Notable Alumni of UC Santa Cruz: A Legacy of Innovation and Impact

The University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) has fostered a diverse and accomplished alumni community that has significantly impacted various fields, ranging from arts and humanities to sciences and technology. Starting in January, UC Santa Cruz adorned campus with celebratory banners of notable alumni. The alumni site deems 2018 “the year of the alumni, […] a time to savor, celebrate, and promote the legacy of proud Banana Slugs who have made their mark as they’ve gone on to successful careers.” This article aims to highlight a selection of these distinguished individuals, showcasing the breadth and depth of their contributions to society.

Arts, Literature, and Entertainment

UCSC has been a fertile ground for creative minds who have achieved recognition in various artistic disciplines.

Actors, Models, and Musicians:

Rebecca Romijn: An actress and former model known for her role as Mystique in the X-Men film series, as well as roles in Femme Fatale and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. She has also hosted the reality competition show Skin Wars.
Andy Samberg: An actor, comedian, musician, writer, and producer. He is a member of the comedy music group The Lonely Island and a former cast member on Saturday Night Live, where he popularized SNL Digital Shorts.
Maya Rudolph: An actress and comedian who was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2000 to 2007.
Tom Franco: An actor, artist, and the founder of the Firehouse Art Collective in Berkeley, California.
Brett Dennen: A folk/pop singer-songwriter from Central California.

Authors and Writers:

bell hooks (Gloria Jean Watkins): An author, theorist, educator, and social critic known for her writings on race, feminism, and class. She published around 40 books, including essays, poetry, and children's books.
Amy Tan: An author best known for her novel The Joy Luck Club, which was adapted into a film.
Miranda July: A film director, screenwriter, actress, and author known for her work in film, fiction, monologue, digital presentations, and live performance art.
Michael Scherer: Time magazine Washington correspondent. True to his roots as a creative writing major at UCSC, Scherer strives for vivid language as compelling as the facts unearthed by his vigorous reporting.
Lou Mathews: Writer, "Best Book" of 1999 for L.A. Breakdown.
Reyna Grande: Overcoming the language barrier and her status as an undocumented immigrant in the United States, Grande made the most of her new home, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in creative writing/film & video from UC Santa Cruz in 1999.
Sasha Su-Ling Welland: Her new book tells the stories of her grandmother and great aunt, spirited and competitive sisters who came of age in China in the 1920s. As part of an international wave of "modern girls," these young women flouted convention as successfully as their Western counterparts, the familiar "flappers" of the Roaring '20s, and their lives reveal the international roots of feminism, says Welland (Ph.D. anthropology, '06).

Filmmakers and Directors:

Cary Joji Fukunaga: A filmmaker known for directing the first season of the HBO series True Detective and films such as Sin nombre, Jane Eyre, Beasts of No Nation, and No Time to Die. He also co-wrote the Stephen King adaptation It.
Akiva Schaffer: A writer, producer, director, comedian, actor, and musician. He is a member of the comedy music group The Lonely Island.
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin: An American director, writer, actor, and musician. He is a founding member of the punk band Link 80 and co-creator of the filmmaking collectives Chad, Matt & Rob and Radio Silence. He is best known for his work in horror films, including V/H/S, Southbound, Ready or Not, Scream, Scream VI and Abigail.
Marti Noxon: An American television and film writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her work as a screenwriter and executive producer on the supernatural drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Musicians and Composers:

Gillian Welch: An American singer-songwriter who performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings.
Wayne Horvitz: Composer, pianist, and keyboardist who has performed on more than 100 albums and CDs over the past 25 years.
David Cope: professor of music; notable for his experiments in A.I.
Dominic W:
Stanford E:

Social Activism and Politics

UCSC has a strong tradition of social activism, and many of its alumni have gone on to become influential figures in politics and social justice movements.

