List of people from Santa Cruz, California

This is a list of notable people from Santa Cruz County, California. It includes people who were born/raised in, lived in, or spent portions of their lives in Santa Cruz, or for whom Santa Cruz is a significant part of their identity, as well as music groups founded in Santa Cruz. This list is in alphabetical order.

Academia

 * Gerald M. Ackerman, art historian and professor
 * Donna Haraway, feminist and professor
 * David Haussler, computer scientist and professor
 * David A. Huffman, computer scientist and professor
 * Kevin Karplus, bioinformatician and professor

Activists

 * Bettina Aptheker, political activist, radical feminist, professor and author
 * Susie Bright, feminist writer, sexuality expert
 * Rory Calhoun, actor
 * Honey Lee Cottrell, lesbian and feminist activist, photographer and filmmaker, died in Santa Cruz
 * Angela Davis, political activist, scholar, and writer
 * Dorothy Granada, nurse, humanitarian, and peace and social justice activist who resided in Santa Cruz and who won the International Pfeffer Peace Award in 1997
 * bell hooks, PhD from UCSC
 * John Hoyt, actor
 * Elissa Knight, actress
 * Frank Lima (aka The Great Morgani), street performer, accordionist
 * Camryn Manheim, actor

Actors and film production

 * ZaSu Pitts, actress
 * Ruth Righi, actress, singer
 * Adam Scott, actor
 * Grant Show, actor
 * Lex van den Berghe, Survivor contestant

Artists and designers

 * Cam Archer, filmmaker and photographer
 * Bathsheba Grossman, sculptor
 * Scott Kurtz, cartoonist
 * Frans Lanting, wildlife photographer
 * Edmund McMillen, video game designer
 * Ed Penniman, artist
 * Jim Phillips, illustrator, surf and skateboard art
 * Suzanne Scheuer, artist, New Deal-era murals

Crime

 * Edmund Kemper, serial killer
 * Herbert Mullin, serial killer

Entrepreneurs

 * Elihu Anthony, businessman during the Gold Rush-era and a founding father of the city of Santa Cruz
 * John Battendieri, businessman, founder Santa Cruz Organic
 * James H. Clark, entrepreneur and computer scientist
 * Julia Hartz, co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite
 * Reed Hastings, founder of Netflix
 * Philippe Kahn, creator of the camera-phone / cellphone-camera and mathematician
 * Jack O'Neill, credited with developing first surfing wet suits
 * Lorenzo "Larry" Ponza, inventor of the modern baseball pitching machine
 * Fred Swanton, creator of what is now the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Musicians

 * Giovanni Amighetti, contemporary music composer (honorary citizen)
 * Bob Brozman, guitarist and ethnomusicologist
 * Cornelius Bumpus, saxophonist for bands Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan
 * David Cope, composer
 * Decrepit Birth, death metal band
 * Sasha Dobson, jazz singer
 * James Durbin, singer and guitarist; American Idol finalist
 * Entheos, technical death metal band
 * Remy and Pascal Le Boeuf, twin jazz musicians
 * Tom Lehrer, musician and satirist
 * Bob Lowery, blues singer and guitarist
 * David Lowery, guitarist, Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker
 * Chris Rene, musician, singer-songwriter
 * Derek Sherinian, keyboardist for Alice Cooper, the band KISS, and the band Dream Theater
 * Skip Spence, musician, singer-songwriter. Co-founder of Moby Grape.
 * Ted Templeman, drummer for Harpers Bizarre
 * Them Are Us Too, music duo which formed while both members (Cash Askew and Kennedy Ashlyn Wenning) were students at UC Santa Cruz
 * Gertrude Auld Thomas, opera singer and composer
 * Oliver Tree, musician
 * Lu Watters, jazz trumpeter, founder of Yerba Buena Jazz Band
 * Scott Weiland, vocalist for bands Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver
 * Joy Williams, musician
 * George Winston, pianist

Music bands

 * Arsonists Get All The Girls (experimental deathcore)
 * A Band of Orcs (death metal)
 * Bassnectar (electronic/dubstep)
 * Blackbird Raum (acoustic punk)
 * Bl'ast (punk)
 * Brain Drill (technical death metal)
 * The Call (rock)
 * Camper Van Beethoven (alternative)
 * The Chop Tops (rockabilly)
 * Comets on Fire (psychedelic/noise/rock)
 * Craig's Brother (punk)
 * Decrepit Birth (death metal)
 * Deth Specula (first live music concert broadcast over the Internet)
 * The Devil Makes Three (folk/punk)
 * Dirty Penny (Hard Rock/Glam Metal)
 * The Ducks (rock)
 * Estradasphere (experimental)
 * The Expendables (reggae)
 * Good Riddance (punk)
 * The Holy Sisters of the Gaga Dada (pop rock)
 * Minnesota (dubstep/EDM)
 * Nuclear Whales Saxophone Orchestra
 * Slow Gherkin (ska/punk)
 * Sound Tribe Sector 9 (electronic/psychedelic rock)
 * Spot 1019 (country blues punk rock)
 * Swingin' Utters (punk)
 * Harpers Bizarre (pop)
 * World Entertainment War (tribal funk)

