Throughout history, people from different eras and fields have written about giving up meat or have described themselves as vegan. A famous name does not prove that a diet suits everyone, but it is interesting to see what they said, in sources you can check. Here you will find only documented facts, with sources.
In short
- Plutarch wrote an ancient essay on eating meat, preserved in the Moralia.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley published “A Vindication of Natural Diet” in 1813.
- Leo Tolstoy wrote the essay “The First Step”, which opens with the idea that fasting is an indispensable condition of a good life.
- The word “vegan” was coined by Donald Watson around the founding of The Vegan Society in November 1944.
- Well-known vegans today include, according to the sources below, the actor Joaquin Phoenix, the racing driver Lewis Hamilton and the singer Billie Eilish.
From history: written texts
Plutarch. The essay “On the Eating of Flesh” (De esu carnium) is part of Plutarch’s Moralia. The first discourse opens by asking why Pythagoras abstained from flesh and describes in strong words what it means to eat slaughtered animals. The Loeb translation (vol. XII, 1957) is public online.
Percy Bysshe Shelley. “A Vindication of Natural Diet” was first written as part of the notes to the poem “Queen Mab”, privately issued in 1813, and the same year it was published separately as a pamphlet. The first sentence of the text is: “I hold that the depravity of the physical and moral nature of man originated in his unnatural habits of life.”
Leo Tolstoy. In the essay “The First Step”, Tolstoy writes that fasting is an indispensable condition of a good life and recounts how, after reading the book “The Ethics of Diet”, he visited a slaughterhouse. The dating of the essay differs between editions, so we do not give a year here; slightly altered versions also circulate, so check the edition you read.
Where the word “vegan” comes from
According to The Vegan Society, in November 1944 Donald Watson (1910–2005) called a meeting with five other non-dairy vegetarians, including Elsie Shrigley, to discuss non-dairy vegetarian diets and lifestyles. They settled on the word “vegan”, which Watson later described as containing the first three and last two letters of “vegetarian”. The word was coined by Watson from a suggestion by early members George A. Henderson and Fay K. Henderson that the society should be called Allvega and the magazine Allvegan.
Well-known vegans today
Joaquin Phoenix. The actor, described by the press as a vegan, won the Best Actor Oscar at the 92nd Academy Awards (2020) for “Joker”. In his acceptance speech he criticised the dairy industry, saying that we feel entitled to take the milk intended for a calf and put it in our coffee and cereal (LBC, 10 February 2020).
Lewis Hamilton. The Formula One driver, a six-time world champion at the time of the article, went vegan in 2017, according to VegNews. In an interview with Express UK cited by VegNews in March 2020, he said his health had “got better and better” and that a large part of the reason for his choice is the environment and the animals.
Billie Eilish. According to PETA, the singer has been vegan since the age of 12. PETA named her its 2021 “Person of the Year”, the award’s youngest winner. In an interview with British Vogue cited by PETA, she explained that she learned about the dairy and meat industries and cannot go on living knowing what is going on. PETA and VegNews are outlets and organisations that support veganism, so these sources have an interest; the facts above are attributed to them.
How to read these examples
The fact that a famous person follows a diet says nothing about what suits you. The sources above document what these people wrote or said, not a medical benefit. For health, see Health and a vegan diet and the nutrients to watch; for the ethical argument, Animals feel: what science says. Many other, less well-known people have made the same choice, and the list above is not complete.
Sources
- Plutarch, On the Eating of Flesh (Loeb Classical Library, vol. XII, 1957), LacusCurtius
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Vindication of Natural Diet (Project Gutenberg)
- Leo Tolstoy, The First Step (Leo Tolstoy Archive, marxists.org)
- The Vegan Society: History
- LBC: Joaquin Phoenix uses Oscars acceptance speech to slam dairy industry (10 Feb 2020)
- VegNews: Lewis Hamilton Debunks Vegan Protein Myths (19 March 2020)
- PETA: Billie Eilish Is PETA’s 2021 ‘Person of the Year’ (1 December 2021)
Updated: 26 October 2026
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