List of University of California, Irvine people

Students and alumni

Art

• Michael Asher – conceptual artist
• Dan Bayles – abstract artist
• Chris Burden – performance artist
• Erica Cho – artist
• Tom Jancar, - contemporary art dealer Jancar Kuhlenschmidt Gallery and Jancar Gallery
• Barbara T. Smith – performance artist
• James Turrell - attended, minimalist artist primarily known for his use of light and space installations

  Film, television, and video

• Colet Abedi – writer and television producer
• Aras Baskauskas – winner on TV reality show Survivor; CEO of TundraWear.com
• Jim Berney – Academy award-nominated technical director, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix
• Nazanin Boniadi – actress, official spokeswoman for Amnesty International
• Crista Flanagan – actress, Mad Men
• Steve Franks – writer and television producer
• Bob Gunton – actor, The Shawshank Redemption, 24, Desperate Housewives; Tony-nominated for Broadway roles in Evita and '
• Tyler Hoechlin – actor, star of Teen Wolf
• Xanthe Huynh - voice actress, known for her work on The Familiar of Zero, Magical Girl Lyrical, K-On!, Love Live, Persona, and Fire Emblem
• Carrie Ann Inaba – actress/dancer, a judge on ABC's Dancing with the Stars
• Kelly Lin – Taiwanese actress, nominated for best actress for role in Mad Detective at 2007 Venice Film Festival
• Jon Lovitz – actor and comedian, Saturday Night Live
• Andrea Lowell – model, Playboy, VH1's The Surreal Life #6
• Beth Malone - Tony award nominee for Best Actress in a musical
• Tom Martin – TV writer whose credits include The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live
• Joseph McGinty Nichol a.k.a. McG – film director, co-creator of TV series The O.C.
• Joseph Andrew Mclean – Scottish filmmaker, studied at UCI as an exchange student from the University of Glasgow
• Jeff Meek – TV actor, Raven, As the World Turns and '
• Windell Middlebrooks – actor, star of Body of Proof
• Grant Nieporte – film writer, credits include 2008 Will Smith film Seven Pounds
• Sophie Oda – guest actress on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody
• Kelly Perine, television actor
• Aurora Snow – pornographic actress
• Phil Tippett – filmmaker, Star Wars, RoboCop and Jurassic Park
• Brian Thompson – actor
• Thuy Trang – actress, Trini from Power Rangers
• Byron Velvick – star of The Bachelor, Season 6

  Literature

• Nevada Barr – author of Anna Pigeon Mysteries
• Michael A. Bellesiles – controversial historian and author of Arming America, The Origins of a National Gun Culture
• Aimee Bender – author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt
• David Benioff – author of The 25th Hour, husband of actress Amanda Peet, co-creator of HBO's hit television series Game of Thrones
• Chelsea Cain – fiction writer
• Michael Chabon – 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning author for his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
• Leonard Chang – Korean-American writer of short stories and novels
• Joshua Ferris – author of Then We Came to the End which was nominated for the National Book Award and won the PEN/Hemingway Award
• Brian Flemming – director and playwright
• Richard Ford – Pulitzer Prize-winning author in Fiction for Independence Day
• Glen David Gold – author of Carter Beats the Devil and Sunnyside
• Yusef Komunyakaa – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet for Neon Vernacular
• T. Jefferson Parker – fiction writer and author of Laguna Heat, Little Saigon, and Pacific Heat
• Alice Sebold – bestselling novelist, author of The Lovely Bones
• Danzy Senna – writer
• Maria Helena Viramontes – Chicana fiction writer
• Peter Wild – poet, historian, and Professor of English at the University of Arizona

  Music

• Joey Burns – frontman of Calexico
• Clara Chung – guitarist and singer
• Gregory Coleman – classical guitarist, recording artist, composer, arranger, educator
• Coco Lee – Chinese pop star
• Kevin Kwan Loucks – International Concert Pianist; President and Co-Founder of Chamber Music OC; Member of Classical Music Ensemble Trio Céleste
• Jeffrey Mumford – classical music composer
• Aubrey O'Day – member of Danity Kane
• Savitree Suttichanond – Thai singer and actress, Academy Fantasia Season 5
• Kaba Modern – Asian-American dance group established in 1992; 6 alumni dancers appeared on America's Best Dance Crew
• Teal Wicks – American singer and stage actress, best known for playing the role of Elphaba in the Broadway production of the musical Wicked
• Vanness Wu – Taiwanese singer, actor, director, producer, member of F4
• Members of Farside – hardcore punk band
• Members of Thrice – hardcore/rock Band
• Kei Akagi – toured as pianist for famous jazz musician and composer Miles Davis
• Joseph Vincent – YouTube singer/songwriter
• Members of Milo Greene – indie/pop band
• Members of SLANDER – trap DJ duo

  Baseball

• Brady Anderson – former MLB outfielder for the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles, three-time American League all-star
• Dylan Axelrod – pitcher for the Chicago White Sox
• Andre Antone – Worst player in UCI History
• Doug Linton – former MLB pitcher
• Ben Orloff, minor league baseball player
• Bryan Petersen – outfielder for the Florida Marlins
• Sean Tracey – former MLB pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox
• Gary Wheelock – former MLB pitcher for the California Angels and Seattle Mariners
• Joe Furukawa - former player in Japanese Professional Baseball. Currently scout for the Texas Rangers. Former interpreter to Yu Darvish.

