List of University of California, Irvine people

This page lists noted individuals associated with the University of California, Irvine.

Alumni

The following are noted alumni and students of the University of California, Irvine. When the information is known and available, degree and year are listed in parenthesis.

Athletics

*Brady Anderson (attended, economics)- former MLB player, three-time American League all-star
*David Baker (B.A. 1975) - commissioner of the Arena Football League, 1996 to present
*Scott Brooks (B.A. 1987) - member of the 1994 NBA World Champion Houston Rockets; Currently an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings
*Jennifer Chandler - gold medalist (diving) in the 1976 Olympics
*Steve Cleveland (B.A. 1976) - current men's head basketball coach at Fresno State University
*Bob Ernst (B.S. 1968) - current men's rowing coach at the University of Washington, and former U.S. national rowing coach (1984 Olympic gold medal winner), also coached the University of Washington's women's rowing team to numerous national championships
*Brad Evans - soccer player for the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer; represented the United States in the 2005 FIFA Under-20 World Cup
*Gary Figueroa (B.A. 1980) - gold medalist (water polo) in the 1984 Olympics
*Anthony Hamilton - soccer player for Chivas USA of Major League Soccer
*Bruce Ibbetson (B.S. 1975, MBA 1982) - silver medalist stroke of the eight(Rowing) in the 1984 Olympics and 8 time National team
*Brad Alan Lewis (B.A. 1976) - gold medalist (Rowing) in the 1984 Olympics Author of "Assault on Casitas"
*Doug Linton - former MLB pitcher
*Greg Louganis (B.A. 1983) - four-time Olympic gold medalist (diving)
*Tod Murphy (B.A. 1986) - former NBA player and third-round pick of the Seattle Supersonics in the 1986 NBA draft; currently an assistant coach for the UCI Men's basketball team
*Amber Neben (M.S. Biology) - U.S. National Road Race Championship and 2005 & 2006 Tour de l'Aude winner
*Mike Powell - world Long jump record-holder
*Steve Scott (B.A. 1978) - Olympian, American record holder for the indoor mile (3:58.7) and world record holder for the most sub-four minute miles (136)
*Greg Springer (B.S. 1983) - silver medalist (Rowing) in the 1984 Olympics
*Tom Tolbert (transferred) - former NBA player and current color-commentator for ABC sports
*Sean Tracey - current MLB pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles

Arts and Media

Film, Television, and Video

*Colet Abedi (B.A. English Literature) - Writer and producer of several television productions including Fashion House
*Aras Baskauskas (B.A. 2002, M.B.A. 2004, Philosophy) - Winner on TV reality show Survivor
*Nazanin Boniadi (B.S. 2002, Biological Sciences) - British-born Iranian-American actress, stars in General Hospital and
*Cameron Brinkman (current student, Film Studies) - Member of MTV's Season 3.
*Chris Canfield (B.A. 2002) - Video game designer, including Guitar Hero II and Rock Band (video game)
*Jo De La Rosa (B.A. 2003, English & Comparative Literature) - The Real Housewives of Orange County 1 & 2
*Crista Flanagan (M.F.A. 2001) - Actress, long-time cast member of MADtv
*Bob Gunton (B.A. 1968) - Actor, Shawshank Redemption, Tony-award winner
*Tyler Hoechlin (current student) - Actor, star of 7th Heaven, is a current UC Irvine student athlete (baseball)
*Mark Hutter (B.A. 1974) - Actor, credits include The West Wing
*Carrie Ann Inaba (attended) - Actress/Dancer, currently a judge on ABC's Dancing with the Stars
*Michelle Kim (current student) - Actress, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide
*Jon Lovitz (B.A. 1979, Theater) - Actor and comedian, Saturday Night Live
*Andrea Lowell (attended, Biology) - Model, VH1's The Surreal Life #6
*Joseph McGinty Nichol (B.S. 1990, Psychology) a.k.a. McG - Director ("Charlie's Angels" and ""), Co-Creator of "The O.C."
*Jeff Meek (B.A. 1983, Drama) - Actor of several TV series, including , Raven, and Breaking the Surface: the Greg Louganis Story
*Bob Porter (B.A. 1974) - Hollywood stuntman and actor, coxswain at UCI Crew
*Kaysar Ridha (B.A. 2004) - Contestant on Big Brother 6, Big Brother All-Stars
*Aurora Snow (attended, Theater Arts) - Pornographic Actress
*Raquel "Roqui" Theus (current student) - Actress, star of BET reality show Baldwin Hills, is a current UC Irvine student athlete (women's basketball); her father is former NBA star and current Sacramento Kings head coach Reggie Theus
*Phil Tippett (B.A., Art) - Filmmaker whose credits include Star Wars, RoboCop and Jurassic Park
*Thuy Trang (attended, Civil Engineering) - Actress, Trini from Power Rangers
*Byron Velvick (B.A. 1987, English) - star of The Bachelor, Season 6

