31 Writers from Savannah, Georgia

Dianna Elise Agron is an American actress, singer, dancer and director. After primarily dancing and starring in small musical theatre productions in her youth, Agron made her screen debut in 2006. From 2006 to 2007 she had recurring roles on Veronica Mars as Jenny Budosh and Heroes as Debbie Marshall, landing her first leading role as Harper on the MTV series It's a Mall World in 2007. Between 2007 and 2009 she had several lead and supporting roles in comedy films; in 2009 she took the notable role of the antagonistic but sympathetic head cheerleader Quinn Fabray on the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. For her role in the series she won a SAG Award and, as part of the cast, was nominated for three Grammy Awards and a Brit Award, among other accolades.

Conrad Potter Aiken was an American writer and poet, honored with a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, and was U.S. Poet Laureate from 1950 to 1952. His published works include poetry, short stories, novels, literary criticism, a play, and an autobiography.

India Arie Simpson, also known as India.Arie, is an American singer and songwriter. She has sold over 3.3 million records in the US and 10 million worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards from her 23 nominations, including Best R&B Album.

Scott Aukerman is an American writer, actor, comedian, television personality, director, producer, and podcast host. Starting as a writer and performer in the later seasons of the sketch series Mr. Show, Aukerman is best known as the host of the weekly comedy podcast Comedy Bang! Bang! as well as the IFC original television series of the same name. Aukerman is the co-creator of Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis and co-founder of the Earwolf podcast network.

Patrick "Sleepy" Brown is an American singer-songwriter and record producer from Savannah, Georgia. He is one-third of the successful Atlanta-based production team of Organized Noize, which has created hits for acts such as Outkast, Goodie Mob and TLC. TLC's "Waterfalls", penned by Brown and Organized Noize's Rico Wade and Ray Murray, was a #1 hit single on Billboard's Hot 100 in the summer of 1995.

Ernestine Marie Carter OBE was an American-born British museum curator, journalist, and fashion writer. She became hugely influential in her roles as women's editor, and later associate editor of The Sunday Times.

Henry Coppée was an American educator and author.

Anthony David Harrington, better known as Anthony David, is an American R&B singer-songwriter. He is best known for his 2006 song "Words", a duet with contemporary R&B singer India.Arie.

Adam Davies is an American author born in Louisville, Kentucky, and currently resides in Roswell, New Mexico. He has been a professor at New Mexico Military Institute since 2018.

Paula Ann Hiers Deen is an American TV personality and cooking show host. Deen resides in Savannah, Georgia, where she owns and operates The Lady & Sons restaurant and Paula Deen's Creek House with her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen. She has published fifteen cookbooks. Though married since 2004 to Michael Groover, she uses the last name Deen, from her first marriage.

Joshua S. Porter, better known by his stage name Josh Dies is an American singer, songwriter, musician and novelist. Porter is widely known as the vocalist and songwriter for the band Showbread.

Sarah Barnwell Elliott was an American novelist, short story writer, and an advocate of women's rights.

Bruce Feiler is an American writer and television personality. He is the author of 15 books, including Council of Dads, a book that describes how he responded to a diagnosis of a rare cancer by asking a group of men to be present in the lives of his young daughters. The book was the subject of a TED Talk and inspired NBC drama series Council of Dads. His latest work explores the power of life stories. Drawing on interviews with Americans in all 50 states, he offers strategies for coping with life's unsettling times in his new book, Life Is In The Transitions. Bruce writes the "This Life" column in the Sunday New York Times and is also the writer/presenter of the PBS miniseries Walking the Bible and Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler (2014).

Thomas O'Driscoll Hunter was an American actor known for work in Spaghetti Westerns and as a Hollywood screenwriter. He was also the founder of the New England Repertory Company.

Gregory Keyes is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy who has written both original and media-related novels under both the names J. Gregory Keyes and Greg Keyes.

James Kicklighter is an American film director, producer, and writer from the small village of Bellville, Georgia, United States.

John David Leigh II was an American photographer and author, known for the cover photograph on John Berendt's novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The photograph itself, largely considered a major factor in the success of the novel, featured the Bird Girl statue from Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah.

James Alan McPherson was an American essayist and short-story writer. He was the first African-American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and was included among the first group of artists who received a MacArthur Fellowship. At the time of his death, McPherson was a professor emeritus of fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

John Herndon Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer. He was also a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessman Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallichs.

Mary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and thirty-two short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries.

James Lord Pierpont was a New England-born songwriter, arranger, organist, Confederate Soldier, and composer, best known for writing and composing "Jingle Bells" in 1857, originally entitled "The One Horse Open Sleigh". He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and died in Winter Haven, Florida. His composition "Jingle Bells" has become synonymous with the Christmas holiday and is one of the most performed and most recognizable songs in the world.

Callan Pinckney was an American fitness professional who created and popularized as well as excelled in the Callanetics exercises.

Sally Sterling Quinn is an American author and journalist, who writes about religion for a blog at The Washington Post.

Thomas James "T. J." Reddy was an American artist, poet, activist, and musician.

Gilbert Moxley Sorrel was a staff officer and Brigadier General in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States.

Frank Lebby Stanton, frequently credited as Frank L. Stanton, Frank Stanton or F. L. Stanton, was an American lyricist.

Susie King Taylor was the first Black Army nurse. She tended to an all Black army regiment named the 1st South Carolina Volunteers (Union), later redesignated the 33rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment, where her husband served, for four years during the Civil War. Despite her service, like many African-American nurses, she was never paid for her work. As the author of Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers, she was the only African-American woman to publish a memoir of her wartime experiences. She was also the first African American to teach openly in a school for former slaves in Georgia. At this school in Savannah, Georgia, she taught children during the day and adults at night. She is in the 2018 class of inductees of the Georgia Women of Achievement.

William Tappan Thompson. He co-founded the Savannah Morning News in the 1850s, known then as the Daily Morning News. One of his most notable works was Major Jones's Courtship, an epistolary novel. Thompson's best-known fictional character was Major Joseph Jones.

Elizabeth Lee Kirkland was an American actress, writer and arts patron known professionally as Odette Tyler.

Raphael Gamaliel Warnock is an American pastor and politician. He has been the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta since 2005. Warnock came to prominence in Georgia politics as a leader in the campaign to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. A member of the Democratic Party, he is running in the 2020 U.S. Senate special election in Georgia for the seat now held by Kelly Loeffler.

Rufus Wayne Youngblood, Jr. was a United States Secret Service agent best known for using his body to shield Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson during the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.