Writers and poets

 * Ralph Abraham, mathematician
 * Bettina Aptheker, feminist and author
 * Ellen Bass, poet
 * Peter S. Beagle, novelist
 * Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, music writer and lecturer
 * Rob Brezsny, astrologer, poet, writer, and musician
 * Norman O. Brown, scholar, writer, and social philosopher
 * Jonathan Franzen, novelist and essayist
 * Laurie Garrett, American science journalist and author, UCSC graduate
 * Steven Hassan, author, mental health expert and cult exit counselor
 * Robert A. Heinlein, author of science fiction
 * Dennis Holt, poet, linguist, and translator
 * James D. Houston, novelist
 * Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, novelist
 * Laurie R. King, novelist
 * Noah Levine, author and Buddhist teacher
 * Morton Marcus, poet, teacher
 * Lia Matera, mystery writer
 * Josephine Clifford McCracken, writer
 * James Alan McPherson, essayist
 * Liza Monroy, novelist, memoirist, essayist, and educator.
 * Adrienne Rich, poet, writer, feminist
 * William James Royce, playwright/director, screenwriter, and novelist
 * Robert Sward, poet
 * Robert Anton Wilson, author, novelist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, and self-described agnostic mystic.

Scientists

 * Frank Drake, astrophysicist
 * Sandra M. Faber, astrophysicist
 * Alison Galloway, forensic anthropologist
 * Jim Kent, bioinformatician
 * Michael Nauenberg, physicist
 * Jerry Nelson, astronomer
 * Ted Taylor, theoretical physicist with a focus on nuclear energy and disarmament advocate

Sports

 * Walmer Martinez, USL player
 * Brendon Ayanbadejo, National Football League player and activist
 * Haley Jones, basketball player
 * Obafemi Ayanbadejo, NFL player and older brother of Brendon
 * Trent Dilfer, National Football League player, ESPN sportscaster
 * Reggie Stephens, professional football player for the New York Giants
 * Nate Doss, professional disc golfer and three-time PDGA World Champion
 * Lynden Gooch, professional soccer player for Sunderland A.F.C.
 * Glenallen Hill, Major League Baseball player
 * Johnny Johnson, NFL player
 * Ernie Lombardi, Major League Baseball player
 * Casey McGehee, Major League Baseball player
 * Jay Moriarity, surfer
 * Stephen Quadros, MMA play-by-play broadcaster
 * Luke Rockhold, mixed martial artist, former Strikeforce and UFC middleweight champion
 * Chris Sharma, rock climber
 * Ken Westerfield, disc sports (Frisbee) pioneer, competitor, promoter

Other

 * Matt Mahurin, film director and photographer
 * Marisa Miller, Sports Illustrated and Victoria's Secret model
 * Nikki Silva, Peabody Award-winning radio producer
 * Lorette Wood, first female city councilwoman and first female Mayor of Santa Cruz

Attended University of California, Santa Cruz

 * Richard Bandler, author
 * Jello Biafra, vocalist for the Dead Kennedys
 * Ken Corday, music composer
 * Adragon De Mello, child prodigy


 * Cary Fukunaga, Emmy Award-winning film director
 * Gus Hansen, professional poker player
 * Victor Davis Hanson, historian
 * Miranda July, filmmaker, author, performance artist
 * David Lowery, vocalist for Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker
 * Camryn Manheim, actor
 * Kent Nagano, conductor
 * Huey P. Newton, activist and leader of the Black Panthers
 * Bradley Nowell, lead singer and guitarist for Sublime
 * Marti Noxon, television and film writer
 * Norman Packard, chaos theory physicist
 * Joe Palca, National Public Radio science reporter
 * Dana Priest, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
 * Jason Roberts, author
 * Rebecca Romijn, model and actor
 * Maya Rudolph, actor
 * Andy Samberg, writer and comedian
 * Akiva Schaffer, Emmy Award-winning comedy writer
 * Brenda Shaughnessy, poet
 * Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan, astronaut
 * Amy Tan, author
 * Jesse Thorn, radio personality
 * Rubén Valtierra, keyboardist for Weird Al Yankovic, producer, composer
 * Ally Walker, actor
 * Gillian Welch, musician
 * Rich Wilkes, director and screenwriter
 * Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube
 * Ron Yerxa, film producer