List of University of Sussex alumni

This is a list of notable alumni of the University of Sussex.

Politicians
• Peter Kyle, British Labour Politician and member of British Parliament

• Kemi Badenoch, Conservative Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden

• Marina Baker, Liberal Democrat politician in Lewes

• Enele Sopoaga, former Prime Minister of Tuvalu

• Tony Baldry, former Conservative Member of Parliament for Banbury

• Hilary Benn, Labour Member of Parliament for Leeds Central, former Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

• Lloyd Russell-Moyle, British Labour politician and Member of British Parlimaent

• Ben Bradshaw, Labour Member of Parliament for Exeter, former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

• Isatou Touray, Vice-president of The Republic of The Gambia

• Carlos Alvarado Quesada, president of Costa Rica

• Simon Busuttil, Maltese Member of the European Parliament

• David Lee Camp, U.S. member of the House of Representatives

• Bernard Coard, minister and deputy prime minister of Grenada

• Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka

• Rob Davies, minister of the Department of Trade and Industry of South Africa

• Bogolo Kenewendo, Economist and youngest-ever government minister of Botswana

• Michael Fabricant, Conservative Member of Parliament for Lichfield

• Andrew George, former Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives

• Philip Gould, Lord Gould, Life peer and adviser to the Labour Party

• Peter Hain, former Labour Member of Parliament for Neath and Secretary of State for Wales

• Sir Jonathan Faull, former British official in the European commission and current chair of European Public Affairs at Brunswick and Professor at King's College London

• David Hallam, former Labour Member of the European Parliament, author

• Musa Hitam, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia

• David Lepper, former Labour Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion

• Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa

• James McMurdock, Reform UK Member of Parliament for South Basildon and East Thurrock

• Festus Mogae, President of Botswana

• Caroline Nokes, Conservative Member of Parliament for Romsey and Southampton North

• Dan Norris, former Labour Member of Parliament for Wansdyke, North East Somerset and Mayor of the West of England (2021 - present)

• Sherry Rehman, Senator, Pakistan (2015–Present)

• Matt Rodda. Labour Member of Parliament for Reading East

• George Saitoti, Kenyan politician

• Martin Salter, former Labour Member of Parliament for Reading West

• Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz, Tunku Temenggong of Kedah

• Guy Scott, President of Zambia

• Mateusz Szczurek, Finance Minister of Poland

• Euclid Tsakalotos, Greek finance minister, (2015 – Present)

• Geoffrey Van Orden, Conservative MEP for East of England 1999-2019, formerly Brigadier, British Army

• Ruwan Wijewardene, Sri Lankan politician and Member of Parliament

• Alan Woods, Trotskyist activist

• Mohammad Shtayyeh, Prime Minister of the State of Palestine

• Dame Froyla Tzalam GCMG, Governor-General of Belize (2021–present)

Scientists
• Adrian Bird CBE FRS, Director of Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh

• Brenda Boardman MBE, policy development related to fuel poverty

• Amir Caldeira, Brazilian quantum physicist

• David Clary FRS, President, Magdalen College, Oxford

• Dave Cliff, computer scientist

• Peter Coles, astrophysicist

• Ian H. S. Cullimore, computer scientist

• Anthony R. Dickinson FRS, neuroscientist

• Lesley Fallowfield, cancer psychologist

• Philip Ingham FRS, developmental biologist

• Francesca M. Kerton, chemistry professor

• Adam Kilgarriff, corpus linguist, lexicographer and the co-author of the Sketch Engine corpus management system

• Sir Peter Knight FRS, Principal of the Faculty of Natural Sciences Imperial College London

• Georgina Mace CBE FRS, Director, NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London

• Elizabeth F. Churchill, Director of User experience at Google and Vice President-elect of the Association for Computing Machinery

• Dimitri Nanopoulos, quantum physicist

• Becky Parker, physicist and physics teacher

• Armando J. L. Pombeiro, Portuguese chemical engineer

• Rohan Pethiyagoda, taxonomist

• Anil Seth, neuroscientist

• Nalin de Silva, theoretical physicist, philosopher, professor

• Mark Steedman, cognitive scientist

• Tim Sumner, experimental physicist

• Benjamin J Whitaker, chemist

Academics
• Abdalla Uba Adamu, professor, media scholar

• Daniele Archibugi, economic and political theorist

• Shamshad Akhtar, development economist, diplomat, former governor of State Bank of Pakistan

• Maria Balshaw, director of the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester and Manchester Art Gallery

• Alan Carter, philosopher

• Cheung Kam Ching, philosopher

• Norman Davies, historian

• Kay Firth-Butterfield, professor and author

• Gabriella Gibson, British medical entomologist and professor

• Paul Gilroy, professor and cultural critic

• A. C. Grayling, philosopher

• Paul Hirst, professor

• Mary James, educator

• Calestous Juma, professor

• Reetika Khera, economics professor

• Robert Hugh Layton, Emeritus Professor at Durham University

• István Mészáros, professor

• Paul Morris, educationalist

• Timothy O'Shea, vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh

• Nick Rees-Roberts, professor

• Reza Shah-Kazemi, author

• Guy Standing, development economist

• Tim Sumner, professor

• Lucy Worsley, historian and curator

• Ayman Zohry, expert on migration studies

Writers and broadcasters
• Patrick Allen, award-winning author and teacher

• Becky Anderson, CNN International correspondent and presenter

• Desi Anwar, journalist, news presenter

• David Baboulene, travel writer and story theorist

• Mark Barrowcliffe, novelist

• Helen Boaden, former director of BBC Radio

• Tommy Boyd, broadcaster

• Edward Kamau Brathwaite, author

• Estelle Akofio-Sowah, businesswoman and Google country manager

• Shantanu Gupta, author and political analyst

• Peter Brimelow, journalist and author

• Emily Buchanan, BBC World Affairs correspondent

• Michael Buerk, BBC journalist and newsreader

• Richard Calder, novelist

• Duncan Campbell, investigative journalist, consultant, producer and forensic expert

