This is a list of famous or notable Zambians, or people of Zambian descent, or people who have influenced Zambia listed in the following categories, and in no particular order:

• Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba
• Saviour Chibiya
• Hakainde Hichilema
• Rajan Mahtani
• Sylvia Masebo
• Clever Mpoha
• Susan Mulikita

• Emmanuel Milingo – Christian leader, has established the 'Married Priests Now' organisation in the USA
• Adrian Mung'andu – Catholic archbishop of Lusaka

• Backxwash, Zambian-Canadian rapper
• Denise Chaila, Irish and Zambian rapper, singer, poet, grime, and hip hop artist
• Paul Ngozi, musician, band leader of the Ngozi Family rock band
• Sampa The Great, singer, rapper, songwriter
• Yo Maps , Zambia's international artist and currently most popular musician
• Chile one Mr Zambia, Zambia's newest and most loved musician

• Dambisa Moyo
• Field Ruwe
• Binwell Sinyangwe
• Wilbur Smith
• Ellen Banda-Aaku
• Namwali Serpell
• Fwanyanga Mulikita
• Kenneth Kaunda

• Amon Simutowe

• Likando Kalaluka - Attorney General of the republic of Zambia from 2015 to 2021
• Chipokota Mwanawasa - Special Assistant to the Zambian President for Public Policy from 2021 to date.
• Nelly Mutti
• Bokani Soko - Prominent business and lawyer

• Jonah Buyoya - Zambian journalist
• Mary Mbewe - Zambian journalist, and executive editor^[2]
• Smokey Haangala - Zambian journalist, poet, writer, composer, musician^[3]

• Aaron Mujajati
• Natasha Salifyanji Kaoma, medical doctor, and organization founder^[4]

• Steve Arneil – Karate Kyokushin practitioner born in South Africa, but lived in Zambia
• Joseph and Luka Banda – Conjoined twins
• Lukwesa Burak – Sky News anchor based in London
• Alina Mshanga
• Norman Carr – British wildlife conservationist who set up national parks in Zambia
• John Edmond – Zambian-born Rhodesian singer
• Phil Edmonds – English cricketer born in Lusaka
• Robert Earnshaw – Zambian-born Welsh international football player
• Stanley Fischer – Zambian-born Deputy Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank and Governor of the Bank of Israel
• Tawny Gray – sculptor
• George Gregan – Zambian-born captain of the Australian Wallabies Rugby Union team
• Amy Holmes – Zambian-born (Zambian father, American mother), The Blaze news anchor and CNN political contributor
• Daffyd James – Zambian-born Welsh international rugby player
• V. M. Jones – Author
• Corné Krige – Zambian-born South African Springboks Rugby Union team captain
• Robert Lange – Zambian-born record producer and songwriter
• Chilu Lemba – Radio and TV presenter
• Rozalla Miller – British/Zimbabwean singer born to a Zambian mother
• Dambisa Moyo – International economist and best-selling author, born and raised in Lusaka
• Martin Mubanga – Zambian extrajudicial prisoner of the United States
• Monica Musonda – Lawyer turned entrepreneur
• Rungano Nyoni – Zambian-born Welsh director
• Nsofwa Petronella Sampa – Psychological counselor and HIV activist
• Emeli Sandé – British singer, Zambian father
• Denise Scott Brown – Zambian-born American architect
• David Shepherd – British conservationist who has painted Zambian wildlife
• Kapelwa Sikota (1928–2006) – First Zambian registered nurse
• Hammerskjoeld Simwinga – Conservationist/environmentalist
• Peter Amos Siwo – Pioneering graduate and civil servant
• Wilbur Smith – Zambian-born (Ndola) British/South African author
• Jeff Whitley – Zambian-born played for Northern Ireland

This is a list of deceased historical figures (or sub-lists of them) in Zambia and its antecedent territories, and combines Zambians, Africans and non-Zambians including British people and Northern Rhodesians.^{[citation needed]}

• Robert Edward Codrington – colonial administrator of the two territories ruled by the British South Africa Company (BSAC) which later became Zambia
• Father Jean-Jacques Corbeil – Canadian missionary and ethnographer of Bemba culture
• Dan Crawford – missionary pioneer
• Bishop Joseph Dupont – missionary pioneer
• Sir Stewart Gore-Browne – called Chipembele by Africans, soldier, pioneer white settler, builder, politician and supporter of independence in Northern Rhodesia
• List of governors of Northern Rhodesia
• List of governors-general of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
• Evelyn Dennison Hone – last governor of Northern Rhodesia
• Alice Lenshina – leader of the Lumpa religious sect
• General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck – leader of German East Africa forces of World War I
• Lewanika – Litunga of the Lozi
• David Livingstone – British Scottish missionary-explorer
• Michael Mataka – first native Zambian to become police commissioner
• Mwata Kazembe – Chief of the Kazembe-Lunda
• Mpezeni – warrior-king of one of the largest Ngoni groups of central Africa
• Nalumino Mundia – Prime Minister, 1981–1985
• Alick Nkhata – popular Zambian musician and broadcaster in the 1950s through to the mid-1970s
• Baldwin Nkumbula
• Harry Nkumbula – Nationalist leader who assisted in the struggle for the independence of Northern Rhodesia from British colonialism
• Mwene Chitengi Chiyengele – Mbunda chief who led his tribesmen from north-eastern Angola to Bulozi, western Zambia around 1795.
• Cecil Rhodes – English-born businessman, mining magnate, and politician in South Africa and an ardent believer in colonialism and imperialism, founder of the state of Rhodesia
• Sebetwane – Basotho chief who fled from Shaka Zulu, eventually conquering and settling in Western Province
• Mamochisane – daughter of Sebetwane, succeeded him as Makololo queen
• Sekeletu – Makololo King of Barotseland in western Zambia from about 1851 to his death in 1863
• Alfred Sharpe – British administrator and agent for Cecil Rhodes
• Lawrence Aubrey Wallace
• Roy Welensky – leader of white trade union and settler politician
• Rohan Oza creator of Vitamin Water in the US, sold to Coke a cola

• History of Zambia
• List of Zambia-related topics
• List of Mbunda Chiefs in Zambia