Literature

*Nevada Barr (M.F.A. 1978) - author of "Anna Pigeon" Mysteries
*Aimee Bender (M.F.A. 1998) - author of the "The Girl in the Flammable Skirt"
*David Benioff (M.F.A. 1999) - author of The 25th Hour
*Michael Chabon (M.F.A. 1987) - 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning author for his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
*Joshua Ferris (M.F.A.) - author of Then We Came To The End
*Brian Flemming (B.A. English) - director and playwright
*Richard Ford (M.F.A. 1970) - Pulitzer Prize-winning author in Fiction for Independence Day
*Yusef Komunyakaa (M.F.A. 1980) - Pulitzer Prize-winning poet for "Neon Vernacular"
*Whitney Otto (M.F.A. 1990) - author of How to Make an American Quilt and Now You See Her
*T. Jefferson Parker (M.F.A. 1976) - fiction writer and author of "Laguna Heat", "Little Saigon", and "Pacific Heat"
*Alice Sebold (M.F.A. 1998) - bestselling novelist, author of "The Lovely Bones"
*Danzy Senna (M.F.A. 1996) - writer
*Maria Helena Viramontes (M.F.A. 1994) - chicana fiction writer
*Michael A. Bellesiles (Ph.D. 1986) -controversial historian and author of Arming America, The Origins of a National Gun Culture

Music

*Coco Lee (attended) - Chinese Pop Star
*Jeffrey Mumford (B.A. 1977) - classical music composer
*Aubrey O'Day (B.A. 2005) - member of Danity Kane (Making the Band 3 contestant)
*Members of Thrice - Hardcore/Rock Band
*Kaba Modern - Asian-American Dance Group established in 1992; 6 alumni dancers appeared on America's Best Dance Crew
*Jennifer Chung - Asian-American singer.

Art

*Chris Burden (M.F.A. 1971) - performance artist
*Barbara T. Smith (M.F.A. 1971) - performance artist

Business

*Wright Massey (M.B.A. 1992) - CEO of Brand Architecture, Inc.
*Betsy McLaughlin (B.A.) - CEO of Hot Topic, Inc.

Military

*R Michael Beanan - (B.A. 1973 M.S. 1982) community activist, cartoonist, decorated former Navy Seal subject in two different books about the Vietnam War, 'Seals' and 'Everything We Had'

Miscellaneous

*Generosa Ammon (B.A. 1981) - widow of Ted Ammon
*Erin Gruwell (B.A. 1991) - high school teacher whose real-life story inspired the movie Freedom Writers
*Jonathan Pendragon (B.A. 1976) - twice "Magician of the Year" from Academy of Magical Arts
*Charlotte Pendragon (B.A. 1976) - twice "Magican of the Year" from Academy of Magical Arts
*Michael Ramirez (B.S. 1984) - 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in the Memphis Commercial Appeal
*Lisa Marie Scott (attended) - Playboy centerfold, February 1995

Politics and government

*Jeremy Harris (M.S. Environmental Biology) - former mayor of Honolulu
*Janet Nguyen (B.A. 1998) - member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, first Vietnamese-American to hold county office in the United States
*Jose Solorio (B.S. 1992, Social Ecology) - California State Assemblyman, prior Councilmember of Ward 1 - City of Santa Ana
*Audra Strickland (B.A. 1996) - California State Assemblywoman representing the 37th assembly district
*Van Tran (B.A. 1990) - California State Assemblyman, first Vietnamese-American state legislator in the United States
*Karl Warkomski (B.S. 1990) - former mayor of Aliso Viejo, California

