Sidney Poitier, actor
The first African-American winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor as born in Miami way back in 1927. His parents, Bahamian residents, came to Coconut Grove to sell tomatoes grown on their island farm two months before his expected due date, but Poitier decided to come into the world a little earlier. They stayed in Miami an additional three months to nurse the premature baby back to health before returning to the Bahamas. He once again lived in Miami for a short while as a teenager before heading off to New York at 17.
Wilmer Valderrama, actor
The man who played the foreign exchange student of ambiguous ethnicity on That 70's Show was born in Miami to Venezuelan-Colombian parents. He moved with his family to Venezuela when he was three, before relocating once again to Los Angeles in his early teens where he eventually got into acting. To think, if they had just stayed in Miami the world may never have known who Wilmer Valderrama is. What a real shame that would have been.
