List of University of California, Berkeley alumni

This page lists notable alumni and students of the University of California, Berkeley. Alumni who also served as faculty are listed in bold font, with degree and year.

Notable faculty members are in the article List of University of California, Berkeley faculty.

Turing Award laureates
The Turing Award is considered to be the "Nobel Prize" of computer science.

MacArthur Fellowship
The MacArthur Fellowship is also known as the "Genius Grant"  or "Genius Award"

Business and entrepreneurship
Sally Schmitt, BS 1952 Founder The French Laundry

Religion, spirituality, and lifestyle
• Isaac Bonewits, B.A. Magic 1970 – neopagan author, priest, speaker and founder of contemporary druidic group Ár nDraíocht Féin

• Diana Ming Chan, B.A. – social worker

• Pema Chodron, B.A. – spiritual teacher and author, interpreter of Tibetan Buddhism for Western audiences; formerly known as Deirdre Blomfield–Brown

• Mayme Agnew Clayton, B.A. – librarian; founder, president, and spiritual Leader of the Western States Black Research and Education Center (WSBREC), the largest privately held collection of African–American historical materials in the world

• Adelle Davis, B.A. – nutritionist, author

• Madelyn Dunham – grandmother of Barack Obama (did not graduate)

• Barry Kerzin, B.A. 1972 – professor of medicine, Buddhist monk and teacher, and personal physician to the Dalai Lama

• Timothy Leary, Ph.D. 1950 – psychologist and counterculture figure

• Brittany Maynard, BA – activist for death with dignity

• Terence McKenna, B.Sc. 1969 – modern philosopher, author of the novelty theory and "stoned ape" hypothesis

• Franklin Rhoda, B.Sc. 1872, - activist for Chinese Civil Rights in the 1870’s; founded “Church of the New Age” and San Francisco’s “Underground Mission”; surveyed uncharted parts of Rocky Mountains

• Ed Roberts, B.A. 1964, M.A. 1966, C.Phil. 1969 – founder of the Independent Living Movement

• Kartar Singh Sarabha – Indian revolutionary

• Heng Sure, Ph.D. 1974 – American Buddhist monk of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas; one of the first Americans ordained in the States

•  Minh Dang, B.A. 2006 in Sociology, M.A. 2013 Social Welfare – independent consultant and advocate on matters of human trafficking and social justice

Fictional
• In the teen drama web television 13 Reasons Why Season 4 (2020), Jessica Davis (played by Alisha Boe) gets rejected by three schools, including Columbia. But she will go to UC Berkeley after graduated Liberty High School. And Alex Standal (played by Miles Heizer) as Jessica's classmate also receive acceptance letters from UC Berkeley.

• In the 2018 film A Simple Favor, Henry Golding's character, Sean Townsend, goes on to teach at UC Berkeley at the end of the film.

• In the 2018 film Venom, Emilio Rivera's character, plays Lobby Guard Richard, whose daughter is said to have received acceptances to UC Berkeley, Cornell, and MIT.

• In the 2018 film Ant-Man and the Wasp, Laurence Fishburne's character, Dr. Bill Foster, teaches quantum physics at UC Berkeley.

• In the 2017 film Lady Bird, Lady Bird's brother, Miguel McPherson, majored in math at UC Berkeley.

• In the show Archer, Season 6 Episode 8: The Kanes, Lana and Archer travel to Berkeley so that her parents can meet their granddaughter. Lana's mother Claudette is a professor of public policy with a focus on feminist issues at UC Berkeley.

• In the TV series Mad Men, Don's niece Stephanie (played by Caity Lotz) is a Berkeley student and later drop-out during the 1960s.

• In the 1969 Paul Mazursky film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Bob claims to his wife that the young woman on whom he cheated with her is not dumb and just received her master's degree from UC Berkeley at age 20.

• In Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park and The Lost World, Ian Malcom, a mathematician, is the Board Director of Mathematics at the University of California Berkeley.

• In the 2014 film Transcendence, Johnny Depp's character, Dr. Will Custer, and Rebecca Hall's character, Evelyn Caster, both live in Berkeley and run a lab at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

• In House of Lies, season 2 episode 2, it is mentioned that Marty, played by Don Cheadle, and Tamara, played by Nia Long, were both classmates at Berkeley. Dawn Olivieri's character Monica is also mentioned as having attended at the same time.

• In the 2012 film Savages, Aaron Taylor–Johnson's character, Ben, is mentioned as having graduated from Berkeley.

• In the 2012 film 21 Jump Street, Dave Franco's character, Eric, is mentioned as having been accepted to Berkeley, and plans to attend.

