The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is known worldwide for its top-notch academic programs and major contributions to research, sports, and the arts. But there’s more to UCLA than just excellent education—it’s also the alma mater of many professionals who have made a lasting impact in their chosen fields. In this overview, we’ll take a look at the achievements and legacies of some UCLA notable alumni.
UCLA’s impact is clear when you look at its impressive list of alumni who have made their mark in many fields. From entertainment and technology to law and medicine, UCLA graduates have achieved accolades that are considered either groundbreaking or exceptional in their fields.
The university’s focus on interdisciplinary learning and real-world skills has given them the tools to lead and innovate. This well-rounded education has helped UCLA produce top professionals and influential leaders, keeping its reputation strong.
UCLA’s Most Notable Alumni
UCLA’s dedication to nurturing talent and excellence has made it a top-tier institution. Its impressive alumni show the quality of education and opportunities UCLA offers. Whether in public service, academia, the arts, or business, UCLA graduates are helping shape the future and carrying on the university’s legacy of innovation.
This list includes famous people that went to UCLA who completed their bachelor’s or postgraduate studies there. We divided it by category for an easier read.
Academia/Education
BA, Class of 1958
Vicki Reynolds, another UCLA notable alumni, has had an impressive career in public service. She was elected president of the Beverly Hills Board of Education twice and served three terms as the mayor of Beverly Hills. In 1999, she was appointed to the State Board of Education by Gov. Gray Davis. Today, Reynolds is a member of the Board of Advisors for UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs and has been recognized by the university for her contributions through various alumni committees.
MA, Class of 1981
Just a few years after making history as the first female chancellor of Scotland’s University of St. Andrews in 2009, Louise Richardson was named the first woman to lead the University of Oxford in 2015. She is one of the most popular UCLA notable alumni in her field. She was set to take office in January 2016. Born in Ireland, Richardson studied international relations at UCLA and later at Harvard, where she also taught courses on international security and terrorism. She is the author of What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat.
Michael Waterstone, a nationally recognized expert in disability and civil rights law, has been appointed as the new dean of UCLA School of Law. Currently serving as the Fritz B. Burns Dean at LMU Loyola Law School and senior vice president of Loyola Marymount University, Waterstone will start his new role by August 15. Since taking the helm at Loyola Law School in 2016, he has led the development of significant programs like the Loyola Social Justice Law Clinic, the Coelho Center on Disability Law, Policy and Innovation, and the school’s Antiracism Center. Waterstone is truly a remarkable UCLA notable alumni.
Ph.D. Class of 1974
Just a decade after earning his doctorate from UCLA, and following 21 years of military rule in Brazil, Bolívar Lamounier was appointed by the Presidency of the Republic to join the “Commission Afonso Arinos,” a small group tasked with drafting a new constitution for Brazil. This commission created the foundation of the current political framework for the world’s fifth-largest nation.
Throughout his career, Lamounier has been a teacher, advisor, author, and a vital advocate for democracy in the developing world. He also founded and served as the first president-director of the Institute of Economic, Social and Political Studies of São Paulo, a key organization for socio-political research in Brazil.
BA Class of 1980; M.A. Class of 1981; Ph.D. Class of 1988
In 2014, Howard Gillman, one of the most influential UCLA notable alumni, became Chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, after serving as provost and vice chancellor at the university. He has also taught political science, history, and law. A nationally recognized expert in constitutional studies and judicial politics, Gillman has authored seven books on these topics and received several teaching awards throughout his career, including three from UCLA and one from the University of Southern California (USC), where he was also a professor and dean during his mid-career.
Governance
BA, Class of 1966
Another UCLA notable alumni, Jacki Bacharach spent 14 years as Mayor and Council member of Rancho Palos Verdes and 12 years on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. From 1985 to 2012, she also served on the Los Angeles-San Diego Rail Corridor Agency, overseeing Amtrak service in the area. Today, she is the Executive Director of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments, which she manages through her company, Jacki Bacharach and Associates.
