100 Notable alumni of CUNY Brooklyn College

Sante D'Orazio is an American photographer. D'Orazio exhibited in the Kunsthaus Munich, Kunsthauswien Vienna, the L.A. County Museum, Kahmann Gallery (Amsterdam), Stellan Holm Gallery (New York), Cameraworks Gallery (Berlin) Hilario Galguera Gallery (Mexico City), and NRW Forum in Düsseldorf. His publications include: A Private View, Sante D'Orazio Photographs, Pam: American Icon, Katlick School, Gianni and Donatella, and Barely Private.

Reed Farrel Coleman is an American writer of crime fiction and a poet.

Joel Louis Lebowitz is a mathematical physicist known for his contributions to statistical physics, statistical mechanics, and many other fields of mathematics and physics. He is a founding editor of the Journal of Statistical Physics and has served as president of the New York Academy of Sciences. Lebowitz is the George William Hill Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Rutgers...

Melvin Joel Konner is an American anthropologist who is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology and of Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University.

Bernice Resnick Sandler was an American women's rights activist. She is best known for being instrumental in the creation of Title IX, a portion of the Education Amendments of 1972, in conjunction with representatives Edith Green and Patsy Mink and Senator Birch Bayh in the 1970s. She has been called "the Godmother of Title IX" by The New York Times....

Lucy Shapiro is an American developmental biologist. She is a professor of Developmental Biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research and the director of the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine.

Stephen D. Malzberg is an American television and radio host, syndicated columnist, and political commentator. He hosted The Steve Malzberg Show, a cable news and opinion show on Newsmax TV. He has also hosted The Steve Malzberg Show and various other radio shows on WABC Radio in NYC and on WOR Radio, also in NYC where his show was syndicated...

Lotti Golden is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, poet and artist. Golden is best known for her 1969 debut album Motor-Cycle, on Atlantic Records as well as her long career as a songwriter for other artists in collaboration with Tommy Faragher.

Blaise Ingoglia is an American politician who has served as the fifth chief financial officer of Florida since July 2025. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Florida Senate, representing the 11th district, from 2022 to 2025 and the Florida House of Representatives, representing the 35th district, from 2014 to 2022, as well as serving as...

R.O Kwon, also known as Reese Okyong Kwon, is a South Korean and American author. In 2018, she published her debut novel The Incendiaries with Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Her second novel, Exhibit, was published in 2024.

Aleksandr "Alex" Lenderman is an American chess grandmaster. He won the 2005 World Under-16 Championship in Belfort with a score of 9/10 (+8 −0 =2), becoming the first American to win a gold medal at the World Youth Chess Championship since Tal Shaked won the World Junior Championship in 1997.

Irving Yitzchak Greenberg, also known as Yitz Greenberg, is an American scholar, author, and rabbi. Greenberg is known as a strong supporter of Israel, as well as a promoter of greater understanding between Judaism and Christianity.

Paul Davidson was an American macroeconomist who has been one of the leading spokesmen of the American branch of the post-Keynesian school in economics. He has actively intervened in important debates on economic policy (natural resources, international monetary system, developing countries' debt) from a position critical of mainstream economics.

Frank Harary was an American mathematician, who specialized in graph theory. He was widely recognized as one of the "fathers" of modern graph theory. Harary was a master of clear exposition and, together with his many doctoral students, he standardized the terminology of graphs. He broadened the reach of this field to include physics, psychology, sociology, and even anthropology. Gifted...

Stanley Shapiro was an American screenwriter and producer responsible for three of Doris Day's most successful films.

Bill Baird is a reproductive rights pioneer, called by some media the "father" of the birth control and abortion-rights movement. He was jailed eight times in five states in the 1960s for lecturing on abortion and birth control. Baird is believed to be the first and only non-lawyer in American history with three Supreme Court victories.

