Who Was Alive
Zadie Smith
David Shankbone, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Zadie Smith

British novelist and essayist

Born 25 October 1975 · living, 50 as of October 2026
Also known as Zadie Adeline Smith

Who was alive at the same time as Zadie Smith?

  1. Charlie Chaplin, 1889 – 1977
  2. Mao Zedong, 1893 – 1976
  3. Salvador Dalí, 1904 – 1989
  4. Ronald Reagan, 1911 – 2004
  5. Nelson Mandela, 1918 – 2013
  6. Elizabeth II, 1926 – 2022
  7. Neil Armstrong, 1930 – 2012
  8. Pope Francis, 1936 – 2025
  9. Joe Biden, born 1942
  10. Donald Trump, born 1946
  11. George W. Bush, born 1946
  12. Bill Clinton, born 1946
  13. Vladimir Putin, born 1952
  14. Angela Merkel, born 1954
  15. Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011
  16. Bill Gates, born 1955
  17. Michael Jackson, 1958 – 2009
  18. Barack Obama, born 1961
  19. Jimmy Wales, born 1966
  20. Zadie Smith, born 1975
  21. Shakira, born 1977
  22. Basshunter, born 1984
  23. Lionel Messi, born 1987
  24. Corbin Bleu, born 1989

Drag across the timeline, or use the arrow keys, to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Dashed lines mark world events. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When Zadie Smith was born, Barack Obama was 14, Donald Trump was 29, Michael Jackson was 17, Vladimir Putin was 23 and Ronald Reagan was 64.

Born during Zadie Smith’s lifetime: Shakira, Lionel Messi, Corbin Bleu, Basshunter, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Emmanuel Macron and Lady Gaga.

Not quite contemporaries: Pablo Picasso died about 2 years before Zadie Smith was born, Winston Churchill died about 10 years before Zadie Smith was born, John F. Kennedy died about 12 years before Zadie Smith was born and Martin Luther King Jr. died about 7 years before Zadie Smith was born.

What happened in Zadie Smith’s lifetime

Where Zadie Smith’s contemporaries were born

Zadie Smith is labelled; the others are the best-known people we track who lived at the same time. Each dot is a birthplace from Wikidata (79 of 81 placed); tap one to open that person.
Birthplaces as a list

Compare Zadie Smith

The 150 best-known contemporaries

3,665 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Zadie Smith. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 2001.

  1. Barack Obama born 1961
  2. Donald Trump born 1946
  3. Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009
  4. Vladimir Putin born 1952
  5. Ronald Reagan 1911 – 2004
  6. Nelson Mandela 1918 – 2013
  7. George W. Bush born 1946
  8. Joe Biden born 1942
  9. Charlie Chaplin 1889 – 1977
  10. Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022
  11. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  12. Bill Gates born 1955
  13. Jimmy Wales born 1966
  14. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  15. Shakira born 1977
  16. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  17. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  18. Lionel Messi born 1987
  19. Corbin Bleu born 1989
  20. Bill Clinton born 1946
  21. Basshunter born 1984
  22. Angela Merkel born 1954
  23. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  24. François Hollande born 1954
  25. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  26. Volodymyr Zelenskyy born 1978
  27. Cristiano Ronaldo born 1985
  28. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  29. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  30. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  31. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  32. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  33. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  34. Elon Musk born 1971
  35. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  36. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  37. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  38. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  39. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  40. Emmanuel Macron born 1977
  41. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  42. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  43. Lady Gaga born 1986
  44. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  45. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  46. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  47. Madonna born 1958
  48. Kamala Harris born 1964
  49. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  50. Xi Jinping born 1953
  51. Naruhito born 1960
  52. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  53. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  54. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  55. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  56. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  57. Bob Dylan born 1941
  58. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  59. Sung Jae-gi 1967 – 2013
  60. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 1954
  61. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  62. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
  63. J. K. Rowling born 1965
  64. Justin Bieber born 1994
  65. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  66. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  67. Taylor Swift born 1989
  68. Charles III born 1948
  69. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
  70. Akira Kurosawa 1910 – 1998
  71. Lech Wałęsa born 1943
  72. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
  73. Kim Jong Un born 1984
  74. Gerald Ford 1913 – 2006
  75. Pope Leo XIV born 1955
  76. Diego Maradona 1960 – 2020
  77. Eminem born 1972
  78. Beyoncé born 1981
  79. Selena Gomez born 1992
  80. Narendra Modi born 1950
  81. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  82. Rafael Correa born 1963
  83. Huang Xianfan 1899 – 1982
  84. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  85. Angelina Jolie born 1975
  86. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
  87. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  88. Aung San Suu Kyi born 1945
  89. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  90. Michael Schumacher born 1969
  91. 14th Dalai Lama born 1935
  92. Dmitry Medvedev born 1965
  93. Anna Netrebko born 1971
  94. Mark Zuckerberg born 1984
  95. Rafael Orozco Maestre 1954 – 1992
  96. Silvio Berlusconi 1936 – 2023
  97. Bob Marley 1945 – 1981
  98. Shinzo Abe 1954 – 2022
  99. Isaac Asimov c. 1920 – 1992
  100. Tim Berners-Lee born 1955
  101. Ingmar Bergman 1918 – 2007
  102. Federico Fellini 1920 – 1993
  103. Mahathir Mohamad born 1925
  104. Jackie Chan born 1954
  105. Boris Yeltsin 1931 – 2007
  106. Ali Khamenei 1939 – 2026
  107. Robin Williams 1951 – 2014
  108. Guillermo Lasso born 1955
  109. Celine Dion born 1968
  110. Kim Il Sung 1912 – 1994
  111. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1918 – 2008
  112. Jacques Chirac 1932 – 2019
  113. Roger Federer born 1981
  114. Stanley Kubrick 1928 – 1999
  115. Lana Del Rey born 1985
  116. Marlon Brando 1924 – 2004
  117. Alexander Lukashenko born 1954
  118. Hirohito 1901 – 1989
  119. Richard Feynman 1918 – 1988
  120. Woody Allen born 1935
  121. Neymar born 1992
  122. Tony Blair born 1953
  123. Rihanna born 1988
  124. Malala Yousafzai born 1997
  125. Scarlett Johansson born 1984
  126. Rafael Nadal born 1986
  127. Yasser Arafat 1929 – 2004
  128. Greta Thunberg born 2003
  129. Ban Ki-moon born 1944
  130. Arnold Schwarzenegger born 1947
  131. David Cameron born 1966
  132. Linus Torvalds born 1969
  133. Novak Djokovic born 1987
  134. Vladimir Nabokov 1899 – 1977
  135. Brigitte Bardot 1934 – 2025
  136. Hebe Camargo 1929 – 2012
  137. Umberto Eco 1932 – 2016
  138. Diana, Princess of Wales 1961 – 1997
  139. Boris Johnson born 1964
  140. Bashar al-Assad born 1965
  141. Audrey Hepburn 1929 – 1993
  142. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva born 1945
  143. Benazir Bhutto 1953 – 2007
  144. Jair Bolsonaro born 1955
  145. Paul McCartney born 1942
  146. Anggun born 1974
  147. Leonardo DiCaprio born 1974
  148. Martin Heidegger 1889 – 1976
  149. Agnez Mo born 1986
  150. Stephen King born 1947