The World's Most Famous Yoga Teachers and Their Contribution to Yoga in the West

Lineage holders and contemporary teachers who still shape how studios teach yoga.

Kamal Kaur-16 min read-Updated September 2026

Famous yoga teachers and their contribution to yoga practice in the West

Yoga teachers still decide what most students think yoga is. In India it began as a spiritual discipline. In the West it is often taught first as a physical class, then as breath, attention and philosophy. If you are choosing a class, start with which yoga is best for you.

Swami Vivekananda gave yoga its first mass Western audience at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago on 11 September 1893. He taught Vedanta and raja yoga, not asana. The postural styles that fill studios today travelled later, largely through students of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya: B.K.S. Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois, Indra Devi and T.K.V. Desikachar.

This guide keeps that lineage and the contemporary teachers who now reach students online. For home practice, see our guide to the best yoga YouTube channels. It was checked in September 2026. Dates, books and awards below replace earlier errors, including Vivekananda's tour year, Sharath Jois's death and several copied table cells.

The teachers in this guide

Who opened the West: Vivekananda, Satchidananda
Krishnamacharya's tree: Krishnamacharya, Indra Devi, Pattabhi Jois, Iyengar, Desikachar, Vanda Scaravelli, Geeta Iyengar, Sharath Jois
Studio builders: Maty Ezraty, Bernie Clark, Seane Corn, Carrie Owerko, Esther Ekhart
Online and travelling teachers: Adriene Mishler, Kathryn Budig, Dylan Werner, Briohny Smyth, Travis Eliot, Meghan Currie, Chelsey Korus

1. Swami Vivekananda - 1863-1902

Swami Vivekananda in Chicago, 1893. Photograph by Thomas Harrison. Public domain.

Yoga School: Ramakrishna Mission / Vedanta Societies
https://www.vedanta.org/
Contribution: Gave yoga and Vedanta a mass Western audience at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
Books: Raja Yoga
Karma Yoga
Jnana Yoga
Awards: None listed

Vivekananda arrived in the United States for the 1893 Parliament, not in 1890 as older versions of this article said. He rejected hatha yoga as street performance and taught concentration, breath and philosophy instead. His lectures and Raja Yoga still sit behind the idea that yoga is more than stretching.

Vedanta Societies in the United States and Europe grew from that tour. Later postural teachers built on an audience he had already prepared.

2. Swami Satchidananda - 1914-2002

Swami Satchidananda speaking in Amsterdam, 1970 — Swami Satchidananda in Amsterdam, 1970. Photo: Bert Verhoeff / Anefo, Nationaal Archief. CC0.

Yoga School: Integral Yoga / Yogaville
https://www.yogaville.org/
Contribution: Brought Integral Yoga to the United States, opened the 1969 Woodstock festival and founded Yogaville in Virginia.
Books: Integral Yoga Hatha
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Awards: None listed

Satchidananda was a disciple of Swami Sivananda. He moved to the United States in the 1960s and taught a synthesis of hatha, raja, bhakti, karma and jnana yoga. The Woodstock invocation made him one of the most visible Indian teachers of that decade, and it is still a useful reference when studios ask whether chanting belongs in class.

Yogaville and the LOTUS shrine still train teachers in Integral Yoga. His work sits beside the Krishnamacharya lineages rather than inside them.

3. Tirumalai Krishnamacharya - 1888-1989

Yoga School: Mysore palace yogashala, later Chennai
https://www.kym.org/ continues his work
Contribution: Often called the father of modern postural yoga. Combined breath with movement in what is now called Vinyasa Krama and taught each student differently.
Books: Yoga Makaranda
Yogasanagalu
Yoga Rahasya
Yogavalli
Awards: None confirmed. India's Prime Minister's Yoga Awards began in 2016.

Krishnamacharya taught at the Jaganmohan Palace in Mysore, then later in Chennai. His principle was to teach what suited the person in front of him. That is still the useful test when students ask which yoga is best for them. In India he was also known as a healer who used yoga with Ayurveda.

Viniyoga is the name his son T.K.V. Desikachar later used. Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram was founded by Desikachar in 1976 to honour his father; it was not Krishnamacharya's own school. He did not receive a Prime Minister's yoga award.

