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
• Ananda Coomaraswamy - philosopher
• Aravinda de Silva - Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis at University of North Carolina ^[1]
• Sarath Gunapala - solid-state physicist, senior research scientist and group supervisor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory^[2][3]
• Shelton Gunaratne - Professor emeritus of Mass Communications at Minnesota State University Moorhead^[4]
• 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
• Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah - Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Harvard University ^[5]
• 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

Architecture

• Raj Barr-Kumar - fellow and past president of the AIA

Business

• Sanjay Kumar - businessman
• Kumar Mahadeva - entrepreneur and CEO
• Raj Rajaratnam - founder of Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund management firm

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
• Bernard White - actor, screenwriter, film director
• Gina Zamparelli - Los Angeles-based concert promoter; daughter of Maureen Hingert

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^[6][7]
• Clarence Jey - US Billboard and Grammy-credited record producer and songwriter^[8][9]
• Ranidu Lankage - rapper and record producer
• Ruwanga Samath - record producer and the president of The Bird Call Productions

Rebels

• Visvanathan Rudrakumaran - Chairman of the Provisional Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, a pro-LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam) front organization (LTTE has been described as a terrorist organization by the US, 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; recently appointed Deputy Chief Sangha Nayaka of North America

Singers

• Danielle de Niese - opera singer
• Sean Panikkar - 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 in 2012; engineer
• Eric Obeysekere - college basketball player

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^[10]
• Romesh Ratnesar - journalist and 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
• Natalie and Nadiya Anderson, twin sister who had competed in The Amazing Race and Survivor

See also

• List of Sri Lankans

References

1. "Aravinda de Silva". Unc.edu. Retrieved 2011-05-23.
2. "Sarath D. Gunapala". NASA JPL. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
3. "Information for Non U.S. Citizens". NASA. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
4. "Shelton Gunaratne's homepage". Retrieved 2011-12-24.
5. "Anthropology Department". harvard.edu.
6. DeLon (2011-01-14). "DeLon - Home". Delonmusic.com. Retrieved 2011-05-23.
7. Top Music Charts - Hot 100 - Billboard 200 - Music Genre Sales
8. Yang, Jeff (19 October 2013). "Why Alison Gold's 'Chinese Food' Caused a Stir - Speakeasy - WSJ". The Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones & Company).
9. "Blow Your Pants Off album credits". Retrieved 22 December 2013.
10. Harper Collins "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."