Mitch Albom - Author of the best-selling book “Tuesdays With Morrie” and ESPN regular was once an editor at the Queens Tribune and lived in Forest Hills.

George Ancona - This award-winning photographer and young-reader author of such books as “Powwow,” once lived in Kew Gardens.

Lidia Matticchio Bastianich - A famous chef, she co-owns Felidia and Becco restaurants in New York and Lidia’s in Kansas City. She also owns a sauce line, Lidia’s Flavors of Italy, and a travel company, Lidia’s Esperienze Italiane, and lives in Douglaston. She grew up in Astoria, and opened her first restaurant, Buonavia, in Forest Hills. “Lidia’s Italian American Kitchen” has aired on PBS, and her new series, “Lidia’s Family Table,” will begin to air on PBS in Spring 2005.

Jimmy Breslin - Born and bred in Forest Hills, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary in 1986, he has written columns for 40 years in various New York City newspapers, and is the author of “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight,” “I Want to Thank My Brain for Remembering Me” and other works. He famously interviewed the gravedigger burying President John Kennedy, and published letters he received from a wanted murder on the run, later identified as the Son of Sam - David Berkowitz.

Dr. Joyce Brothers - Before becoming a celebrity psychologist for pioneering the trend to phone-in questions for professional advice, she attended Far Rockaway High School.

Art Buchwald -Author, columnist, dramatist, and journalist, his work includes books like, “The Establishment is Alive and Well in Washington,” and “While Reagan Slept.” He grew up in Hollis and attended both Jamaica High School and Forest Hills High School.

Alfred Mosher Butts - The out-of-work architect living in Jackson Heights who had a penchant for board games and cross word puzzles combined his two hobbies to create Lexico, renamed Criss-Cross Words, was later renamed Scrabble.

Judith Caseley - The author of children’s books, including, “Bully,” and “Slumber Party” lived in Forest Hills.

Barry Commoner - A famous biologist and environmental activist, he helped initiate the modern environmental movement and has directed the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems at Queens College for the last 20 years.

Francis Ford Coppola - The director of “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now” is originally from Woodside. Coppola’s scripts have been likened to newspapers, changing every day. He is reportedly working on the first ever film version of “On The Road,” written by Jack Kerouac while he was living in Queens.

Rocco DiSpirito - The famous restaurateur and chef was brought to celebrity chef level with the show “The Restaurant.” He was born and raised in Jamaica.

Mark Di Suvero -A key figure in the development of postwar American sculpture, his work has been exhibited in the National Gallery of Art among many other museums. He now splits his time between Petaluma, Calif., and his Long Island City residence. He also helped found LIC’s Socrates Sculpture Park.

Richard P. Feynman - Born in Far Rockaway in 1918, he became a scientist and teacher who jointly won the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics with Schwinger and Tomonoga for their work in quantum electrodynamics.

Jean Fiedler - author of a variety of fiction and non-fiction books for children and young people including, “The Year The World Was Out Of Step With Jancy Fried” and “Be Smart About Sex” once lived in Bayside.

Douglas Florian - Acclaimed author and illustrator of more than 30 children’s books, he won the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and received an ALA Notable Children’ Book Award for his book, “Beast Feast.” He attended Queens College.

Harry Ford - A fireman who worked on set construction for some TV shows such as “Oz,” died tragically while fighting a fire in Astoria.

Paula Fox - She is the author of several books for adults and children including “Desperate Characters: A Novel” and won the Newberry Award for the novel, “The Slave Dancer.” Fox lived in Kew Gardens among other places while growing up.

Mr. G - While attending PS 201, JHS 218 and Francis Lewis High School, the Channel 11 weatherman was known as Irv Gikofsky. In 1990, he won an Emmy for his coverage of spot news.

Gwen Ifill - A Queens-native, she is now a moderator and the managing editor of “Washington Week,” and senior correspondent for “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.”

Susan Isaacs - Novelist, essayist and screenwriter, she was born in Brooklyn and educated at Queens College. Her works include 1978’s “Compromising Positions” and 2001’s “After All These Years,” both featuring protagonist Judith Singer.

Jack Kerouac - The voice of “The Beat Generation,” shacked up in a small Ozone Park apartment at 94-10 Cross Bay Blvd. It was while living with his mother at 94-21 134th St. in Richmond Hill, that he wrote his most famous work, “On The Road.” The stream of conscious style writing, mixed with his appreciation for jazz music, religion, and the less reputable characters of his day, have etched him into literary history. Written in three weeks, “On The Road” is a semi-autobiographic sketch of his cross-country journey with Neal Cassady. “Richmond Hill is as important as Ozone Park to the literary history of Jack Kerouac,” wrote Web master Patrick Fenton of www.wordsareimportant.com.