4. Indra Devi - 1899-2002

Yoga School: Indra Devi Foundation
http://www.fundacion-indra-devi.org/
Contribution: Krishnamacharya's first Western woman student. Opened early yoga schools in Shanghai and Hollywood and wrote bestselling English yoga books.
Books: Forever Young, Forever Healthy
Yoga for Americans
Awards: None listed

Born Eugenie Peterson in Latvia, Indra Devi studied at the Mysore palace after the Maharaja asked Krishnamacharya to accept a woman and a foreigner. She later taught in Shanghai, including classes associated with Madame Chiang Kai-shek, then moved to Hollywood in 1947.

Her Hollywood students and English-language books gave Krishnamacharya's yoga its first popular American face. No public-domain portrait was available to host with this profile.

5. K. Pattabhi Jois - 1915-2009

K. Pattabhi Jois outside KPJAYI in Mysore, 2006. Photo: Magnolia Zuniga. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Yoga School: Ashtanga Yoga / K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute
https://kpjayi.org/
Contribution: Founded Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and the Mysore-style method that spread through the United States, Europe and Australia.
Books: Yoga Mala
Awards: None listed

Pattabhi Jois studied with Krishnamacharya in Mysore and spent decades teaching a set sequence linked to breath. Western students began arriving in larger numbers from the 1960s and 1970s. The method they took home is the Ashtanga still taught in many studios.

Other pages on this site already treat him as the Ashtanga founder behind Rocket Yoga and later authorised teachers. Students who still travel to India for training can start with our notes on 200- and 500-hour teacher trainings in India. His grandson R. Sharath Jois later held the lineage.

6. B.K.S. Iyengar - 1918-2014

Yoga School: Iyengar Yoga / Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute
https://bksiyengar.com/
Contribution: Made precise alignment, props and sequencing the basis of a global method. Light on Yoga became the standard English asana reference.
Books: Light on Yoga
Light on Pranayama
Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Awards: Padma Shri (1991), Padma Bhushan (2002), Padma Vibhushan (2014). Time 100 in 2004.

Iyengar studied with Krishnamacharya, then built his own method in Pune. Belts, blocks, benches and wall ropes let students work with injury, stiffness and different bodies. Certified Iyengar teachers still treat alignment and sequence as the lesson, not an extra. In Australia, start with this guide to Iyengar Yoga studios in Sydney.

Friendship with Yehudi Menuhin helped carry the method to Europe. The eight-limb framework of Patanjali sits behind the teaching, even though most classes start with asana.

7. T.K.V. Desikachar - 1938-2016

Yoga School: Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram
https://www.kym.org/
Contribution: Founded KYM in 1976 and developed the individualised approach later known as Viniyoga, with a strong yoga-therapy clinic.
Books: The Heart of Yoga
Awards: None listed

Desikachar studied with his father for about 30 years. He opened KYM in Madras (Chennai) as a public charitable trust. A.G. Mohan served as honorary secretary from the start and is often described as a co-founder.

KYM trained teachers, taught Vedic chanting and researched yoga for conditions such as asthma, diabetes, depression and schizophrenia. Viniyoga, as Desikachar used the word, means adapting the practice to the person.

8. Vanda Scaravelli - 1908-1999

Yoga School: Scaravelli-inspired yoga
https://www.catherineannisyoga.co.uk/
Contribution: Developed a gravity-and-breath approach after studying asana with Iyengar and pranayama with Desikachar.
Books: Awakening the Spine
Awards: None listed

Scaravelli came to yoga later in life. Iyengar taught her poses. Desikachar taught her breath. The style that grew from that, often with her long-term student Diane Long, asks for release through the spine rather than muscular force.

Teachers who call their work Scaravelli-inspired are usually pointing to that book and that way of moving, not to a single certifying school.

9. Geeta Iyengar - 1944-2018

Yoga School: Iyengar Yoga / RIMYI
https://bksiyengar.com/
Contribution: Adapted Iyengar Yoga for menstruation, pregnancy, postpartum and menopause, and co-directed RIMYI after her father retired.
Books: Yoga: A Gem for Women
Yoga in Action
Iyengar Yoga for Motherhood
Awards: RIMYI received the 2017 Prime Minister's Award for Outstanding Contribution for Promotion and Development of Yoga while she was co-director.