David Weiss Halivni was a European-born American-Israeli rabbi, scholar in the domain of Jewish sciences, and professor of Talmud. He served as Reish Metivta of the Institute of Traditional Judaism, the Union for Traditional Judaism's rabbinical school.

Shosha Goren is an Israeli actress, playwright and comedian of Iraqi Jewish descent. She immigrated to Israel in 1951. While on a visit to the United States, she abandoned her position as teacher of Hebrew Literature and Language and went on to pursue her acting career at Brooklyn College in New York. However, in 1980, she returned to Israel with...

Naomi Ragen is an American-Israeli modern-Orthodox Jewish author and playwright. Ragen lives in Jerusalem, and writes in English. A recurring theme in her fictional works is injustice against women in the Haredi Jewish community. Ragen has been the subject of various lawsuits over claims of plagiarism.

Arturo O'Farrill is a jazz musician, the son of Latin jazz musician, arranger and bandleader Chico O'Farrill, and pianist, composer, and director for the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. He is best known for his contributions to contemporary Latin jazz (more specifically Afro-Cuban jazz), having received Grammy Awards and nominations, though he has trained in other forms such as free jazz...

Paul Tripp was an American children's musician, author, songwriter, and television and film actor. He collaborated with a fellow composer, George Kleinsinger. Tripp was the creator of the 1945 "Tubby the Tuba", a piece of classical music for children that has become his best-known work. He authored several books, including Rabbi Santa Claus and Diary of a Leaf.

Edward Taub is a behavioral neuroscientist on the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is best known for his involvement in the Silver Spring monkeys case, for making discoveries in the area of neuroplasticity, and developing constraint-induced movement therapy; a family of techniques which helps the rehabilitation of people who have developed learned non-use as a result...

Robert Katz was an American novelist, screenwriter, and non-fiction author.

Beverly Pepper was an American sculptor known for her monumental works, site specific and land art. She remained independent from any particular art movement. She lived in Italy, primarily in Todi, since the 1950s.

Young Jean Lee is an American playwright, director, and filmmaker. She was the Artistic Director of Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, a not-for-profit theater company dedicated to producing her work. She has written and directed ten shows for Young Jean Lee's Theater Company and toured her work to over thirty cities around the world. Lee was called "the most adventurous...

Greg Grandin is an American historian and author. He is a professor of history at Yale University. He previously taught at New York University.

Dmitry Chaplin is a Russian dancer, choreographer, and actor, best known for being a contestant on the second season of the dance competition series So You Think You Can Dance as the sixth male contestant and in gender the sixth overall contestant to be eliminated. While competing on the series, he became known for performing shirtless, with one solo routine...

Yossi Klein Halevi is an American-born Israeli author and journalist.

Jack Bertrand Weinstein was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Until his entry into inactive senior status on February 10, 2020, he maintained a full docket of cases.

Israel Goodman Young, known as Izzy Young, was a noted figure in the world of folk music, both in America and Sweden. He was once the owner of the Folklore Center in Greenwich Village, New York, and from 1973 until his death, owned and operated the Folklore Centrum store in Stockholm.

Leonard Lopate was an American radio personality. He was the host of the radio talk show Leonard Lopate at Large, broadcast on WBAI, and the onetime host of the public radio talk show The Leonard Lopate Show, broadcast on WNYC. He first broadcast on WKCR, the college radio station of Columbia University, and then later on WBAI, before moving to...

Naren Weiss is an actor, playwright, and former model. He played Osama bin Laden in Kamal Haasan's film on terrorism Vishwaroopam, Dekker in the ABC series Deception, and is known for his work in theatre in India and the United States.

Vera Katz was an American Democratic politician in the state of Oregon. She was the first woman to serve as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives and was the 49th mayor of Portland, Oregon's most populous city. She grew up in New York City, moving to Portland in 1962, and was elected to the Oregon House in 1972. She...