• In the episode "The Return of Wonder Woman" (Wonder Woman Season 2 pilot), Diana Prince pretends to be a UC Berkeley graduate.

• In the 2011 film Rise of the Planet of the Apes, James Franco's character, Will Rodman, is seen wearing a Berkeley t–shirt, implying that he attended the school in some capacity. There are also University of California diplomas on his wall.

• In 2001's Season 1 Episode 6 of the television series The Newsroom, character Sloan Sabbith is revealed to be an alumna of UC Berkeley.

• In the 2008 film High School Musical 3: Senior Year, Troy Bolton, played by Zac Efron, announces that he has chosen to attend UC Berkeley after graduation. His father is seen wearing a Cal hat at graduation.

• In House, Lawrence Kutner played by Kal Penn, received a full scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Physics.

• In the 2003 film Mona Lisa Smile, Julia Roberts' character is an idealistic Berkeley graduate.

• In the 1994 film Stargate, James Spader's character is revealed to have a University of California diploma when Dr. Catherine Langford is reviewing his credentials.

• In the 1992 film Basic Instinct, Dr. Beth Garner, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn received her Ph.D. in Psychology at Berkeley. Catherine Tramell, played by Sharon Stone, also received her B.A. in Psychology and Literature at Berkeley.

• In the Back to the Future trilogy, inventor of the Delorean time machine, Dr. Emmett Brown, attended Berkeley, stated by trilogy director Robert Zemeckis. In the original story line for Back to the Future 2, Biff would have gone to 1967 and George McFly would be teaching at Berkeley.

• Sandy Cohen from The O.C. graduated from Boalt School of Law at Berkeley. His wife, Kirsten Cohen has an Art History degree from Berkeley as well. Their adopted son Ryan Atwood then went on to complete a degree in architecture there.

• In the comic strip Doonesbury Joanie Caucus was accepted to and graduated from the Boalt School of Law in the 1970s.

• Press Secretary and later Presidential Chief of Staff C. J. Cregg, played by Allison Janney on the long–running The West Wing, got her master's degree from Berkeley.

• In the television series Grey's Anatomy, Sandra Oh's character, Dr. Cristina Yang, often boasts of having a Ph.D. from Berkeley, along with a college degree from Smith and a medical degree from Stanford.

• In the situation comedy Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Mark Cooper Mark Curry has a Cal Berkeley banner in his room.

• Berkeley is the setting for the film Boys and Girls starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Claire Forlani, who both play Berkeley students.

• The 2002 film Catch Me If You Can tells the true story of Frank Abagnale who faked getting his law degree from Berkeley to impress his fiance's father and to get a job as a lawyer. The character was played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

• The Hulk, directed by Ang Lee, largely takes place at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and private research facilities nearby. Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly played researchers.

• Jack Bauer, the lead character played by Kiefer Sutherland in the hit drama 24, got his Masters of Science in "Criminology and Law" at Berkeley (no such degree is offered).

• In the hit film Field of Dreams (1990), the lead character Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) is a Berkeley alum

• Rei Shimura, the protagonist in Sujata Massey's mystery novels, earned her master's degree in Japanese art history from Berkeley.

• In the film Gotcha! (1985), Jonathan (played by Anthony Edwards) falls for Sasha (played by Linda Fiorentino), a beautiful and mysterious Berkeley graduate student in film.

• Winona Ryder plays Finn Dodd, a Berkeley graduate student, in the 1995 film How to Make an American Quilt.

• In the 2001 film The Wedding Planner, Matthew McConaughey's character and Bridgette Wilson's character were claimed to have met as students at UC Berkeley.

• In USA Network's television series Monk, the title character, Adrian Monk, played by Tony Shalhoub, graduated from Berkeley (mentioned in the episode "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective", Season 4 & "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion", Season 5).

• Associate White House Counsel, Joe Quincy, played by Matthew Perry on The West Wing, earned his MBA and JD from Berkeley.

• In the situation comedy 3rd Rock from the Sun, Dick Solomon's (John Lithgow) love interest, Dr. Mary Albright (Jane Curtin), received her bachelor's degree from Berkeley

• In the 1988 film Die Hard (1988), Joseph Yashinobo Takagi (James Shigeta), President of Nakatomi Trading, is said to be a scholarship student at UC Berkeley, graduating in 1955.

• In the film Legally Blonde (2001), Harvard law student Enid Wexler earns a Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in women's studies, "emphasis in the history of combat".

• In the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Sara Sidle received her master's degree from UC Berkeley.

