Playwright August Wilson won two Pulitzer Prizes for his plays Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990).
A versatile performer, actress Mare Winningham has won raves for such films as 1994's Georgia and such television work as 2011's Mildred Pierce.
Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer who advocated for women's equality. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman pressed for educational reforms.
Stevie Wonder is an American musician and a former child prodigy who became one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century. His hit songs include "Living in the City," "Boogie on a Reggae Woman" and "Isn't She Lovely."
Danny Wood is in New Kids on the Block, a boy band of five guys who ruled the charts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and reunited in 2013.
Known as "Black Edison," Granville Woods was an African-American inventor who made key contributions to the development of the telephone, street car and more.
Tammy Wynette was a Grammy Award-winning country music singer who recorded the hit "Stand By Your Man." She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1998.
African-American leader and prominent figure in the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X articulated concepts of race pride and black nationalism in the 1950s and '60s.
Texas-born actress Renee Zellweger first gained wide-spread attention for her role in the film Jerry Maguire and later Bridget Jones's Diary.
Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis is behind Romancing the Stone, the Back to the Future trilogy, Forrest Gump, Tales from the Crypt and Cast Away.
Mark Zuckerberg is co-founder and CEO of the social-networking website Facebook, as well as one of the world's youngest billionaires.