Roya Hakakian is an Iranian American Jewish writer, journalist, and political commentator. Born in Iran, she came to the United States as a refugee and is now a naturalized citizen. She is the author of several books, including an acclaimed memoir in English called Journey from the Land of No (Crown), Assassins of the Turquoise Palace (Grove/Atlantic), and A Beginner's...

Walter Yetnikoff was an American music industry executive who was the president of CBS Records International from 1971 to 1975 and then president and CEO of CBS Records from 1975 to 1990. During his career at CBS Records, which included Columbia Records and Epic Records, he guided the careers of Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Culture Club, Earth, Wind & Fire,...

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami is a senior disciple of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), better known in the West as the Hare Krishna movement. Serving as a writer, poet, and artist, Satsvarupa dasa Goswami is the author of Bhaktivedanta Swami's authorized biography, Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta. After Prabhupada's death, Satsvarupa dasa Goswami was one of the...

Jean-Claude La Marre is a Haitian-American actor, writer, and director. His acting credits include the films Malcolm X and Dead Presidents. On television, he has guest-starred on New York Undercover, Law & Order, and NYPD Blue. He is also the writer and director of the independent films Gang of Roses and Go for Broke.

Gloria Naylor was an American novelist, known for novels including The Women of Brewster Place (1982), Linden Hills (1985) and Mama Day (1988).

Alfred Drake was an American actor and singer.

Samuel Levenson was an American humorist, writer, teacher, television host, and journalist.

Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg was an American counterculture poet, author, singer, editorial cartoonist, comic artist, columnist, publisher, and co-founder of the rock band The Fugs.

Elliot Michael Tiber was an artist, professor, and screenwriter who wrote a memoir about the Woodstock Festival held in Bethel, New York in 1969. He claimed responsibility for the relocation of the festival after a permit for it was withdrawn by the zoning board of a nearby town.

Joel Rudolf Zwick is an American film director, television director, and theater director. He worked on the television series Perfect Strangers, Full House, and Family Matters, and directed the films My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Second Sight, and Fat Albert.

Novella Christine Nelson was an American actress and singer. She established her career as a singer, both on the off-Broadway and Broadway stage and in cabaret-style locales.

Robert Anthony Daly is an American business executive who has led organizations such as CBS Entertainment, Warner Bros., Warner Music Group, and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Martin Markowitz is an American politician who served as the borough president of Brooklyn, New York City. He was first elected in 2001 after serving 23 years as a New York State Senator. His third and final term ended in December 2013.

Peter Nero was an American pianist and pops conductor. He directed the Philly Pops from 1979 to 2013, and earned two Grammy Awards, including the award for Best New Artist in 1962, as well as a total of 8 nominations.

Michael Salzhauer is an American celebrity doctor who practices plastic surgery. He is active on social media as Dr. Miami and has been on reality television. Salzhauer runs a plastic surgery practice in Bay Harbor Islands, Florida.

Rachelle Vinberg is an American skateboarder and actress. She is best known for starring as Camille, a fictionalized version of herself, in the film Skate Kitchen and the TV series Betty inspired by the real group of female skaters she is a part of.

Francis John Fraschilla is an American basketball commentator and former college basketball coach.

Mark Lane was an American attorney, New York state legislator, civil rights activist, and Vietnam war-crimes investigator. Sometimes referred to as a gadfly, Lane is best known as a leading researcher, author, and conspiracy theorist on the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

Glenn Thrush is an American journalist, pundit, and author. He is a reporter for The New York Times covering the Department of Justice and was formerly a White House correspondent. He is also a contributor for MSNBC, and was previously chief political correspondent at Politico and a senior staff writer for Politico Magazine.

Jeffrey Block, better known as Bhikkhu Bodhi, is an American Theravada monk ordained in Sri Lanka who teaches in the area of New York and New Jersey. He is an author and Buddhist commentator and was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Society. He is also the president of the Buddhist Association of America and the founder of...