BA, Class of 1953
In 1972, Yvonne B. Burke made history as the first African-American woman from California elected to the U.S. Congress, representing the 37th District. She later became the first African-American and first woman to serve on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors when she was appointed to fill a vacancy in 1979-80. In 1992, Burke returned to the Board, where she was elected for four consecutive terms, representing a different district and cementing her spot as a UCLA notable alumni. During her time as a supervisor, she was elected Board president four times. In 2012, President Obama appointed her to the AMTRAK Board, and she continues to serve on the California Transportation Commission.
BA, Class of 1968
Ben Cayetano, one of the many Asian UCLA notable alumni, served two terms as the fifth governor of Hawaii, the first of Filipino ancestry in a state where Filipinos make up the largest Asian-Pacific Islander group, from 1994 to 2002. In 2012, he briefly returned to politics as a candidate for mayor of Honolulu but received 46% of the vote in a runoff election. Before becoming governor, Cayetano served two terms as Hawaii’s Lieutenant Governor and spent several years in the state legislature.
Ph.D., Class of 1969
Dr. Uma Eleazu, originally an industrialist and business leader, used his Political Science knowledge from his graduate studies at UCLA to make a difference in his home country of Nigeria. By the late 1960s, Nigeria had endured a devastating civil war that claimed a million lives. In the years that followed, Dr. Eleazu was twice called upon, in 1979 and 1999, to help draft new national constitutions, working with other leaders to rebuild the government after years of military rule. Dr. Eleazu is one fo the few UCLA notable alumni from Nigeria.
BA, Class of 1986
Robert C. O’Brien is the co-founder and chairman of American Global Strategies LLC. He served as the 27th United States National Security Advisor from 2019 to 2021, where he was the President’s main advisor on all matters related to American foreign policy and national security. Before that, O’Brien was the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, with the personal rank of Ambassador, playing an important role in bringing over 25 detainees and hostages back to the United States.
Law
BA, Class of 1976
Marcia Clark is perhaps best known to younger audiences as the author of the best-selling “Rachel Knight” series, featuring a fictional lawyer. However, she first gained national attention in the 1990s as the lead prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, which ended in the former athlete’s acquittal in 1995. After the trial, she wrote a book about the case, published in 1997, then transitioned to a career as a television commentator for other high-profile trials. Since then, she has published four novels and has optioned their television rights for future development.
BA, Class of 1972
Lance Ito, another UCLA notable alumni of Asian descent, is perhaps best known for his prominent role as the presiding judge in the highly publicized O.J. Simpson double-murder trial in the late 1990s. Before that, he had already handled high-profile cases, including the Charles Keating savings and loan scandal trial. As the son of Japanese-Americans interned during World War II, Judge Ito has continued to serve as an active superior court judge since the Simpson trial. He has also been a strong advocate for judicial reform and has lobbied for more foreign language translators in local courtrooms.
Business and Industry
BA, Class of 1981
In 2014, Brian Cornell was named CEO of Target Corporation after the company faced several years of lagging sales and a major data breach. Bringing with him 30 years of management experience, including a decade in top executive roles, Cornell had previously held key positions at Safeway, Michaels, Sam’s Club, and Pepsico Americas Food Division. In 2010, while with Sam’s Club, he also served as the commencement speaker for Political Science graduates.
BA, Class of 1990
Jacquelline Fuller, who studied international relations at UCLA, joined Google in 2007 to help launch Google.com. This makes her one of the most celebrated UCLA notable alumni. She now leads Google’s philanthropic efforts as Director of Giving, overseeing over $50 million in annual grants to support tech innovators making a difference in education, development, disaster relief, and renewable energy. Before joining Google, Fuller was deputy director of Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she was part of the senior management team for eight years.
BA, Class of 1974
Larry Fink, who holds a degree in Political Science and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School, is the Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset-management company, with $4.3 trillion in assets. Fink co-founded BlackRock in 1988 when it was just a small start-up subsidiary. Under his leadership, the company went public, acquired several major competitors, and grew to 11,000 employees with over 135 investment teams.
Sports
BA, Class of 2012
Despite being a recent graduate, Derrick Coleman has already shown remarkable resilience. Losing his hearing at age 3 didn’t stop him from becoming a first-team starter in high school and later a standout running back for the Bruins at UCLA, where he was also a highly respected scholar-athlete focused on International Relations.
