15 Famous Alumni From University of Chicago
John D. Rockefeller founded University of Chicago in 1890. Currently, there are 169K alumni. Many of these alumni have gone on to do amazing things. U Chicago boasts many famous alumni. Here are fifteen famous alumni from University of Chicago.
1. Anna Chlumsky
Anna Chlumsky began her acting career in the early nineties. She starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd and Macauley Culkin in ‘My Girl’. Once she became too old to for roles where she’d play a child, she decided to go back to school. Chlumsky earned a BA in international studies in 2002. She currently stars in Veep on HBO, and has received several Emmy nominations.
2. Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders graduated from University of Chicago in 1964. His experiences while attending the university are widely credited with his political ideologies. Sanders attended the rally where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Since graduating, Sanders has been present in the political world. He’s an activist in Vermont and a national political figure head. Sanders is currently the Vermont senator. His 2016 presidential candidacy was a game changer for politics.
3. Harvey Levin
Harvey Levin graduatedin 1975 with a JD. He was a practicing lawyer and legal professor until 1996. His work as a legal analyst in the OJ Simpson trial fueled his transition into the entertainment industry. Today, Harvey Levin leads TMZ, an entertainment news outlet.
4. Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham was a social activist, author, dancer, choreographer, and editor. While attending University of Chicago, she took a leave of absence to travel to the Caribbean. While she was there she studied dance along and ethnography. Although she submitted her Master’s thesis in Anthropology, she never completed her graduation requirements.
Dunham danced and choreographed a number of dances for famous dance companies. She was also a social activist. Dunham went on hunger strike to protest Haitian boat people treatment. Eventually she became an artist.
5. James Comey
James Comey served as an FBI director. He was the Deputy Chief of the United States Attorney’s office for the southern district of New York. His most famous case assisted the prosecution of the Gambino family. He is known for his role in the recent presidential election and was criticized for his announcements regarding Clinton’s emails. He swayed the investigation of Russian interference during the election as well.
6. Nate Silver
Nate Silver is a statistician and journalist. He is editor in chief of FiveThirtyEight at ESPN. Silver predicts athletes potential with is expertise in stats. His PECOTA algorithm has been widely used among two very different groups of people: sports professions and fantasy baseball.
7. Marilu Henner
Marilu Henner was Marty in Grease and later played the same role on Broadway. Her most famous role was Elaine in sitcom, Taxi. She has written multiple health and fitness books and is an active reality show star, radio hose and producer. It’s said she has a vivid memory.
8. Mary Anne Mohanraj
Mary Anne Mohanraj is a Sri Lankan-American author and academic. She studied English Literature and writes both fiction and nonfiction. In 2016, USA Today named her book ‘Bodies in Motion’ a notable book in 2007. She created Clean Sheets, an online literary website dedicated to erotica. Mohanraj has taught at Salt Lake City Community College and Northwestern. In 2017, she was elected into the Oak Park Library Board.
9. Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag was a writer. After graduating she taught philosophy at Sarah Lawrence College. Some of her most famous works challenged established attitudes about art. While other writers dismissed camp and burlesque as a lesser art form, Sontag elevated them. She received deep criticism on her harsh statements about western culture.
10. Andrea James
Andrea James received her Master’s in English Language and Literature. James is a political activist, writer and producer who began her career in advertising. She is now an activist for transgender issues who produced and performed the first all transgender production, The Vagina Monologues.
11. Carl Sagan
Sagan is a scientist and television personality. His series, ‘Cosmos’ remains one of the most critically acclaimed scientific presentations. Sagan also has published a book. Many praise him for his critical thinking. advocacy.
12. Ana Marie Cox
Ana Marie Cox is founding editor of Wonkette. Cox is an influential contributor to cultural and political journalism. She writes for several papers: New York Times, Mother Jones, MTV News, Air America, GQ and the Daily Beast. Cox continued her education at UC Berkeley after graduation.
13. Ed Asner
Older readers will remember Asner as the grumpy editor, Lou Grant mentored and tormented Mary Anderson on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Younger Audiences are familiar with Asner as the voice of Mr. Fredrickson from Disney’s Up and Elf. Asner is also a political activist who served as president of the Screen Actors Guild in the eighties. He has also provided aid to Holocaust survivors.
14. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert is known for his passion in film. He and co-host Gene Siskel created the ‘Thumbs up/Thumbs down’ system of rating movies that has now become ingrained in pop culture. In spite of contracting cancer in 2002, Ebert remained passionate about movies. Even when the disease robbed him of his ability to speak, Ebert continued to write reviews and host film festivals.
15. Joi Ito
Joi Ito was born in Kyoto but his family moved to Canada soon after, then settled near Detroit Michigan. As a child protegee, he worked alongside scientists at the age of thirteen. Ito’s childhood was spent divided between the States and Japan. Ito has several interests. He has been involved in the Japanese pop music scene. Ito was an initial investor in Kickstarter, Formlabs and Flickr.