Donald Kagan was a Lithuanian-born American historian and classicist at Yale University specializing in ancient Greece. He formerly taught in the Department of History at Cornell University. Kagan was considered among the foremost American scholars of Greek history and is notable for his four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War.

Walter Edward Block is an American Austrian School economist and anarcho-capitalist theorist. He was the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Economics at the School of Business at Loyola University New Orleans and a former senior fellow of the non-profit think-tank Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama.

Annie Baker is an American playwright and film director. She is known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Flick (2013). She has written a series of plays set in the fictional town of Shirley: Body Awareness (2008), Circle Mirror Transformation (2009), The Aliens (2010), and Nocturama (2014). She made her feature film directorial debut with the A24 coming-of-age drama Janet...

Sidney Ferris Rosenberg is an American radio personality. He is currently the host of Sid and Friends in the Morning and Sid Sports Sunday on 77 WABC in New York City.

Mousa Hussein Kraish is an American actor and director, who has appeared in several Hollywood films including Steven Spielberg's 2005 film Munich. He is best known for his role as the Jinn in American Gods.

Malachi Throne was an American actor known for his role as Noah Bain in It Takes a Thief. He also had guest-starring roles on multiple television series, including Star Trek and Batman, and appeared in films and theater.

Michael David Garson is an American pianist, who has worked with David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, St. Vincent, Duran Duran, Free Flight, The Smashing Pumpkins, Melissa Auf der Maur, CSS and The Pretty Reckless.

Jerome Solon Felder, known professionally as Doc Pomus, was an American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the co-writer of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 1992, the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992), and the Blues Hall of Fame (2012).

Paul Beatty is an American author and professor of writing at Columbia University. In 2016, he won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout. It was the first time a writer from the United States was honored with the Man Booker.

Sandy Baron was an American actor and comedian who performed on stage, in films, and on television. He is best known for his recurring role of Jack Klompus on the NBC sitcom Seinfeld.

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Rosenthal was an American lawyer and Army officer. A highly decorated B-17 commander of the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces in World War II, Rosenthal was a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross and two Silver Stars. Although bomber crews were initially only required to complete 25 combat missions in a combat...

Jumaane D. Williams is an American activist and politician who has served as the New York City Public Advocate since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party and a self-described democratic socialist, he is a former member of the New York City Council from the 45th district, which includes East Flatbush, Flatbush, Flatlands, Marine Park, and Midwood in Brooklyn.

Gata Rustemovich Kamsky is a French-American chess grandmaster and a five-time U.S. champion.

Marvin Wilbur Kaplan was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter who was best known as Henry Beesmeyer in Alice (1978–1985).

Damon Evans is an American actor best known as the second of two actors who portrayed Lionel Jefferson on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons. He also portrayed the young Alex Haley (ages 17–25) in the ABC television miniseries Roots: The Next Generations.

Ira Leon Rennert is an American billionaire businessman, and the chairman and CEO of Renco Group. As of November 2024, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$3.8 billion.

Sharon Lafaye Jones was an American soul and funk singer. She was the lead singer of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, a soul and funk band based in Brooklyn, New York. Jones experienced breakthrough success relatively late in life, releasing her first record when she was 40 years old. In 2014, Jones was nominated for her first Grammy, in the...

Bruce Morrow is an American radio performer, publicly known as Cousin Brucie or Cousin Bruce Morrow. In an October 2020 interview, Morrow said he received the moniker "Cousin" while in the lobby of his midtown Manhattan WABC studio when an elderly woman once asked him "Cousin, lend me fifty cents to get home" to whom he did give that fifty...

Irwin Lawrence "Paul" Mazursky was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Known for his dramatic comedies that often dealt with modern social issues, he was nominated for five Academy Awards for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), Harry and Tonto (1974), An Unmarried Woman (1978), and Enemies, A Love Story (1989). He is also known for directing...