• Lord Richard Cecil, journalist and adventurer (died 1978)

• Paul Evans, poet

• Simon Fanshawe, writer, broadcaster

• Darius Fisher, producer, director

• Connie Glynn, writer and YouTuber

• Philippa Gregory, novelist

• Charlotte Greig, novelist and musician

• Claudia Hammond, writer, broadcaster

• Patrick Hicks, novelist and poet

• Tobias Hill, novelist and poet

• Alan Jenkins, poet

• Gabriel Josipovici, renowned contemporary British author

• Merfyn Jones professor, historian, broadcaster; governor of the BBC; vice-chancellor of the University of Wales, Bangor

• Robin Lustig, broadcaster

• Marina Mahathir, leader in many non-governmental organizations

• Sarra Manning, writer

• Howard Marks, Welsh author, former teacher and drug smuggler

• Ian McEwan, novelist

• Andrew Morton, journalist and writer

• Dermot Murnaghan, television presenter and journalist

• Clive Myrie, BBC News presenter and journalist

• Kim Newman, journalist and writer

• Chris Paling, novelist

• Ashley Pharoah, television writer

• Nigel Planer, actor, novelist, playwright

• Heydon Prowse, BAFTA award winner BBC journalist, activist, satirist and director

• Jolyon Rubinstein, BAFTA award winner actor, writer, producer and director

• Chris Ship, Deputy Political Editor of ITV News

• Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue

• Julia Somerville, broadcaster

• Zoe Strimpel, journalist, writer, historian

• Steve Coll, author and 1990 Pulitzer prize winner

• Shirley Thomas, professor, broadcaster

• Srđa Trifković,  historian and journalist

• Janice Turner, writer for The Times

Musicians and entertainers
• John Altman, award-winning film composer, music arranger, orchestrator, and conductor

• Tony Banks, keyboard player with Genesis

• Beardyman, beatboxer

• Frankie Boyle, comedian

• Daniel Catán, composer

• Graham Clark, jazz/rock violinist ex-Gong

• Mo Foster, session musician (bass guitar)

• Mark Hollis, lead singer of Talk Talk

• Marcus Hamblett, composer and musician

• Billy Idol, musician

• Jem, singer-songwriter

• Steve Knightley, singer-songwriter

• Cariad Lloyd, comedian and actress

• Ophelia Lovibond, actress

• Mura Masa, electronic music producer and multi-instrumentalist, studied English Literature

• Bob Mortimer, comedian

• Sara Pascoe, stand-up comedian and author

• Grant Serpell, former drummer with Sailor and Affinity

• Cristian Vogel, electronic musician

• Jessie Ware, singer-songwriter

• Josephine Wiggs, bassist with The Breeders
 * Louis Russell, Tall Man

Diplomats
• Rebeca Grynspan, former UN Under-Secretary-General and UN UNDP head and former vice president of Costa Rica

• Renée Jones-Bos, Dutch diplomat and ambassador to the United States

• Jamie Shea, Spokesman and Deputy Assistant Secretary General for External Relations of NATO

• Savenaca Siwatibau, Fijian academic leader, civil service administrator

• Roberto Valent, United Nations diplomat

• Jesoni Vitusagavulu, Fijian diplomat and ambassador to the United States

• Jawhar Sircar, Indian public administrator and former CEO of Prasar Bharati

Sports

 * Rosalie Birch, England Test cricketer, part of Ashes winning team 2005
 * Brendan Foster, former distance runner, founder of the Great North Run, and currently a BBC athletics commentator
 * Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala, mountaineer and first Sri Lankan and fourth women in the world to reach the peak of Mount Everest
 * Ralf Rangnick, Former Interim Manager of Manchester United F.C., Head Coach of the Austria national football team
 * Virginia Wade, Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Champion, 1977

Business
• Jeremy Coller, CEO of Coller Capital, a British private equity firm

• Liam Hackett, activist, founder and CEO Ditch the Label

• Maikanti Baru, engineer, former chief, Nigeria's state oil firm; Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation

• Harriet Lamb, CEO of International Alert

• Nancy Okail, Executive Director, Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy; expert on human rights

• Raj Rajaratnam, hedge fund CEO, Galleon Group; convicted of insider trading

• Simon Segars, CEO of ARM Holdings plc, electronic engineer

• Sir Keith Skeoch, chief executive (CEO) of Standard Life

• Noel Tata, industrialist

• Zhang Xin, entrepreneur and CEO of SOHO China

Others

 * Michael Attenborough, director
 * Linda Bellos, adviser
 * Michael Fuller, Chief Constable of Kent Police
 * Bruno Heller, screenwriter and actor
 * Fatou Jeng, Gambian climate activist
 * Naomie Kremer, artist
 * Claire Oboussier, artist
 * David Pecaut, American-born Canadian civic activist and consultant