It isn’t so shocking that one of the world’s most iconic boroughs has and continues to produce so many cultural icons who end up being larger than life in some way or another.
While this list could go on and on, here are ten famous people that lived in the Bronx at a point — some names may seem obvious but others are surprising.
J Lo
She’s still Jenny from the block — the block of 2210 Blackrock Ave. in Castle Hill to be exact.
Throughout her career and marriage to Alex Rodriguez, Jennifer Lopez has always boasted her southeast Bronx upbringing and how it made her into the legendary vocalist she is today.
Fat Joe
Still a proud Bronx philanthropist to this day, the iconic Puerto Rican and Cuban rapper grew up in the south Bronx’s Morrisania neighborhood, a place where the genre of hip-hop had emerged shortly after its inception in nearby Highbridge.
Cardi B
Another famed rapper that boasts her Bronx heritage, Cardi B, grew up not far from hip hop’s birthplace in Highbridge, a neighborhood that often makes cameo appearances in her video work.
Penny & Gary Marshall
The “League of Their Own” director spent her youth growing up in the north Bronx along with her brother, Garry Marshall in their 3235 Grand Concourse home.
They also lived just across from both Mosholu Parkway and Penny’s future spouse, actor Rob Reiner.
She spoke openly of her Bronx upbringing, attending M.S. 80 at 149 E. Mosholu Parkway North, and her relationship with Reiner in her 2012 memoir, “My Mom Was Nuts”.
Stanley Kubrick
Considered to be one of the most brilliant minds in all of cinema, Kubrick was reportedly only an average student William Howard Taft High School on 172nd Street and Sheridan Avenue.
The late “2001: A Space Odyssey” director was also immortalized on the Bronx Walk of Fame near E. 138th Street some years ago.
Chazz Palminteri
Although “A Bronx Tale” might have been filmed in Astoria, Queens, the adaptation of Calogero “Chazz” Palminteri’s Belmont upbringing is spot on.
Still active in the Bronx, last year Palminteri had attended a housing opening at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in Kingsbridge for families of the military being treated.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Fittingly enough, this famed astrophysicist is also a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science.
Tyson’s Bronx roots begin in Castle Hill, later stemming to Riverdale, and then into the space-time continuum.
Edgar Allan Poe
While the city of Baltimore might have the NFL’s Ravens because of this iconic American poet, the Bronx has his cottage.
Poe lived near where is currently 2640 Grand Concourse in a Fordham cottage that’s been restored and is now a walk-in attraction by the Bronx County Historical Society.
Stan Lee
Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber into a Romanian-Jewish family and lived at 1720 University Ave., which Lee described as “a third-floor apartment facing out back.”
He, along with many other famed characters of the time, studied at DeWitt Clinton High School before entering the military for World War II.
Before passing at age 95 in 2018, one of Lee’s final videos he posted to Twitter was himself singing his alma mater’s song, posing with a yearbook photo.
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