List of notable UCLA alumni - Definition and Overview

Notable alumni

Nobel Laureates

• Ralph Bunche - Peace, 1950
• Bruce Merrifield - Chemistry, 1984
• Glenn T. Seaborg - Chemistry, 1951
• William Sharpe - Economics, 1990

Athletes

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - six time National Basketball Association champion; member of the Basketball Hall of Fame
• Troy Aikman - National Football League player; three time Super Bowl champion
• Arthur Ashe - tennis player and social activist; Wimbledon champion
• Matt Barnes - National Basketball Association player
• Drew Bennett - National Football League player
• Mohini Bhardwaj - Olympic silver medalist in gymnastics
• Carlos Bocanegra - Major League Soccer player
• Jimmy Connors - tennis player; Wimbledon champion
• Gail Devers - track and field runner; multiple Olympic gold medalist
• Don Drysdale - Major League Baseball Hall of Fame player with the Los Angeles Dodgers
• Lisa Fernandez - Olympic softball gold medalist
• Mike Flanagan - National Football League player; Green Bay Packers center
• DeShaun Foster - National Football League player; Carolina Panthers running back
• Troy Glaus - Major League Baseball player; 2002 World Series MVP
• Gail Goodrich - National Basketball Association Hall of Fame player; won an NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers
• Joanna Hayes - Olympic gold medalist track and field 100m hurdles record holder
• Monique Henderson - track and field runner; Olympic gold medalist in 4x400m relay
• Rafer Johnson - Olympic decathalon champion
• Cobi Jones - Major League Soccer player; MLS Cup champion
• Florence Griffith Joyner - Olympic gold medalist and world record holder in 100 meters race.
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee - track and field athlete, multiple Olympic gold medalist and world record holder in the heptathlon.
• Jason Kapono - National Basketball Association player
• Karch Kiraly - volleyball legend; only person to win Olympic gold medals in both indoor and beach volleyball.
• Michelle Kwan - world champion figure skater; record nine time U.S. National Champion (currently attending)
• Tommy Maddox - National Football League player; Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback
• Ricky Manning - National Football League player
• Holly McPeak - volleyball player and Olympic bronze medalist
• Reggie Miller - National Basketball Association player and Olympic gold medalist
• Freddie Mitchell - National Football League player
• Ken Norton Jr. - former National Football League player; three time Super Bowl champion
• Jonathan Ogden - National Football League player; Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle
• Jim Vo Parque - Major League Baseball player
• Jackie Robinson - the first African American to play Major League Baseball, Baseball Hall of Famer
• Woody Strode - football player; one of the first African American players to integrate the National Football League and film actor
• Scot Thompson - Major League Soccer player; MLS Cup champion
• Peter Vidmar - gymnast; three time Olympic gold medalist
• Bill Walton - National Basketball Association player, member of the Basketball Hall of Fame; now a broadcaster
• Kenny Washington - football player; one of the first African American players to integrate the National Football League
• Earl Watson - National Basketball Association player
• Jamaal Wilkes - National Basketball Association player; four time NBA champion

Arts, Film and Literature

• Catherine Asaro - Nebula Award winning science fiction novelist
• Lloyd Bridges - actor
• Carol Burnett - Emmy Award winning comedian
• Charles Burnett - film director
• Judy Chicago - artist and educator
• Francis Ford Coppola - Academy Award winning film director; wrote and directed the Godfather Trilogy and Apocalypse Now
• James Dean - actor and Hollywood icon
• Greg Ginn - guitarist of Black Flag
• Greg Graffin - lead singer of Bad Religion
• Mariska Hargitay - Golden Globe Award winning actress
• David Koepp - screenwriter
• Justin Lin - film director
• Ray Manzarek - keyboard player of The Doors
• Frank Marshall - film producer
• Niels Mueller - film director and screenwriter
• Jim Morrison - lead singer of The Doors
• Randy Newman - musician; Academy, Emmy, and Grammy Award winning film score composer
• Alexander Payne - filmmaker; director and screenwriter of Election, About Schmidt and Sideways
• Gina Prince-Blythewood - film director and screenwriter; wrote and directed Love and Basketball
• Tim Robbins - Academy Award winning actor and film director; wrote and directed Bob Roberts and Dead Man Walking
• Kira Roessler - bass player of Black Flag
• Eric Roth - Academy Award winning screenwriter
• Paul Schrader - screenwriter and film director; wrote Taxi Driver and Raging Bull
• Harry Shearer - actor and comedian
• Brad Silberling - film director and screenwriter
• Harry Turtledove - science fiction novelist
• Gabrielle Union - actress
• John Williams - Academy Award winning film score composer; composed the score to the Star Wars films
• Hoyt Yeatman - Academy Award winning visual effects supervisor

Business and Law

• Johnnie Cochran - attorney
• Mitch Kupchak - general manager for the Los Angeles Lakers
• Dorothy W. Nelson - senior judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
• Michael Ovitz - Hollywood power broker and former president of the Walt Disney Company
• Nobutada Saji - CEO of Suntory
• Robert Shapiro - attorney
• Stacey Snider - chairperson of Universal Pictures
• Kim McLane Wardlaw - judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Politics

• Tom Bradley - mayor of Los Angeles, 1973-1993
• Yvonne Braithwaite Burke - Los Angeles County Supervisor
• Benjamin Cayetano - governor of Hawaii, 1994-2002
• Sheila Kuehl - California state senator
• Linda Sanchez - member of the U.S. House of Representatives
• Antonio Villaraigosa - Los Angeles city councilperson and former California Speaker of the Assembly
• Henry Waxman - member of the U.S. House of Representatives

Academia, Science and Technology

• Paul Baran - Internet pioneer
• Vinton Cerf - Internet pioneer; frequently called the "Father of the Internet."
• Walter Cunningham - astronaut
• Mike Davis - writer, urban theorist and history professor at University of California, Irvine
• Thomas Everhart - physicist and former president of CalTech
• Anna Lee Fisher - astronaut
• Kay Redfield Jamison - writer and psychiatry professor at Johns Hopkins University
• Maulana Karenga - black studies professor at California State University, Long Beach and founder of Kwanzaa
• Geoffrey Marcy - astronomer; professor of physics and astronomy at University of California, Berkeley
• Story Musgrave - astronaut
• John L. Phillips - astronaut
• Jon Postel - Internet pioneer
• Hilary Putnam - philosopher of mind, language and mathematics; philosophy professor at Harvard
• Taylor Wang - astronaut
• Fred Whipple - astronomer

Miscellaneous

• Rudi Bakhtiar - national news anchor
• Jack Bauer - fictional character on the television program 24
• Brooke Burke - model and television personality
• Iva Toguri D'Aquino - World War II radio propagandist, "Tokyo Rose"
• Chris "Jesus" Ferguson - World Series of Poker main event winner and poker professional
• Carol Lin - national news anchor
• Kelly Perdew - winner of The Apprentice
• Princess Ubol Ratana - of Thailand
• Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukol - of Thailand