Huey P. Newton: An African American revolutionary and political activist who co-founded the Black Panther Party.
Carmen Perez: One of the leaders of the international women’s march on Washington and member of the Women’s March Board.
Marizza Delgado: Miss New York USA, a New York City-based engineer, model, and advocate for women in STEM.
Robin Toma: As executive director of the commission, UCSC graduate Robin Toma (B.A., economics and sociology, Oakes College, '82) fielded media calls and interpreted the report for journalists. The report was discouraging, but Toma is committed to the fight for racial equality and social justice.
John M. Ackerman: An American-born, naturalized Mexican political activist, TV host, and academic at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Nina Grove: Nina Grove's interest in public health began when she took a year off from her studies at UC Santa Cruz to travel and ended up living in Nairobi, Kenya, where she volunteered at a school for disabled children.
Filer: "My parents were both civil rights activists, and as a child, I'd listen in when the adults were talking strategy," recalls Filer. "Their discussions always ended the same way, asking 'What do the lawyers say?
Loftin: Studying politics and being involved in student government while at UCSC, her commitment to student activism helped strengthen resources available to Black students on campus. She brought this drive to her professional life as well. She currently works as the director of the national NAACP Youth and College Division. As a Black woman from Los Angeles, Loftin said she did not feel like she had to be a Black woman until she got to UCSC. With the Black population on campus floating below 2 percent for years, the shock of coming from predominantly Black neighborhoods to being the only Black person in a classroom is an extreme shock for a lot of ABC-identified students. Her advocacy went viral.

Science and Technology

UCSC has a strong reputation in the sciences, particularly in fields like astronomy, biology, and computer science. Its alumni have made significant contributions to research, innovation, and technology.

Susan Wojcicki: An American business executive who was the chief executive officer of YouTube from 2014 to 2023.
Ezra Klein: An American liberal political commentator and journalist. He is currently a New York Times columnist and the host of The Ezra Klein Show podcast.
Konstantin Batygin: An American astronomer and Professor of Planetary Sciences at Caltech.
Kathryn D. Sullivan: An American geologist, oceanographer, and former NASA astronaut and US Navy officer. She was a crew member on three Space Shuttle missions.
Ted Goldstein: Ted Goldstein has built a successful career in the computer industry by combining expertise in programming with an appreciation for the human side of technological innovation.
Julie Packard: The Monterey Bay Aquarium, which Julie Packard helped found and has led as executive director since it opened 20 years ago, is among the world’s most popular attractions.
David Haussler: Part of the team to first map the human genome and create the open-source UCSC Genome Browser.
Jim Kent: Part of the team to first map the human genome and create the open-source UCSC Genome Browser.
Claire Max: Award-winning astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science known for her work on Nova, National Academy of Sciences member and a NASA Public Service Medal recipient.
Jonathan Fortney: Award-winning astronomer, part of the team to discover the first known multiple-planet system.
Greg Laughlin: Named “Brilliant 10” young scientists by Popular Science, now an award-winning professor of astronomy at Yale University.
Linda M. Godwin: Former NASA astronaut and NASA Distinguished Service Medal awardee.
Mark M. Phillips: Inventor of the Phillips relationship and pioneer in supernova cosmology.
Adam Riess: Award-winning astrophysicist and cofounder of the High-z Supernova Search Team, which was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011 for discovering dark energy.
Cora E. Randall: spent 33 years working first on the Hubble Space Telescope and later on satellite missions devoted to examining Earth’s atmosphere.
Joseph DeRisi: Award-winning American biochemist for printing the first whole genome array, discovering the SARS virus, and work on malaria, MacArthur Fellow and National Academy of Sciences member.
Phillip Crews: Inventor of novel chemical tools for the study of microbe-host interaction.
Carolyn Bertozzi: Known for pioneering work establishing lectin microarrays as a new technology for glycomics.
Jay Keasling: Award-winning cell and systems biologist and cofounder of the emerging field of synthetic biology.
Josh Stuart: Award-winning biologist exploring neurodegenerative diseases, HHMI Investigator.
Sally Ride: First woman to walk in space in 1984, 10th Administrator of the NOAA.
Daniel Costa: Director of the Institute of Marin Sciences, California Academy of Sciences and the Society for Marine Mammalogy Fellow, held the Ida Benson Lynn Chair in Ocean Health at UC Santa Cruz from 2008 to 2013.
Jacob Martinez: Digital NEST founder and serves on the Board of Directors of Santa Cruz Works.
Lisa J. Crozier: Scripps Postdoctoral Scholar at UC San Diego, top winner in the “Research Scientist: Graduate Student” category for her work at UC Santa Cruz on data visualization tools.
Alan Hastings: With 230 publications to his name, he has received many accolades, including a Guggenheim fellowship, the American Chemical Society Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics, and memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
Michael Dine: Professor of physics, particle physics and astrophysics at Stanford University and director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.
Robert Shaw: Pioneer of chaos theory and MacArthur Fellow.
Richard Flagan: Founder and president of Aerosol Dynamics in Berkeley.
Mostafa Ghous:
Matt Ratto: UCSC graduate with a B.A. arts, Ratto received his Ph.D. programmer for Digital Systems International in Seattle. society.
Dug Stanat: Stanat is a digital puppet maker, transforming static computer-generated models into virtual marionettes.
Colleen Reichmuth: A triple-degree holder from UC Santa Cruz, Colleen Reichmuth is a senior research scientist at UCSC’s Institute of Marine Sciences and head of the Pinniped Cognition and Sensory Systems Lab.

