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia and leader of the Liberal Party from 1975 to 1983.
G
* Pamela Geller (1958- ), an American political commentator and co-founder of the organization Stop Islamization of America.
* Terry Goodkind (1948-2020), an American novelist best known for his series of fantasy novels, The Sword of Truth.
* Allan Gotthelf (1986- ), an American television and movie actress.
* Robert Hessen (1936- ), (1960- ), a Canadian-American philosopher.
* Jonathan Hoenig (1975- ), an American investor and financial commentator.
* Erika Holzer, an American novelist and essayist, whose books include Double Crossing, Eye for an Eye, and Ayn Rand: My Fiction-writing Teacher.
* John Hospers (1918-2011), a philosopher who became the first presidential candidate of the United States Libertarian Party. He had extensive discussions of philosophy with Rand during the 1960s, both in person and through letters, as documented in Letters of Ayn Rand.
J
* Penn Jillette (1976- ), a writer specializing in foreign policy. In 2010 he was appointed the Director of Policy Research for the Ayn Rand Institute.
K
* Selvaraghavan Kasthuri Raja (1975- ), an Indian film director, producer, script writer, screenwriter and lyricist who works mostly in Tamil language and Telugu language films.
* Michelle Marder Kamhi, an American art critic and co-author of the book What Art Is: The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand.
* David Kelley (1948- ), an American businessman and former CEO of The Gillette Company.
* Stephan Kinsella (1965- ), an American intellectual property lawyer and author.
* Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard (1966- ), a Danish political scientist and professor at the University of Copenhagen.
L
* Anton LaVey (1930-1997), founder of the Church of Satan.
* James G. Lennox (1948- ), a professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh.
* John David Lewis (1955-2012), a political scientist, historian and Objectivist scholar.
* Liu Junning (1961- ), a Chinese political scientist.
* Edwin A. Locke (1964- ), an American professor of philosophy at Auburn University and a libertarian blogger. He is an editor of the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.
* Leon Louw (1948- ), a South African intellectual, author, speaker and policy advisor.
* Donald Luskin (1939-2016), a Hungarian American philosopher who taught at Auburn University.
* John Mackey (1966- ), a Canadian politician and leader of the Freedom Party of Ontario.
* Gordon McLendon (1962- ), an American Tea Party activist who co-founded the Tea Party Patriots and later founded Citizens for Self-Governance.
* Mike Mentzer (1943- ), an American hedge fund manager and author.
* David Nolan (1943-2010), an American activist and politician who helped found the Libertarian Party and who invented the Nolan Chart.
P
* Neal Patterson (1949-2017), the CEO of Cerner Corporation and a co-owner of the Sporting Kansas City soccer team.
* Rand Paul (1963- ), a United States senator from Kentucky.
* Ron Paul (1935- ), a former United States congressman from Texas, who ran twice for the Republican Party presidential nomination and once as the Libertarian Party nominee.
* Michael Paxton (1957- ), an American filmmaker who directed the documentary Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life.
* Neil Peart (c. 1968- ), an American writer and academic.
* Kira Peikoff (1985- ), an American journalist and novelist.
* Leonard Peikoff (1965- ), an American actor of film and television.
*Lindsay Perigo (1951- ), a former New Zealand television and radio broadcasting personality, who was the first leader of the Libertarianz political party.
* Robert Prechter (1960- ), an American self described self-help guru, and founder of a multi-level marketing company NXIVM that has been described as a cult.
*Douglas B. Rasmussen (1937- ), an American economist and professor emeritus at Pepperdine University.
* John Ridpath (1921-1991), a screenwriter and producer who created the Star Trek franchise.
* T. J. Rodgers (1948- ), (1949- ), a retired biomedical researcher and libertarian author and activist.
* Paul Ryan (1970- ), a Republican member of Congress from Wisconsin. He was the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States in the 2012 election. In 2015 he became the 62nd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
S
* Joseph T. Salerno (1950- ), an American economist of the Austrian School, who is a professor and chair of the economics graduate program at Pace University.
* J. Neil Schulman (1960- ), an American political theorist whose works include Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical. He is the co-founder of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.
* Larry J. Sechrest (1946-2008), an American economist of the Austrian School, who advocated free banking and anarcho-capitalism.
* Ayelet Shaked (1976- ), an Israeli politician. She is a member of the Knesset, and from 2015 to 2019 she was Minister of Justice.
* George H. Smith (1961- ), a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. Her works include Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist, and she is on the board of directors of the Ayn Rand Institute.
* Ed Snider (1946-2010), an American journalist.
* Tom Stevens, an American politician and blogger, who founded the Objectivist Party.
* Gennady Stolyarov II, an American writer.
* John Stossel (1947- ), an American author and television journalist. He hosts the show Stossel on the Fox Business Channel.
T
* Alex Tabarrok (1966- ), an American economist and writer. He is a professor at George Mason University and is co-author of the economics blog Marginal Revolution.
* Chris Tame (1949-2006), a British libertarian political activist who founded the Libertarian Alliance.
* Peter Thiel (1967- ), an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist who co-founded PayPal and Palantir Technologies.
* Clarence Thomas (1948- ), an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He previously served as an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
* Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005), an American author and founder of the gonzo journalism movement. His works include Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Rum Diary.
* Monroe Trout (1962- ), a retired financial speculator and hedge fund manager.
V
* Vince Vaughn (1970- ), an American actor, screenwriter, and producer.
W
* Jimmy Wales (1966- ), an American Internet entrepreneur who co-founded .
* Don Watkins, an American author, columnist, and professional speaker. In 2006 he was appointed a fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute.
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