# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/maya-angelou
# Generated: 2026-08-31T19:37:22.863Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/maya-angelou"
name: "Maya Angelou"
slug: "maya-angelou"
description: "She turned a childhood of silence into the most-read American memoir of the late 20th century, then stood on the Capitol steps in 1993 and did what only one poet had done since Kennedy — read at a presidential inauguration."
tagline: "American poet, author, and civil rights activist (1928–2014)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Portrait_photograph_of_Maya_Angelou%2C_c._1974.webp?width=1200"
gender: "female"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Writers"
  slug: "writers"
profileType:
  name: "Writer / Author"
  slug: "writer"
birthDate: "1928-04-04"
deathDate: "2014-05-28"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           76.13
  momentum:             0
  historical:           27.030228
  currentAttention:     12.03571428571429
  sourceConfidence:     80
  profileCompleteness:  90
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: 173
tags:
  - name: "Writers"
    slug: "writers"
  - name: "Politician"
    slug: "politician"
  - name: "Politics"
    slug: "politics"
  - name: "Comedy"
    slug: "comedy"
  - name: "Film Directing"
    slug: "film-directing"
  - name: "Theatre"
    slug: "theatre"
  - name: "Television"
    slug: "television"
  - name: "Screenwriting"
    slug: "screenwriting"
platforms:
  - platform:  "X"
    url:       "https://x.com/DrMayaAngelou"
    handle:    "DrMayaAngelou"
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0029723/"
    handle:    "nm0029723"
  - platform:  "SPOTIFY"
    url:       "https://open.spotify.com/artist/4YgS09y0GhtNSu2ZLruk89"
    handle:    "4YgS09y0GhtNSu2ZLruk89"
  - platform:  "WEBSITE"
    url:       "https://mayaangelou.com"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19526"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Maya%20Angelou"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A7_%D8%A3%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%88"
    title: "مايا أنجيلو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A7_%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%88"
    title: "مايا انجيلو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Maya Angelou"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%BE_%E0%A6%8F%E0%A6%9E%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9C%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%8B"
    title: "মায়া এঞ্জেলো"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ay.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Maya Angelou"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%A7_%D8%A2%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%84%D9%88"
    title: "مایا آنجلو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Anjelu"
    title: "Maya Anjelu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bar.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Maya Angelou"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bcl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Maya Angelou"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%AD%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%B6%D1%8D%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%9E"
    title: "Мая Энджэлаў"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%90%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%83"
    title: "Мая Анджелоу"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%BE_%E0%A6%85%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9E%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9C%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%8B"
    title: "মায়া অ্যাঞ্জেলো"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Maya Angelou"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ceb.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Maya Angelou"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Maya Angelou"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Maya Angelou"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Maya Angelou"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Maya Angelou"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://diq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Maya Angelou"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://dsb.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Maya Angelou"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9C%CE%AC%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%B1_%CE%91%CE%B3%CE%B3%CE%AD%CE%BB%CE%BF%CF%85"
    title: "Μάγια Αγγέλου"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eml.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Maya Angelou"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ar.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A7_%D8%A3%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%88"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://as.wikiquote.org/wiki/%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC'_%E0%A6%8F%E0%A6%9E%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9C%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B2'"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://az.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://bg.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%90%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%83"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://bs.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born Marguerite Annie Johnson in 1928, she came to poetry and writing through a string of odd jobs in young adulthood, then published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969 — an autobiography running to age 17 that brought international recognition and redrew the form itself, critiquing and expanding the genre by centering racism, identity, and travel. She worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X during the Civil Rights Movement, wrote six more autobiographies and several books of poetry, and in 1982 became the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest. By the 1990s she was making 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, a pace she kept into her eighties, and her works — taught worldwide, banned in some U.S. libraries, respected as both defense of African-American culture and voice for women — became fixtures of classrooms. She died in 2014, decades after the caged bird first sang.