English atheists

British writer and journalist (1903–1950)

Stephen William Hawking was an English theoretical astrophysicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between 1979 and 2009, he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, widely viewed as one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world.

English computer scientist (1912–1954)

British economist (1883–1946)

English modernist writer (1882–1941)

English computer scientist (born 1955)

British Romantic poet (1792–1822)

English novelist, essayist, poet and journalist (1819–1880)

British science fiction writer and humorist (1952–2001)

British science fiction writer, inventor, and futurist (1917–2008)

Sir Keir Rodney Starmer is a British politician and lawyer who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and as Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He served as Leader of the Opposition from 2020 to 2024. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015, and was Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.

English playwright and author (1874–1965)

British playwright (1930–2008)

Keira Christina Knightley, OBE is an English actress. Known for her work in independent films and blockbusters, particularly period dramas, she has received numerous accolades, including nominations for two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, four Golden Globes, and a Laurence Olivier Award. In 2018, she was appointed an OBE for services to drama and charity.

English actor (born 1970)

English fantasy author (1948–2015)

British philosopher, jurist, and social reformer (1748–1832)

Dame Helen Mirren is an English actor. Regarded amongst Britain's greatest actors, Mirren is the recipient of several accolades including an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, four BAFTA Awards, five Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, two Cannes Film Festival Awards, a Volpi Cup and a Laurence Olivier Award. She is the only person to have achieved both the US and UK Triple Crowns of Acting, and has also received the BAFTA Fellowship, Honorary Golden Bear, Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Mirren was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003.

English physicist (1891-1974), who discovered the neutron in 1932

British physicist and Nobel Prize winner (1929–2024)

English filmmaker (born 1937)

British actor (born 1939)

British mathematician (1877–1947)

James Hugh Calum Laurie is an English actor, comedian, and musician. Laurie first gained professional recognition as a member of the English comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. Fry and Laurie acted together in several projects during the 1980s and 1990s, including the BBC sketch comedy series A Bit of Fry & Laurie and the P. G. Wodehouse adaptation Jeeves and Wooster. From 1986 to 1989, Laurie appeared in three series of the period comedy Blackadder.

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and, as of 2016, controlled five companies.

British actor (born 1940)

English actor (born 1964)

English musician, co-founder of Pink Floyd (born 1943)

British textile artist, author, and socialist (1834-1896)

English filmmaker

English musician, member of Pink Floyd (born 1946)

British physicist (1897-1974)

English author

English poet and novelist (1895-1985)

English journalist, political philosopher and novelist

British explorer, army officer, writer and scholar (1821–1890)

Sir Stephen John Fry is an English actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He began his career on the sketch comedy series Alfresco (1983–1984) and the sitcom Blackadder (1986–1989), before gaining recognition as part of the comedy duo Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, appearing together in A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1989–1995) and Jeeves and Wooster (1990–1993). His later television roles include Kingdom (2007–2009), Bones (2007–2017), and It's a Sin (2021). Fry was the original host of the comedy panel show QI (2003–2016), for which he was nominated for six British Academy Television Awards. In 2006, the British public ranked Fry number 9 in ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars.

British musician, music producer, music theorist and visual artist (born 1948)

British comedian

English novelist (1926–2005)

British author (born 1948)

British chemist (1939-2016)

British fashion designer (1941–2022)

British actor

Geneticist and evolutionary biologist (1892-1964)

English actor (born 1982)

British comedian, actor and writer (born 1943)

English actor (born 1949)

English philosopher

British novelist (1930–2009)

British politician (born 1969)

British neurologist and writer (1933–2015)

English drummer

British stockbroker who saved 669 Jewish children during 1938–39 (1909–2015)

English mathematician, biometrician, and eugenicist (1857–1936)

English actress (born 1972)

British evolutionary biologist, philosopher, author (1887–1975)

British biologist and Nobel laureate (1942–2018)

British political activist, writer, and historian (born 1943)

British actor (born 1963)