The Roma have been known as entertainers in every country they have traveled. In eastern Europe, the Roma have been known as skilled acrobats, bear trainers, horse trainers, musicians, dancers and singers. They have owned and operated traveling carnivals and circuses. They have been prized by royalty as court musicians for their mastery of musical styles. 

Roma have contributed their own unique styles to middle eastern music, Jewish klezmer music, flamenco music and dance, jazz, and they have influenced other artists in their music and art, among them Liszt, Bizet, Brahms, Dvorák, Verdi, Rachmaninov, and Bartok.

Many well-known modern entertainers have claimed Romani ancestry, including the actor and Roma activist, Yul Brynner; the comedian, Charlie Chaplin; the actress, Rita Hayworth; the actor, Michael Caine; and the actor and director Bob Hoskins. The Gipsy Kings are perhaps the best known Roma musical entertainers in the world today.

The Romanes language has not had many important authors, primarily because of the absence of a universal standard in written Romanes. Among Roma authors are the novelist Mateo Maximoff, a Kalderash Rom, writing in French, translated by others into English and other languages. Papusza, the Romni poetess from Poland, is being "rediscovered" by new readers. Today, important Roma authors are emerging from Europe with critical acclaim, writing in Romanes.