Geeta Iyengar began teaching when her father travelled, then became co-director of RIMYI with her brother Prashant. She did not personally receive a Prime Minister's yoga award. The 2017 honour went to the institute.

Her women's classes and books remain the usual Iyengar reference for practice across a woman's life, including prenatal yoga. Like her father, she taught yoga as a way to steady body, breath and attention together.

10. R. Sharath Jois - 1971-2024

Yoga School: Sharath Yoga Centre
https://sharathyogacentre.com/
Contribution: Lineage holder of Ashtanga Yoga after his grandfather K. Pattabhi Jois. Taught the Mysore method to students from around the world.
Books: Ashtanga Yoga Anusthana
Awards: None listed

Sharath Jois directed the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore, then taught from Sharath Yoga Centre. He argued for yoga in school curricula and authorised teachers who still run traditional Mysore programmes, including at the University of Virginia.

He died on 11 November 2024 in Virginia, aged 53, while on a teaching tour. Older versions of this article still treated him as living and misspelled his name as Sharad.

11. Maty Ezraty - 1963-2019

Yoga School: YogaWorks
https://www.yogaworks.com/
Contribution: Co-founded YogaWorks and trained a generation of Western teachers in a blend of Ashtanga vigour and Iyengar alignment.
Books: None
Awards: None listed

Ezraty practised Ashtanga as a vigorous, breath-linked series, not a slow practice. Lisa Walford introduced her to Iyengar precision. That mix became the YogaWorks house style after she co-founded the Santa Monica school in 1987.

She died in 2019. Many teachers still working in vinyasa studios can trace a training hour back to her rooms. The YogaWorks mix of vigour and alignment still shows up when teachers build a sequence for class.

12. Bernie Clark - Born 1953

Yoga School: Yin Yoga
https://yinyoga.com/
Contribution: One of the clearest Western writers on Yin Yoga, anatomy and why one pose does not fit every body.
Books: Your Body, Your Yoga
The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga
From the Gita to the Grail: Exploring Yoga Stories and Western Myths
Awards: None listed

Clark is more than a Yoga Alliance registration. Paul Grilley shaped modern Yin Yoga; Clark's books are the ones many teachers hand to trainees when they want anatomy without dogma. Teachers looking for a structured path in Australia can compare Yin Yoga teacher trainings and Yin Yang studios.

From the Gita to the Grail: Exploring Yoga Stories and Western Myths is one book. Earlier tables split the subtitle into a second title.

13. Seane Corn - Born 1966

Yoga School: Seane Corn / Off the Mat, Into the World
https://seanecorn.com/
Contribution: Linked vinyasa teaching to social activism through Off the Mat, Into the World and Seva Challenge tours.
Books: Revolution of the Soul: Awaken to Love Through Raw Truth, Radical Healing, and Conscious Action
Awards: Recognised for HIV/AIDS fundraising and a 2013 Global Green honour for international outreach.

Corn has one book. Radical Healing and Conscious Action are part of that subtitle, not extra titles. Detox Flow Yoga is a DVD, not a book.

Her public work has stayed with activism as much as asana: training teachers to take yoga principles into community projects, and raising funds through Seva Challenge tours.

14. Carrie Owerko

Yoga School: Carrie Owerko / The Playground
http://www.carrieowerko.com/
Contribution: Senior Iyengar teacher who folds movement science, play and yoga therapy into classical asana.
Books: Yoga: Point + Process (with Michael Bridge-Dickson)
Yoga, Movement and the Way of Play
Awards: None listed

Owerko holds a Senior Intermediate Iyengar credential, is a certified yoga therapist (C-IAYT) and a Functional Range Conditioning mobility specialist. She continues to study with the Iyengar family and with Patricia Walden.

The earlier book title Yoga Point plus Process was a slip. Curiosity and play are the words she uses for the work, not only alignment rules.