Though undrafted in 2012, Coleman entered the NFL as a free agent and eventually joined the Seattle Seahawks. Just two years later, he became the first deaf player to win a Super Bowl with the Seahawks, inspiring many who face similar challenges with his perseverance. Coleman is considered to be one of the UCLA notable alumni whose rise to fame was fast.
BA, 2005
After a successful football career at UCLA, punter Chris Kluwe played eight seasons with the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, where he set records and gained attention as an avid video gamer. His departure from the team stirred controversy, as he was replaced by another former UCLA kicker after using his platform to advocate for social causes. Kluwe was especially vocal in supporting the LGBT community’s fight for marriage equality across the nation.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a legendary former professional basketball player who spent 20 seasons in the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers. As a center, he earned a record six NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, was selected as an NBA All-Star 19 times, and made the All-NBA Team 15 times.
Abdul-Jabbar was also a key player on six NBA championship teams and was twice named NBA Finals MVP. He was honored on three NBA anniversary teams (35th, 50th, and 75th) and is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, with figures like Pat Riley, Isiah Thomas, and Julius Erving calling him the best ever. He held the NBA’s career scoring record with 38,387 points from 1984 until LeBron James surpassed him in 2023
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was a trailblazing American baseball player who made history as the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. He is considered to be one of the most influential UCLA notable alumni in the field of sports. He broke the color barrier on April 15, 1947, when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson’s signing marked the beginning of the end of racial segregation in professional baseball, which had kept Black players in the Negro leagues since the 1880s. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner, better known as Flo-Jo, was an American track and field athlete and the fastest woman in history. She set world records in 1988 for both the 100m and 200m sprints. In the late 1980s, Flo-Jo became a beloved figure not just for her incredible speed but also for her unique and stylish fashion sense.
Entertainment and Media
BA, Class of 1962
Marilyn Monroe was an iconic American actress, model, and singer, famous for her roles as a comic “blonde bombshell” in the 1950s and early 1960s and is one of the most famous people that went to UCLA. She became one of the most popular sex symbols of her time and a symbol of the sexual revolution. As a top-billed actress for a decade, her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2022) by the time of her death in 1962. Even today, Monroe remains a pop culture icon making her a true UCLA notable alumni. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her the sixth-greatest female screen legend of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
BS, Class of 2000; PhD, Class of 2007
Mayim Chaya Bialik is an American actress, author, and former game show host. She starred as the lead character in the NBC sitcom Blossom from 1991 to 1995. Later, from 2010 to 2019, she played neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, a role that earned her four Primetime Emmy nominations and two Critics’ Choice Television Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2015 and 2017.
Probably the most decorated UCLA notable alumni in the field of film and entertainment, Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter, known as one of the important figures of the New Hollywood film movement in the 1960s and 1970s. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time. Coppola has won five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d’Or, and a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA).
Among UCLA’s famous alumni in entertainment, Sara Bareilles, another UCLA notable alumni, stands out as one of the most well-known musicians. She’s best known for her hit songs “Love Song” and “Brave,” as well as for writing the music for the 2015 Broadway musical Waitress, which earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score.
During her time at UCLA, Bareilles was already making waves in the music scene. According to UCLA Alumni, she won the Spring Sing competition three times as a solo act and a few more times with her a cappella group, Awaken A Cappella.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What does UCLA specialize in?
UCLA excels in many areas, with strengths in the arts, humanities, social sciences, engineering, and life sciences. It’s especially known for its programs in film and television, medicine, law, and business. What does UCLA specialize in? UCLA specializes in research on neuroscience, environmental studies, and public health.
2. Why is UCLA so popular?
So, why is UCLA so popular? UCLA is popular for many reasons. It’s consistently ranked as one of the top public universities in the U.S., with strong academic programs in various fields. Located in Los Angeles, it offers students access to a vibrant cultural scene, diverse industries, and lots of internship opportunities. UCLA’s athletic teams, especially in basketball, have a rich history, boosting its national profile. The university also has a large, active alumni network and a strong reputation for helping students from all backgrounds succeed, making it a top choice for many.
Eric Eng
About the author
Eric Eng, the Founder and CEO of AdmissionSight, graduated with a BA from Princeton University and has one of the highest track records in the industry of placing students into Ivy League schools and top 10 universities. He has been featured on the US News & World Report for his insights on college admissions.
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