  Basketball

• Scott Brooks – former head coach of the NBA team Oklahoma City Thunder; point guard on the 1994 NBA Champion Houston Rockets, current head coach of the Washington Wizards
• Steve Cleveland – men's head basketball coach at Fresno State University
• Tod Murphy – former NBA player and third-round pick of the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1986 NBA draft; assistant coach for the UCI Men's basketball team
• Tom Tolbert – former NBA player and current color-commentator for ABC sports

  Olympians

• Peter Campbell – won two silver medals Olympics
• Jennifer Chandler – gold medalist in the 1976 Olympics
• Gary Figueroa – silver medalist in the 1984 Olympics
• Brad Alan Lewis – gold medalist in the 1984 Olympics, author of Assault on Lake Casitas
• Greg Louganis – four-time Olympic gold medalist
• Amber Neben – U.S. National Road Race Champion, 2005 & 2006 Tour de l'Aude winner, 2008 World TT Champion, and placed 33rd in the road race at the 2008 Olympics
• Mike Powell – world long jump record-holder; two-time Olympic silver medalist
• Steve Scott – American record holder for the indoor mile ; world record holder for the most sub-Four-minute miles

  Soccer

• Carlos Aguilar – forward for the Rochester Rhinos of USL Professional Division
• Cameron Dunn – defender for the Los Angeles Blues of the USL Professional Division
• Brad Evans – midfielder for the Seattle Sounders of Major League Soccer and the United States men's national soccer team
• Irving Garcia – forward for the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer
• Anthony Hamilton – forward for the Rochester Rhinos of the USL Professional Division
• Miguel Ibarra - midfielder for Minnesota United of Major League Soccer
• Cameron Iwasa - forward for Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer
• Kenny Schoeni – former goalkeeper for the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer
• David Sias – former defender for the Austin Aztex of the USL Professional Division

  Other athletics

• David Baker – commissioner of the Arena Football League, 1996 to present
• Carl Cheffers – National Football League and Super Bowl LI referee
• Shane del Rosario – professional mixed martial artist
• Darren Fells – tight end for the Arizona Cardinals. Played basketball at UCI and professionally in Europe and Latin America.
• Joe Lacob – owner of NBA's Golden State Warriors

  Business

• Arnnon Geshuri – corporate human relations executive
• Wright Massey – CEO of Brand Architecture, Inc.
• Betsy McLaughlin – CEO of Hot Topic, Inc.

  Military

• Leon J. LaPorte – retired United States Army General who served as Commander, United States Forces Korea until 2006
• Laura Yeager, U.S. Army general, first woman to command an Army infantry division

  Miscellaneous

• Generosa Ammon – widow of Ted Ammon
• Khaldoun Baghdadi – Palestinian-American attorney
• David J.R. Frakt – lawyer, law professor, noted for his appointment to defend Guantanamo detainee Mohammed Jawad
• Erin Gruwell – high school teacher whose real-life story inspired the movie Freedom Writers
• Michael Ramirez – 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in the Memphis Commercial Appeal; senior editor for Investor's Business Daily
• Lisa Marie Scott – Playboy centerfold, February 1995

  Politics and government

• Ami Bera – United States Congressman representing California's 7th Congressional District
• Tim Donnelly – California State Assemblyman representing the 59th assembly district
• Jeremy Harris – former mayor of Honolulu
• Mark Keam – member of the Virginia House of Delegates representing the 35th district
• Bill Leonard – former California State Senator
• Linda Newell – Colorado State Senator representing the 26th District
• Janet Nguyen – member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, first Vietnamese-American to hold county office in the United States
• Michael A. Rice – Rhode Island State Representative representing the 35th District
• Jose Solorio – California State Assemblyman, prior Councilmember of Ward 1 – City of Santa Ana
• Audra Strickland – California State Assemblywoman representing the 37th assembly district
• Van Tran – California State Assemblyman, first Vietnamese-American state legislator in the United States

  Science and technology

• Paul Chien – biologist known for research on the physiology and ecology of intertidal organisms
• Deanna M. Church – bioinformatics and genomics researcher
• Charles Falco – experimental physicist whose research resulted in the Hockney-Falco Thesis
• Roy Fielding – Internet pioneer, creator of HTTP 1.1, co-founder of Apache Foundation
• Efi Foufoula-Georgiou Prof Env. Engineer on staff
• Bart Kosko – hybrid intelligent system expert
• Lawrence L. Larmore – online algorithms researcher, faculty member at UC Riverside and UNLV
• James D. McCaffrey – software engineer and author; see combinatorial number system and factorial number system
• Paul Mockapetris – Internet pioneer, co-inventor of the Domain Name System
• Kathie L. Olsen – chief operating officer of the National Science Foundation
• Andrew P. Ordon – plastic surgeon, host of The Doctors
• Jim Whitehead, – originator of WebDAV, UCSC professor

  Social Scientists

• Noeline Alcorn - education researcher
• Sara Diamond – sociologist
• Kevin Nadal - Professor of Psychology, Author, Media correspondent.