15. Esther Ekhart - Born 1972

Yoga School: EkhartYoga
https://www.ekhartyoga.com/
Contribution: Founded one of the largest European online yoga libraries, with hatha, vinyasa, yin and meditation classes used by teachers and students worldwide.
Books: None
Awards: None listed

Ekhart has taught for more than 20 years. The platform that carries her name made structured online classes normal in Europe before many studios had their own yoga apps.

Her teaching moves between stronger hatha or vinyasa and slower yin or meditation. Studios that now run hybrid timetables are working in a space she helped make ordinary.

16. Adriene Mishler - Born 1984

Yoga School: Yoga With Adriene / Find What Feels Good
https://yogawithadriene.com/
https://fwfg.com/
Contribution: Made free home yoga a default starting point. Yoga With Adriene had about 13.7 million YouTube subscribers when checked in 2026.
Books: None. The teaching library is the YouTube channel and FWFG app.
Awards: Streamy Award for health and wellness, 2016.

Google named Yoga With Adriene the most searched workout of 2015. The channel is still the widest on-ramp for people who will never walk into a studio first. Our Yoga With Adriene guide covers the series in more detail. She also sits near the top of our best yoga YouTube channels list.

Find What Feels Good is the paid library. FWFG Kula is the free community layer. The earlier 9 million subscriber figure is out of date.

17. Kathryn Budig - Born 1982

Yoga School: Kathryn Budig Yoga
https://www.kathrynbudig.com/
Contribution: Brought playful arm balances and inversions to a mainstream magazine and video audience, and co-founded Poses for Paws.
Books: Aim True
The Women's Health Big Book of Yoga
Aim True Yoga DVD
Awards: None listed

Budig trained at YogaWorks in an Ashtanga-based programme. She has been featured in Yoga Journal and other lifestyle press, and has designed collections with KiraGrace and others.

Older clips about Quarterlife, Yahoo Shine and Glam date from the 2010s. The through-line that still matters is accessible inversions and the Poses for Paws shelter fundraising.

18. Dylan Werner - Born 1980

Yoga School: Dylan Werner Yoga
https://www.dylanwerneryoga.com/
Contribution: Travelling teacher known for workshops on strength, breath and arm balances across more than 60 countries.
Books: The Illuminated Breath
Awards: None listed

Werner teaches vinyasa, power and yin, with a strong emphasis on pranayama. The Illuminated Breath is his book. Earlier tables listed the same title twice.

His public teaching is workshop-heavy rather than studio-based: short visits, teacher trainings and online breath work.

19. Briohny Smyth - Born in Sydney

Yoga School: Aligned Yoga
https://www.yogawithbriohny.com/
Contribution: Australian-born vinyasa teacher whose alignment-focused flows and online teacher trainings reach a global student base.
Books: Inspired Partner Yoga
Awards: None listed

Smyth previously ran Bryce Yoga in Los Angeles with Dice Iida-Klein. They later separated. She now leads Aligned Yoga, with 200-hour teacher trainings and 300-hour programmes online and in person. For the Australian path into teaching, see how to become a yoga teacher in Australia.

The classes still mix a strong vinyasa flow with detailed alignment. Dice appears in some guest modules; the school is hers.

20. Travis Eliot - Born in Texas

Yoga School: Holistic Yoga Flow / Inner Dimension Media
https://traviseliot.com/
Contribution: Created Holistic Yoga Flow and the Inner Dimension Media streaming library, combining asana with meditation, kirtan and Ayurveda.
Books: None
Awards: None listed

Eliot is an E-RYT 500 teacher based in Los Angeles. He has been featured in Yoga Journal, Mantra, Access Hollywood and the Huffington Post. Earlier tables pasted that biography into the books column as well.

Holistic Yoga Flow is the method. Inner Dimension Media is the subscription layer around it.

21. Meghan Currie - Born 1990

Yoga School: Meghan Currie Yoga
https://www.meghancurrieyoga.com/
Contribution: Canadian teacher known for a slow, breath-led, dance-like vinyasa she calls Breath Flow Movement.
Books: None
Awards: None listed

Currie is not the American YouTuber born in 1997. The yoga teacher grew up in Ontario, started Ashtanga at 19 in Costa Rica, then studied yin, vinyasa and Anusara. Her own site describes about 25 years of practice and 15 years of teaching. Students in Canada can also start with where to learn yoga in Canada.

