Birthdays Today

July 25, 2026

Birthdays Today: July 25

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Seventy-six living people we could verify share today's birthday, from Friends star Matt LeBlanc, turning 59, and supermodel Iman, turning 71, to Louise Joy Brown, turning 48, the world's first person born through IVF, plus three actresses all turning 65, two of them Bold and the Beautiful castmates, born on this exact day in 1961.

The headliners

Matt LeBlanc turns 59 today, and few sitcom roles are as globally recognizable as Joey Tribbiani, the lovable actor he played across all ten seasons of Friends (1994 to 2004) and its spin-off Joey. Born in Newton, Massachusetts to an Italian-American office-manager mother and a French-Canadian mechanic father, he moved to New York at 17 to model, only to be told he was too short. His acting break came almost by accident, when a woman invited him along to an audition and he walked out signed by her manager. Before Friends he appeared in Bon Jovi music videos and a Heinz ketchup commercial, and was reportedly down to his last eleven dollars when he landed the part. He later won a Golden Globe playing a fictionalized version of himself on Episodes (2011 to 2017) and co-hosted BBC's Top Gear. He graduated high school the same year as classmate Louis C.K.

Iman) turns 71 today, and for half a century she has been one of fashion's most unmistakable faces. Born Zara Mohamed Abdulmajid in Mogadishu, Somalia, her grandfather renamed her Iman, meaning "faith" in Arabic, believing a masculine name would help her prosper. She was the first girl in her father's side of the family in six generations of sons. Discovered at the University of Nairobi by photographer Peter Beard, she moved to the United States and landed her first Vogue) assignment within a year. A muse to Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, Calvin Klein, and Donna Karan, she starred in Revlon's first campaign centered on Black women in 1977. Beyond modeling she built a cosmetics empire and became a global philanthropist. She was married to David Bowie from 1992 until his death in 2016. Her father was Somalia's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, her mother a gynecologist.

Louise Joy Brown turns 48 today, and her birth was itself a world first. Born by planned cesarean section at Oldham General Hospital in England on July 25, 1978, she was the first human ever conceived through in vitro fertilization, a technique pioneered by Patrick Steptoe, Robert Edwards, and Jean Purdy. The press called her a "test-tube baby," though her conception actually took place in a Petri dish. Her parents, Lesley and John, had tried for nine years, and Lesley had blocked fallopian tubes. The doctors did not tell the couple that no attempt had yet produced a baby. Edwards later won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine and attended Louise's 2004 wedding. Perhaps the sweetest twist, both of Louise's own children were conceived naturally. Her younger sister Natalie, the world's 40th IVF baby, became the first person conceived by IVF to give birth herself.

Verdine White turns 75 today, and as the founding bassist of Earth, Wind & Fire he has one of the most kinetic bass lines in funk running through the culture. Born in Chicago to a doctor father who played sax, he spotted a double bass in his high school orchestra at 15 and was hooked. He studied classical upright bass under a Chicago Symphony Orchestra musician and electric bass on weekends with a Chess Records session player. In 1970 his older brother Maurice, a former Ramsey Lewis trio drummer, called him out to Los Angeles to join the band he had renamed Earth, Wind & Fire. The group sold more than 90 million records, won six Grammys, and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone ranked White the 19th greatest bassist of all time.

Alvin Kamara turns 31 today, and the New Orleans Saints running back has built one of the most versatile resumes in the NFL. Born in Atlanta to a Liberian mother, he was Georgia's Mr. Football out of Norcross High School before a winding college path took him from Alabama to a community college to Tennessee. Drafted in the third round in 2017, he was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and made the Pro Bowl in each of his first five seasons. On Christmas Day 2020 he became only the second player in NFL history to score six rushing touchdowns in a single game, tying a record set by Gale Sayers in 1965. In 2024 he became the Saints' all-time rushing leader.

Geoffrey Zakarian turns 67 today, and he is one of the Food Network's most recognizable faces, a longtime judge on Chopped) and a co-host of The Kitchen. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts to an Armenian-American musician father and a Polish-American mother, he first earned a degree in economics before a trip to France rerouted him toward the stove. He trained at the Culinary Institute of America, apprenticed under Daniel Boulud at Le Cirque, and later spent time at Alain Passard's three-Michelin-star Arpège in Paris. His Manhattan restaurant Country earned a Michelin star. On The Next Iron Chef in 2011 he won his way onto Iron Chef America. Along the way he once oversaw an ill-fated Old Navy coffee-cart venture, a detour he would probably rather forget.

One coincidence before the roll call: three actresses, all turning 65, were born on this exact day in 1961, Katherine Kelly Lang, Bobbie Eakes, and Illeana Douglas, with Lang and Eakes castmates on The Bold and the Beautiful. Two more stars of One Tree Hill, Shantel VanSanten and James Lafferty, share the exact birthday in 1985, both turning 41. And a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, Frances Arnold, and the land artist Andy Goldsworthy were both born on July 25, 1956, turning 70, one decoding enzymes, the other sculpting with leaves and stone.

Also celebrating today

Screen and stage

Music

Sports

World and public life

Science, arts, letters, and media

Happy birthday to all of them, and to anyone reading who shares the day.

That’s the reading for this issue.