This is a
non-exhaustive listing of famous
alumni of
Carnegie Mellon University.
- Blair Underwood, actor, City of Angels
- Jack Klugman, actor, The Odd Couple
- Steven Bochco, producer, NYPD Blue
- Ted Danson, actor, Cheers (was actually cut from the Drama department, but is counted as an "alumnus" thanks to his success)
- Judith Resnik, engineer and professional astronaut1, perished in the 1986 Challenger explosion. A residence hall is named in her memory.
- Laura San Giacomo, actress, sex, lies and videotape and Just Shoot Me
- Ann Roth, costume designer, won an Academy Award for work on The English Patient
- Ming-Na (also known as Ming-Na Wen), actress, The Joy Luck Club and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
- Rene Auberjonois, actor, best known as Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Holly Hunter, actress, The Piano
- Barbara Feldon, actress, Get Smart
- Sonia Manzano, actress, Maria Figueroa Rodriguez on Sesame Street
- John Wells, producer and writer, ER, The West Wing, Third Watch
- James Gosling, inventor of Java
- John Nash, Nobel Prize winner, subject of the movie A Beautiful Mind
- E. L. Konigsburg, author, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and other children's books
- Judith Light, actress, Who's the Boss?
- Paul Alaire, CEO, Xerox Corporation
- Alan Newell, one of the fathers of artificial intelligence, and also a professor at Carnegie Mellon. An academic building is named after him and colleague Herb Simon.
- Robert Dennard, inventor of DRAM
- George Peppard ("I love it when a plan comes together"), actor, The A-Team
- Stephanie Louise Kwolek, inventor of Kevlar
- Kent Ford, a World Cup kayaker
- Elizabeth Delhagen, a guest MTV VJ for the 2002 Winter Olympics. She won her job through an on-line vote. (Not technically an alumna, because she is still an undergrad.)
- Mary Kate Schellhardt, actress, What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (Also still an undergrad.)
- Sally Jessy Raphael, daytime talk show host
- Lourdes Benedicto, actress, NYPD Blue, ER
- Frederick Koehler, actor, Kate & Allie, The Storyteller
- Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker, actors, L.A. Law. Tucker graduated about 20 years before Eikenberry. They played a married couple on L.A. Law and are married in real life.
1 Thanks to
ignoratio for correcting me on this.
Thanks also to the helpful regulars of
cmu.misc.market for providing more of these.