Workshops, retreats and teacher trainings are the main format. The movement looks playful; the cueing stays on breath and sensation.

22. Chelsey Korus - Born 1984

Yoga School: Chelsey Korus
https://www.chelseykorus.com/
Contribution: Festival and media-facing teacher who mixes Anusara, power vinyasa, Ashtanga, acro and dance.
Books: None
Awards: None listed

Korus has been teaching since her teens. She has appeared in Yoga Journal, Shape, PopSugar and on Yoga International, and has headlined Wanderlust events as an Adidas athlete.

The public image is athletic and acrobatic. The training background is broader than one style, which is why she sits with the contemporary travelling teachers rather than a single lineage school.

Also influential

These teachers shaped Western practice too, but a full card for each would turn this page into a directory:

Paramahansa Yogananda - Autobiography of a Yogi and the Self-Realization Fellowship made kriya yoga and Indian spirituality familiar to American readers.
Swami Vishnudevananda - built Sivananda Yoga centres and some of the first structured teacher trainings in the West.
Paul Grilley - shaped modern Yin Yoga; Bernie Clark's books above are the usual next step for teachers.
Sharon Gannon and David Life - founded Jivamukti Yoga, linking asana to ethics, activism and vegetarianism.
Rodney Yee - the Gaiam-era home-video teacher who defined living-room yoga for a generation.
Kino MacGregor - one of the most visible contemporary Ashtanga teachers and authors after Sharath Jois.
Shiva Rea - developed Prana Vinyasa and a travelling festival circuit in the 2000s.

Studio owners hiring from this mix can start with six ways to find the best yoga teacher for a studio and the business challenges yoga teachers still face. The wider timetable picture is in the latest yoga trends.

This list does not celebrate Bikram Choudhury, Yogi Bhajan or John Friend as models. Their methods were widely practised. The public record around each is a reason not to hold them up here.

Sources and checking notes

Vivekananda's Chicago date: World's Parliament of Religions, 11 September 1893.
Iyengar honours: Padma Shri 1991, Padma Bhushan 2002, Padma Vibhushan 2014; Time 100, 2004.
Prime Minister's Yoga Awards were announced in 2016. Krishnamacharya (d. 1989) could not have received one. RIMYI received the 2017 organisational award.
R. Sharath Jois, 29 September 1971-11 November 2024. Reported by The Hindu and The New York Times.
Adriene Mishler subscriber count matches the figure used in our 2026 YouTube channels guide.
New portraits: Vivekananda (public domain), Pattabhi Jois (CC BY-SA 4.0, Magnolia Zuniga), Satchidananda (CC0, Nationaal Archief).

Frequently asked questions

Who first introduced yoga to the West?

Swami Vivekananda gave yoga its first mass Western audience at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. He taught Vedanta and raja yoga, not the asana classes most studios run today.

Who is called the father of modern yoga?

Tirumalai Krishnamacharya is widely called the father of modern postural yoga. His students B.K.S. Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois, Indra Devi and T.K.V. Desikachar carried different versions of his teaching into the West.

What is the difference between Iyengar Yoga and Ashtanga Yoga?

Iyengar Yoga emphasises precise alignment, props and carefully sequenced poses. Ashtanga Yoga, developed by K. Pattabhi Jois, links a set series of poses to breath in a vigorous, repeating practice.

Which famous yoga teacher is best for beginners online?

Adriene Mishler's Yoga With Adriene is the most accessible starting point in this list. The classes are free, clearly labelled and designed for home practice. See our Yoga With Adriene guide for series recommendations.

The bottom line

If you want the history, start with Vivekananda, Krishnamacharya, Indra Devi, Pattabhi Jois and Iyengar. If you want a class you can start tonight, start with Adriene. The teachers in between are why those two ends of the story still meet in the same studio timetable.

Learning stays unfinished. The useful move for someone starting a yoga business is to pick one lineage, practise it long enough to feel its limits, then read the next name on this list.