List of Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni

This list of alumni of Ethical Culture Fieldston School includes graduates and non-graduate former students.


 * A. G. Sulzberger – the chairman of The New York Times Company and the publisher of The New York Times
 * Jill Abramson – former executive editor of The New York Times
 * Clifford Alexander Jr. – former Secretary of the Army
 * George J. Ames – former Lazard executive
 * Joseph Amiel – author
 * Diane Arbus – photographer
 * Mary T. Bassett – Physician and public health researcher and public advocate
 * Leon Black – financier, Apollo Management and Drexel Burnham Lambert
 * Richard D. Brown – historian of colonial and revolutionary-era America; professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut
 * Nancy Cantor – chancellor, Syracuse University
 * Peter H. Christensen – academic
 * Jerry Craft – Children's book author; American cartoonist
 * Sofia Coppola – Oscar-winning writer/director (attended middle school at Fieldston)
 * Andrew Delbanco – critic and author. Director, American studies, Columbia University
 * Nicholas Delbanco – novelist
 * David Denby – film critic, The New Yorker
 * Ralph de Toledano – author
 * Glen de Vries – American entrepreneur in the field of medical science and pharmacology
 * Joseph Leo Doob – mathematician
 * Douglas Durst – real estate magnate
 * Francis Fergusson – literary critic and writer
 * Rita Gam – film actress
 * Jim Gardner – longtime WPVI-TV news anchor
 * Alan Gilbert – music director of the New York Philharmonic
 * Ailes Gilmour – dancer
 * Leonie Gilmour – educator and writer
 * Rob Glaser – internet pioneer
 * Matt Goldman, performance artist. Co-founder, Blue Man Group
 * Maggie Haberman – The New York Times political reporter
 * Patricia Harris – Former Deputy Mayor of NYC, President of Bloomberg Philanthropies
 * Judith Lewis Herman – psychiatrist
 * Susie Linfield – author, critic, editor and NYU Professor
 * Charles Herman-Wurmfeld – film director
 * Robert Jervis – political scientist. Adlai E. Stevenson Professor, Columbia University
 * Elizabeth Jonas (neurologist) – physician, neuroscientist, and professor, Yale School of Medicine
 * Bess Kalb – comedic writer, author and writer
 * Rodney Jones – jazz guitarist
 * Jeffrey Katzenberg – film producer, media mogul
 * Yosuke Kawasaki – violinist
 * Sinah Estelle Kelley – chemist
 * William Melvin Kelley – author (A Different Drummer, Dunfords Travels Everywhere)
 * Charlie King – New York civic leader and politician
 * Arthur Kinoy – civil rights lawyer
 * Ernest Kinoy – screenwriter
 * Walter Koenig – actor
 * Joseph Kraft – public affairs columnist
 * Jake Lamar – author, writer and playwright
 * Louise Lasser – actress
 * Christopher Lehmann-Haupt – author, The New York Times book reviewer
 * Sean Ono Lennon – musician (did not graduate from Fieldston)
 * Eda LeShan – child psychologist and author
 * Carl P. Leubsdorf – Washington bureau chief, Dallas Morning News
 * Doug Liman – film director (Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith)
 * Andrew Litton – conductor, New York City Ballet
 * Beulah Livingstone – motion picture publicist
 * Douglas Lowenstein – president and CEO of Private Equity Council, founder and former president of Entertainment Software Association
 * Douglas Lowy – cancer biologist; director of U.S. National Cancer Institute
 * Staughton Lynd – peace activist and civil rights activist
 * Jeffrey Lyons – film critic, WNBC-TV, New York City
 * Mark A. Michaels – author and sexuality educator
 * Bob Marshall – conservationist, writer, and the founder of The Wilderness Society
 * Andy Marvel – award-winning musician
 * Grace M. Mayer – curator at The Museum of the City of New York and The Museum of Modern Art
 * Jane Mayer – best selling author, investigative journalist, The New Yorker
 * Zach McGowan – actor
 * Marguerita Mergentime – industrial designer
 * Nicholas Meyer – film director
 * Jo Mielziner – stage designer
 * Olivette Miller – jazz harpist
 * Marvin Minsky – pioneer in artificial intelligence at MIT
 * Tim Minton – television journalist and media executive
 * Alfred Mirsky – cell biologist
 * Jeannette Mirsky – writer
 * Frederic S. Mishkin – governor of the Federal Reserve Board
 * Joan Morgan – Jamaican-American writer and author
 * Robert M. Morgenthau – retired New York County District Attorney
 * Robert Moses – urban planner and public official
 * Howard Nemerov – former United States Poet Laureate
 * Gabriel Olds – actor, writer
 * J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967), physicist, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, "Father of the Atomic Bomb"
 * Eleanor Pepper (1904–1997), architect, interior designer
 * Marjorie Perloff (1931–2024), poetry scholar and critic, known for her study of avant-garde poetry
 * Emanuel R. Piore (1908–2000, class of 1926)chief scientist of IBM, and electrical engineering pioneer
 * Belva Plain (1915–2010), author
 * Susan Poser (born 1963), President of Hofstra University
 * Letty Cottin Pogrebin (born 1939), author
 * Eve M. Troutt Powell – Historian of Middle East Studies
 * Edward R. Pressman (1943–2023), film producer
 * Richard Ravitch – business and civic leader
 * Nancy Reiner – graduating as Nancy Russek, cover artist of Jimi Hendrix album The Cry of Love (1971), among others
 * Menachem Z. Rosensaft – attorney and founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Survivors
 * Dan Rottenberg – journalist and author
 * Muriel Rukeyser – poet and playwright
 * David Sarasohn – associate editor and syndicated columnist for The Oregonian newspaper
 * James H. Scheuer – US Congressman (NY)
 * Gil Scott-Heron – musician
 * Nicole Seligman – lawyer, Sony executive
 * Cynthia Propper Seton – novelist
 * Robert B. Sherman – composer, lyricist, screenwriter, painter
 * Laura Silber – author, former journalist and Vice President for Advocacy and Communications at the Open Society Foundations
 * Mariko Silver – former president of Bennington College, President of Luce Foundation
 * Lucy Simon – composer, singer
 * Stephen Slesinger – creator of the Red Ryder comic strip
 * Tess Slesinger – author/screenwriter
 * Alan B. Slifka – Investor and philanthropist; founder of Big Apple Circus
 * Jay Smooth – radio host and cultural commentator
 * Donald J. Sobol – author of juvenile short stories; creator of Encyclopedia Brown
 * Stephen Sondheim – composer; attended the Fieldston Lower School
 * Dan Squadron – New York State Senator
 * Andy Stein – musician
 * Stewart Stern – screenwriter
 * Paul Strand – photographer and filmmaker
 * James Toback – filmmaker
 * Richard Tofel – journalist, attorney, administrator, non fiction writer
 * Doris Ulmann – photographer of Appalachia
 * Laurence Urdang – lexicographer, dictionary editor
 * Helen Valentine – founder of Seventeen magazine
 * Elliot Villar – actor
 * Barbara Walters – TV news
 * Andrew Weisblum – Oscar-nominated film editor
 * Andrew Weissmann – attorney and professor
 * Chris Wink, performance artist; co-founder, Blue Man Group
 * Howard Wolfson – deputy mayor of New York City
 * Jane C. Wright – oncologist
 * Keith L. T. Wright – New York State Assemblyman
 * Sheryl WuDunn – investment banker, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
 * Adam Yarmolinsky – academic and author who served in the Kennedy, Johnson and Carter administrations
 * Eli Zabar – New York City restaurateur
 * Lynn Zelevansky – museum curator