Notable people with mitochondrial disease include:
* Mattie Stepanek, a poet, peace advocate, and motivational speaker who had dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy, and who died at age 13.
* Rocco Baldelli, a coach and former center fielder in Major League Baseball who had to retire from active play at age 29 due to mitochondrial channelopathy.
* Charlie Gard, a British boy who had mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome; decisions about his care were taken to various law courts.
* Charles Darwin, a nineteenth century naturalist who suffered from a disabling illness, is speculated to have MELAS syndrome.