7 Amazing and Famous People with Savant Syndrome (2024)

The Savant Syndrome is a rare condition that brings with it some extraordinary talent. Savant syndrome often occurs with a development disorder including autism spectrum disorder. It is said that the savant syndrome creates an ‘island of genius’ in contrast to the overall disability of the affected person. According to a rough estimate, 10% of autistic persons do have savant syndrome in varying degrees. But, you should always remember that not every autistic person is blessed with some supernatural power and you should not ask every autistic person, or their parents, whether they have any superpowers.

Here we are providing a list of some of the well-known persons with the Savant Syndrome.

ALSO READ: Famous People with Autism

1. Kim Peek: The Rain Man

If you are a Hollywood movie enthusiast, you might already know that the character of Rain Man (1988) was based on Kim Peek. However, the real story of Kim Peek was quite different from that of the rain man. Kim Peek had a condition in which the bundles of nerves connecting the two hemispheres of the brain were missing. His unique condition gave him the ability to read two pages of a book simultaneously – left page with the left eye and right page from right eye. It took him just 8 seconds to read and memorize the two pages. With his astounding ability to read and remember, he memorized over 12,000 books in his lifetime. He was an expert in 15 subject-areas.

Here is a video about Kim Peek’s life, how The Rain Man was made and about the Peek Award:

2. Leslie Lemke

Leslie got into the limelight with the exceptional musical talent that came to him naturally. He was born prematurely, with cerebral palsy and brain damage. His eyes had to be surgically removed due to glaucoma. Leslie Lemke was adopted by a local nurse when he was 6-months old. His adopted mother had 5 children of her own before adopting Leslie. He was a common child with a disability until the age of 16. But then he suddenly started playing piano without any musical training and could play all types of music just by listening to it once.

3. Stephen Wiltshire

He is an artist fondly called the ‘Human Camera’. He has a unique talent of remembering and perfectly drawing a landscape just by seeing it once. Like the other autistic children, Stephen could not initially communicate verbally with others. But, from the very beginning, he used his drawing talent to express himself. He got wider recognition in 2005 when he was taken for a short helicopter ride over Tokyo and after the ride he drew a perfect landscape of the city. Due to his photographic memory, he could remember the details of the number of floors and windows of each building.

4. Daniel Tammet

Daniel grabbed the news headlines when he recited the value of pi up to 22,514 decimal places, from his memory of course. According to Daniel he actually sees numbers and calculations in his mind automatically. Each number from 1 to 10,000 has a unique shape, colour, texture and feel for his mind. He has described pi as beautiful, 333 as particularly attractive and number 289 as particularly ugly. Not only numbers but Daniel is exceptional in language too. He can speak at least 11 different languages. In 2007, he was given the challenge to learn the Icelandic language, which is considered extremely difficult, in seven days. Guess what? He learned to speak the Icelandic language with fluency in the given time i.e. seven days!

Here is a video of Daniel speaking at TED Talk:

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5. Ellen Boudreaux

Ellen is particularly exceptional among the known savants. She has a visual impairment because she was born prematurely. Her exceptional musical talent was noticed when she was just six months old – she was humming the lullaby that was playing on her cradle. She can play any music after listening to it once. But, this is not the most special thing about her. She is referred to as a time-keeping wizard because she can tell time, to the accuracy of seconds, without seeing a watch. Wait, there’s something more special about this extraordinary savant. She makes a chirping sound that bounces off the objects in her path and she can walk freely without any other help despite her visual impairment.

6. Alonzo Clemons

As a toddler, Alonzo suffered a brain injury that caused him a developmental disorder. He could not read, write, calculate, tie his shoes or even feed himself. But, he can do one thing perfectly – sculpting. Alonzo can create an anatomically accurate sculptor of any animal just by looking at the animal or its photograph for just a few seconds. The savant syndrome has given Alonzo exceptional talent of capturing shapes and figures in his mind and replicating them on his sculptors.

7. Flo and Kay Lyman

Flo and Kay are the only savant twins who exhibit the same abilities. They are called calendric savants as they can instantly give details about events, weathers etc. on any given date of their lives. Flo and Kay can tell the name of the artist behind any songs of the 60s, 70s and 80s. They can recall almost everything. Their life story has been shown in the documentary named The Rain Man Twins.

There are some historical persons like Mozart and Thomas Wiggans who most probably were savants but had not officially been diagnosed because the concept was not developed at their times. Though it is interesting to know about exceptional talents brought in by the savant syndrome, as a gentle reminder we would say don’t assume all autistic people to be savant unless you are particularly told about their exceptional talent.