Joe Klein - The Queens-born senior writer for Time magazine gained national recognition as the anonymous author of “Primary Colors,” a thinly veiled novel based on Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. Klein initially denied he was the author, even after a literary detective fingered him as the penman. Klein has since acknowledged writing the book, which was made into a movie starring John Travolta.

Joel Klein - The lawyer who successfully charged Microsoft for violating federal anti-trust laws, grew up in the Woodside Houses and attended public schools. In fact, he returned to public school as Chancellor under Mayor Bloomberg. At Bryant High School, Klein’s name adorns the school’s honor roll.

Raymond Kurzweil - This inventor was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the first device to transform print into computer-spoken words. He also created the music synthesizer. He was born in Queens in 1948.

Barry Lewis - The celebrated historian who hosted a PBS episode called “A Walk Through Queens,” is a Woodhaven native. His family owned the Lewis of Woodhaven clothing store, which recently closed after 70 years of business. More information is available at www.barrylewis.org.

Robert Mapplethorpe - A famous American photographer, he was born in Queens in 1946 and died in 1989 in Boston.

Wendy Markham - The prolific self-described author of Chic-Lit sets many of her books, like “The Nine Month Plan,” in and around the borough where she spent her early 20s. “She was living in a small apartment on Ditmars Boulevard near 33rd Street in Astoria and then moved to Steinway Street after meeting her husband, she told the Tribune in an interview. Markham also publishes teenage and young adult novels, under the names Wendy Morgan and Morgan Brody.

Marvin Middlemark - The inventor of the “rabbit ears” for TV reception moved to Westbury from Rego Park in 1975.

Robert Moog - The former Flushing resident built his first electronic instrument at age 12. A few years later, in 1964, he built a device named after himself that altered the sound of the 80's. The Moog allowed a person to compose and perform music instead of splicing pre-recorded electronic music on tape.

Mary Murphy - A Queens College-graduate, weekend co-anchor of the Emmy Award winning WB11 News at 10, and a correspondent for the station’s weekday broadcasts, Mary has won an Edward R. Murrow award for writing and many First Place awards from the New York State Associated Press Broadcasters Association.

Isamu Noguchi - A famous sculptor whose career spanned 60 years, his work can be seen in Noguchi museums in his former studios in Long Island City and in Japan. The Noguchi museum just completed a renovation, and now displays many of his works.

Richard Ofshe - This Queens College graduate became a professor of sociology at University of California at Berkeley. He shared a Pulitzer for public service in 1979 for an expose his weekly paper did on a West Marin, Calif. group called Synanon that was assaulting and attempting to murder people in the area.

Richard Outcault - The creator and artist for “Buster Brown” and “Hogan’s Alley” cartoons lived in Flushing.

Dorothy Rabinowitz - Syndicated columnist and television critic for the Wall Street Journal, she won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in distinguished commentary after being nominated three separate times in previous years. She is a Queens College graduate.

Al Roker - Infamous weatherman and host for the “Today Show” on NBC, he is also a best-selling author and has acted in a number of movies and has appeared on late-night TV shows. He was born in 1954, and raised in St. Albans.

Jonas Salk - The discoverer of the polio vaccine was a product of Townsend Harris High School. Salk was also the first one in his family to go to college. After eight years of research, he discovered the vaccine for polio and, just as historically, refused to patent it.

J. Neil Schulman - The author of eight books including two Prometheus award-winning novels, “Alongside Night” and “The Rainbow Cadenza”; short fiction, nonfiction, and screenplays, including an episode for “The Twilight Zone.” He was born in Forest Hills in 1953.

Lloyd Schwartz - The 1962 Queens College graduate won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his work, “Criticism.” He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard and currently teaches at U. Mass. in Boston. He is also a contributor to National Public Radio.

Art Spiegelman - This comic strip artist has used his family’s escape from the Holocaust and settlement in Rego Park as the basis for his graphic novel “Maus.”

Anne Sullivan - The woman who taught the blind, deaf and mute Helen Keller, and later went on to international fame for her approach to education, died in Forest Hills in 1936. The story of how Sullivan educated Keller, who earned a college degree and became a champion for the rights of the disabled, was dramatized in play and movie, both titled “The Miracle Worker.”

Walt Whitman - The “Good Gray Poet,” taught school in Queens for many years. He is credited with introducing a less structured, more evocative style of poetry. His most famous work, “Blades of Grass,” is considered the starting point of modern poetry.