Scott Joplin – pianist and composer; lived at 133 West 138th Street in 1916, then at 163 West 131st Street until his death in 1917; had a studio at 160 West 133rd Street[5]
Milt Gabler – record producer, responsible for many innovations in the recording industry of the 20th century[17]
George and Ira Gershwin - composers, grew up in Harlem; lived at 108 West 111th and other addresses.[18] George wrote his first hit song, "Swanee", at his home at 520 W. 144 Street in 1919.[8] The pair were living at 501 Cathedral Parkway in 1924, and it was in this apartment that George wrote "Rhapsody in Blue."[19]
Oscar Hammerstein I – inventor and theatrical entrepreneur; lived at 333 Edgecombe Avenue[8]
Oscar Hammerstein II – writer and theatrical producer, addresses on East 116th Street and 112th Street[20]
Seymour Martin Lipset – political sociologist, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and Hazel Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University[24]
Hal Miller – actor (Sesame Street, Law & Order, etc.); also painter, singer, poet, lyricist, lived at 152nd Street & Macombs Place in the 1950s, born in Harlem
Eleanor Holmes Norton – head of the Commission of Human Rights for New York City, now non-voting Delegate from the District of Columbia to the United States House of Representatives[38]
Elaine Parker – community organizer and activist, Chairperson of Harlem C.O.R.E. Director of the Manhattan Borough President's Office, Special Assistant to the City Council President City of NY[64]
Dave Wooley - director, producer, author and entrepreneur
21st-century residents
Bob Dylan - owned a brownstone on Striver’s Row from 1980’s until year 2000. The townhouse is located at 265 West 139th Street and it sold in 2018 for $3.7M[76]
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – basketball player, moved into a Mount Morris brownstone at 30 West 120th Street[77] in September 2006[78]
Harold "Hal" Miller – actor ("Gordon" on Sesame Street), lived on 152nd Street & Macombs Place, before going to live and work in China, India and throughout Europe
^"How Bootsie Was Born", Ollie Harrison, in Harlem U.S.A., John Henrik Clarke, ed., 1971, p. 75 (note, this is a weak source, as it is a reference in a fictional story. A better source should be found).