Business and Entrepreneurship

UCSC alumni have also made their mark in the business world, founding companies and leading organizations across various industries.

Jonah Peretti: A co-founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, a co-founder of The Huffington Post, and a developer of reblogging under the project "Reblog".
Mark Headley: "Through a real accident of history, I ended up in the asset management industry, which I didn't even know existed," said Headley, who grew up in Berkeley and arrived at UCSC as "a young radical kid--cynical, confused and angry.
Bruce Buel: "It was the best thing I ever did," says Bruce, a graduate of Santa Cruz High School. "I wanted to study. Bruce lived on campus and spent his first year playing "major-of-the month," before deciding on economics and discovering politics professor Robert Meister. For Bruce, the combination of economics, politics, math, and philosophy was the key that unlocked the door to learning.
Merrill Feitell: UCSC alumna Merrill Feitell is on a roll.

Other Notable Alumni

Victor Davis Hanson: An American classicist, military historian, and conservative political commentator.
Bret Weinstein: An American podcaster, author, and former professor of evolutionary biology.
Jesse Thorn: The Sound of Young America, the irreverent arts and comedy interview show he created while a student at UCSC, was picked up in June for distribution by Public Radio International (PRI)--the same people who bring Ira Glass's award-winning This American Life and the BBC News to audiences each week across the country.
Davia Nelson: A star of public radio, Silva (B.A., aesthetic studies, 1973) has produced groundbreaking programming for National Public Radio with her longtime collaborator and fellow UCSC graduate Davia Nelson (B.A., politics, 1975). Over the years, the two women have attracted devoted listeners to several series, including Lost & Found Sound and the Sonic Memorial Project, an audio archive of the World Trade Center.
Kennan Ward: When National Geographic hired Kennan Ward to photograph red tree-kangaroos, he was thrilled by the prospect of a trip to Australia. "Even for the biggest magazines, it's just not cost-effective to photograph animals in the wild," said Ward, one of the leading wildlife photographers in the world and a purist who prefers to work in nature. "I like my animals wild.
Francisco Rosado-May: Francisco Rosado-May’s path to the presidency of a public university in Mexico began in the rural village of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, where he and other eager Mayan youngsters gathered in a hallway to take classes.
Kent Nagano: Kent George Nagano is an American conductor and opera administrator. Since 2015, he has been Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the Hamburg State Opera (until 2025).
Richard Bandler: An American writer, consultant, and public speaker in the field of self-help.
Edward Neumeier: An American screenwriter best known for his work on the science fiction movies RoboCop and Starship Troopers.
Omi Vaidya: An American actor of Indian descent who works in Bollywood films. He is best known for his performance as Chatur Ramalingam or "Silencer" in the 2009 buddy-drama film, 3 Idiots.
Brannon Braga: An American television producer, director and screenwriter. Best known for his work in the Star Trek franchise, Braga was a key creative force behind three of the franchise's live action series.
Ethan Klein: An American-Israeli YouTuber and podcaster. He is the host of the H3 Podcast.
Gus Hansen: Gustav Hansen is a Danish professional poker player from Copenhagen, Denmark who has lived in Monaco since 2003.
Susan Ruttan: An American actress. She is best known for her role as Roxanne Melman on L.A. Law, for which she was nominated four times for a Primetime Emmy Award.
Gurdon Woods: sculptor who helped establish UCSC Art Department.

Read also: Campus Resources at UCSC

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