Technology

*Roy Fielding (Ph.D. 2000) - Internet pioneer, creator of HTTP 1.1, co-founder of Apache Foundation
*Bart Kosko (Ph.D. 1987) - intelligent systems expert
*Lawrence L. Larmore (Ph.D. 1986) - online algorithms researcher, faculty member at UC Riverside and UNLV
*James D. McCaffrey (B.A. 1975) - Software engineer and author; see combinadic and factoradic
*Paul Mockapetris (Ph.D. 1982) - Internet pioneer, co-inventor of the Domain Name System
*Jim Whitehead, (Ph.D. 2000) - Originator of WebDAV
*Thomas Yuen (B.S. 1974) - co-founder of AST Research Incorporated

Faculty

Faculty who were also alumni are listed in bold font, with degree and year in parenthesis.

*Francisco J. Ayala – 2001 National Medal Of Science, Founding Director of the Bren Fellows Program, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and of Philosophy.
*Gregory Benford – science fiction author of Galactic Center Saga and physicist
*Leo Chavez – anthropologist and author
*Erwin Chemerinsky – founding dean of the Donald Bren School of Law, lawyer, law professor and United States constitutional law and civil procedure scholar
*Ralph J. Cicerone – Former chancellor, current National Academy of Sciences president
* Robert Cohen – Noted acting teacher and author
*Jacques Derrida (1986 - 2004 [his death] ) – philosopher
*Paul Dourish – Professor of Informatics
*David Eppstein – Professor of Computer Science
*Walter M. Fitch – Professor of Molecular Evolution
*Robert Garfias, musicologist – awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, one of the Government of Japan’s oldest and highest honors, for his contributions to promoting traditional Japanese culture and cultural exchanges between Japan and the United States.
*Louis A. Gottschalk – acclaimed neuroscientist, Professor Emeritus
*Dan Hirschberg – Professor of Computer Science
*Hamid Jafarkhani – Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
*Ramesh Jain – Bren Professor of Computer Science
*Elizabeth Loftus – psychologist, Distinguished Professor in the School of Social Ecology
*R. Duncan Luce – cognitive psychologist, 2003 National Medal of Science, Distinguished Research Professor of Cognitive Science
*James McGaugh – Research Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior, former Director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
*Donald McKayle – Choreographer
*Penelope Maddy – Distinguished Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science and Mathematics, famous for her work in philosophy of mathematics
*David B. Malament – Distinguished Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science, best known for his work in the philosophy of physics.
*Duane Metzger – A founder of the modern science of ethnography
*J. Hillis Miller – Literary Critic
*Bonnie Nardi – Professor of Informatics
*Curt Pringle – mayor of Anaheim, former speaker of the California State Assembly
*Frederick Reines – (faculty 1966-1998, deceased) Nobel laureate, Physics 1995
*Irwin Rose – Nobel laureate (Chemistry 2004)
*F. Sherwood Rowland – Nobel laureate (Chemistry 1995), Research Professor in Chemistry and Earth System Science
*Donald G. Saari – Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Economics
*Dr. William Sears, – Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, author of the Sears Parenting Library
*Barry Siegel – Pulitzer Prize winner
*Brian Skyrms – philosophy of science expert, Distinguished Professor of social science
*George Sperling – cognitive psychologist, Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science
*Rein Taagepera (until 1991) – Estonian politician and political scientist
*Ngugi wa Thiongo – author of (A Grain of Wheat), Distinguished Professor in the School of Humanities and director of the International Center for Writing and Translation
*Edward O. Thorp – author ("Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One"), professor of mathematics
*Martin Wattenberg – political scientist
*Douglas R. White – Social anthropologist and network sociologist, U.S. Distinguished Scientist Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; Chair, Social Dynamics and Complexity (IMBS research group), founder [http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/~drwhite/center/cac.html#VIdeoSymposia Human Sciences and Complexity UC Videoconference series] ; External Faculty, Santa Fe Institute; author of (Network Analysis and Ethnographic Problems)
*Geoffrey Wolff – co-director of nationally acclaimed creative writing program

Other notable affiliates

*Tom Jennings – creator of FidoNet