• The film Junior (1994), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, was filmed on the Berkeley campus.

• In the film Deep Impact (1998), starring Morgan Freeman and Téa Leoni, research on meteors were done on a Berkeley website.

• In the film Peaceful Warrior (2006), starring Scott Mechlowicz and Nick Nolte, the main character is a member of the male gymnastics team at UC Berkeley. The semi–autobiographical movie is based on the book Way of the Peaceful Warrior (1981), which was authored by real–life UC Berkeley alumnus Dan Millman.

• In the film Fathers' Day Dale Putley (Robin Williams), Jack Lawrence (Billy Crystal), and Collette Andrews (Nastassja Kinski) all were students at Berkeley. We could probably assume that Jack ended up getting his law degree there.

• In Family Ties, Steven Keaton and Elyse Keaton met at Berkeley as undergraduates. It can be assumed that Elyse got her architectural degree and Steve got his degree in political science, communications, or filmmaking. Mallory Keaton was born there on the day Steve was supposed to take a political science examination.

• In Full House, D.J. Tanner accepts an admissions offer from Berkeley.

• In The Graduate Elaine Robinson was a student at Berkeley.

• In Single Asian Female main character Jennie Low and several other characters are students at the school.

• In the Japanese manga series Hana–Kimi, Izumi Sano became a student at the college.

• In the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Captain Kirk claims that Spock went to Berkeley in the 1960s, where he "did too much LDS [sic]." However, Kirk merely invents this story to explain Spock's strange appearance and behavior. Spock actually went to Starfleet Academy, which is also located in the San Francisco Bay Area.

• In the film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Princess Mia's friend Lilly Moscovitz (Heather Matarazzo) claims to be a Berkeley graduate student. Actor Chris Pine, who played the male protagonist Lord Nicholas Devereaux in the movie, graduated with a bachelor's degree from Berkeley.

• In the film Magnolia (1999), Tom Cruise's seduction–guru character claims to have attended psychology classes at Berkeley.

• One of the central protagonists in Mischa Berlinski's novel Fieldwork (2007), Martiya van der Leun, is a Berkeley graduate student in anthropology.

• Marissa Cooper and Ryan Atwood frnom The OC are supposed to attend UC Berkeley before the car crash that kills her.

• In The Sopranos, Meadow Soprano (Jamie–Lynn Sigler) has her heart set on UC Berkeley against the wishes of her parents due to distance. Carmela Soprano throws away an admissions letter, that she later retrieves out of guilt, requesting transcripts.

• In Alias, Sydney Bristow’s ex–lover, Agent Noah Hicks (Peter Berg), says he was recruited out of Berkeley by SD–6.

• Large portions of the feature film Who'll Stop the Rain, starring Nick Nolte and Tuesday Weld, were filmed in the south campus area.

• In the book Snow Crash, both Hiro Protagonist and Juanita Marquez attended Berkeley.

• In Season 3 of the television series Weeds, Nancy Botwin mentions spending two and half years at Berkeley.

• In the movie A Perfect Murder, Viggo Mortensen's character claims to have studied art at Berkeley.

• In the series finale of Dollhouse, Mag, played by Felicia Day, says that prior to tech going wild, she studied sociology at Berkeley.

• Charmed protagonist Paige Matthews attended Berkeley to earn a degree in social work; Season 4 episode "A Paige from the Past" revealed that she was accepted into Berkeley partially due to a well–written essay on the subject of her adoptive parents' death.

• Percy Jackson protagonist, Annabeth Chase, is going to attend the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design after finishing her senior year of high school, revealed in Magnus Chase And The Gods Of Asgard: The Ship Of The Dead.

• In the season 3 finale of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Kimmy refers to UC Bark-ley, a dog pun for UC Berkeley.

• In the finale of Hannah Montana, Miley says she is driving from Malibu to Stanford. The building shown is actually the Valley of Life Sciences Building (VLSB) on the Berkeley campus.

• In the TV show Quantico, Oakland native Alex Parrish (played by Priyanka Chopra) has a stuffed bear wearing a UC Berkeley sweatshirt, suggesting that she may have attended the school before joining Quantico. Caleb Haas, a fellow Quantico trainee, enrolls at the Berkeley Law School after becoming an FBI agent.

• In the TV show Monk, Adrian Monk is a graduate of UC Berkeley.

• At the end of the movie Midnight Sun, Charlie Reed is leaving to UC Berkeley.

• A degree from Cal-Berkeley can be seen in Tara Knowles' office on the television series Sons of Anarchy.

• Charlie Salinger dropped out of Berkeley during his sophomore year in Party of Five.