  Faculty

• Vartkess Ara Apkarian – Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Director of Center for Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit
• Francisco J. Ayala – 2001 National Medal of Science, 2010 Templeton Prize, Founding Director of the Bren Fellows Program, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and of Philosophy
• Ricardo Asch – fertility doctor and fugitive, accused of stealing ova from women while a UC Irvine employee
• Pierre Baldi – Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science and director of the Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics
• Lindon W. Barrett – Director of African Studies, professor and cultural theorist
• Gregory Benford – physicist, science fiction author of the Galactic Center Saga
• George W. Brown – Information scientist and dean of the business school
• Ron Carlson – Professor of English, MFA Programs in Writing
• Leo Chavez – anthropologist and author
• Erwin Chemerinsky – founding dean of the UCI School of Law, lawyer, law professor, and United States constitutional law and civil procedure scholar
• Robert Cohen – acting teacher and author
• Rui de Figueiredo – Research Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Mathematics
• Jacques Derrida – philosopher
• Paul Dourish – Professor of Informatics
• Nikil Dutt – Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science
• David Eppstein – Professor of Computer Science
• Walter M. Fitch – Professor of Molecular Evolution
• Michael Franz – Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science
• Matthew Foreman – Professor of Mathematics
• Robert Garfias – musicologist, awarded the Order of the Rising Sun
• Jean-Luc Gaudiot — professor at the Henry Samuel School of Engineering
• Amy Gerstler – poet, Professor of English, winner of National Book Critics Circle Award
• Michael T. Goodrich – Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science
• Louis A. Gottschalk – neuroscientist, Professor Emeritus
• Jutta Heckhausen – Professor of Psychological Science
• Payam Heydari – Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• James D. Herbert – professor and chair of the Art History department
• Dan Hirschberg – Professor of Computer Science
• Hamid Jafarkhani – Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Ramesh Jain – Bren Professor of Computer Science
• Valerie Jenness – Professor of Criminology, Law & Society, Sociology, and Nursing Science
• Wilson Ho – Donald Bren Professor of Physics and Chemistry and discoverer of scanning tunneling microscopy based inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy
• Murray Krieger – literary critic and theorist
• Michelle Latiolais – Professor of English, MFA Programs in Writing
• 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
• George Marcus – Chancellor's Professor of Anthropology
• James McGaugh – Research Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior, founding 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.
• J. Hillis Miller – literary critic
• Peter Navarro-Professor of business, incumbent director of the White House National Trade Council
• Bonnie Nardi – Professor of Informatics
• David Neumark – Professor of Economics, expert on labor economics
• Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o – author of A Grain of Wheat, Distinguished Professor in the School of Humanities and director of the International Center for Writing and Translation
• James Nowick – Professor of Chemistry
• Richard E. Pattis – author of the Karel programming language
• Lyman W. Porter - dean of UC Irvine's Paul Merage School of Business from 1972 to 1983
• Curt Pringle – mayor of Anaheim, former speaker of the California State Assembly
• R. Radhakrishnan – Chancellor's Professor of English and Comparative Literature
• Frederick Reines – Nobel laureate, Physics 1995
• Irwin Rose – Nobel laureate
• Eric Rignot – Professor of Earth System Science
• F. Sherwood Rowland – Nobel laureate, 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
• Patricia Seed – Professor of History
• Barry Siegel – Pulitzer Prize winner
• Brian Skyrms – philosophy of science expert, Distinguished Professor of social science
• David A. Snow – Distinguished Professor of Sociology
• Etel L. Solingen – Tierney Chair, Professor of Political Science, former President of the International Studies Association, 2012–2013, author of award-winning Nuclear Logics
• George Sperling – cognitive psychologist, Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science
• Grover C. Stephens – Professor and dean of Biological Sciences
• Lee Swindlehurst – Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Rein Taagepera – Estonian politician and political scientist
• Edward O. Thorp – author, professor of mathematics
• Martin Wattenberg – political scientist
• Douglas R. White – social anthropologist and network sociologist, author of Network Analysis and Ethnographic Problems
• Kumar Wickramasinghe – Henry Samueli Endowed Chair and inventor of Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy and other microscopy techniques
• Jon Wiener - historian
• Geoffrey Wolff – co-director of a writing program
• Jenny Y Yang – chemist

  Staff and administrators

• Daniel Aldrich - founding chancellor
• Ralph J. Cicerone – fourth chancellor, former president of the National Academy of Sciences
• Larry Coon – basketball writer
• Michael V. Drake - fifth chancellor, president of Ohio State University
• Jack Peltason - second chancellor, former president of the University of California
• William Pereira -- original architect of the campus and surrounding city
• Tom Jennings – creator of FidoNet