Alan Bermowitz, known professionally as Alan Vega, was an American vocalist and visual artist, primarily known for his work with the electronic proto-punk duo Suicide.

Iris Weinshall is an American politician. She is the chief operating officer of the New York Public Library, former vice chancellor at the City University of New York and a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation. Weinshall was appointed Chief Operating Officer by the Library in July 2014, and she began her tenure on September 1,...

Ron Raphael Braunstein, professionally known by his stage name Necro, is an American rapper and record producer from New York City. He founded his own independent record label Psycho+Logical-Records in November 1999. He is a member of hip hop groups the Circle of Tyrants and Secret Society together with his older brother Ill Bill, and one-half of The Godfathers alongside...

Sylvia Fine Kaye was an American lyricist, composer, and producer. Many of her compositions and productions were performed by her husband, comedian Danny Kaye. Fine was a Peabody Award-winner and was nominated for two Academy Awards and two Emmys during her career. She won an Emmy award in 1976 for a children's special.

Ocean Vuong is a Vietnamese American poet, essayist, and novelist. His debut novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, was published in 2019. He received a MacArthur Grant that same year. He is the recipient of the 2014 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, 2016 Whiting Award, and the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize.

Linda Sarsour is an American political activist. She was co-chair of the 2017 Women's March, the 2017 Day Without a Woman, and the 2019 Women's March. She is also a former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. She and her Women's March co-chairs were profiled in Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People" in 2017.

Brian Michael "Q" Quinn is an American improvisational comedian. He is a member of The Tenderloins, a comedy troupe also consisting of Sal Vulcano, James Murray, and formerly Joe Gatto. Along with the other members of The Tenderloins, he stars in the television series Impractical Jokers, which premiered in 2011, on TruTV.

Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and filmmaker, best known for his design of motion-picture title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos.

Philip George Zimbardo was an American psychologist and a professor at Stanford University. He was an internationally known educator, researcher, author and media personality in psychology who authored more than 500 articles, chapters, textbooks, and trade books covering a wide range of topics, including time perspective, cognitive dissonance, the psychology of evil, persuasion, cults, deindividuation, shyness, and heroism. He became...

Steven Ralph Schirripa is an American actor. He is regularly credited as Steven R. Schirripa, including his total of over 300 total appearances in three long running series, playing: Bobby Bacala on The Sopranos; Leo Boykewich on The Secret Life of the American Teenager; and Detective Anthony Abetemarco on Blue Bloods. Schirripa is the host of two Investigation Discovery series:...

Barbara Sue Boxer is a retired American politician, lobbyist, and former reporter who served in the United States Senate, representing California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the U.S. representative for California's 6th congressional district from 1983 until 1993.

Herbert "Herb" Edelman was an American comedian, and actor of stage, film and television. He was twice nominated for an Emmy Award for his television work. His best-known role was as Stanley Zbornak, the ex-husband of Dorothy Zbornak (played by Bea Arthur) on The Golden Girls. He also had a recurring role on the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere.

Don Renaldo Lemon-Clark is an American television journalist best known for being a host on CNN from 2014 until 2023. He anchored weekend news programs on local television stations in Alabama and Pennsylvania during his early days as a journalist. Lemon worked as a news correspondent for NBC on its programming, such as Today and NBC Nightly News.

Shirley Anita Chisholm was an American politician who, in 1968, became the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm represented New York's 12th congressional district, a district centered in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972, she became the first black candidate for a major-party nomination for President of the United...

Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. is an American civil rights and social justice activist, Baptist minister, radio talk show host, and TV personality, who is also the founder of the National Action Network civil rights organization. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election. He hosts a weekday radio talk show, Keepin' It Real,...

Dominic Chianese is an American actor, singer, and musician. He is best known for his roles as Corrado "Junior" Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos (1999–2007), Johnny Ola in The Godfather Part II (1974), and Leander Whitlock in Boardwalk Empire (2011–2013).

Bernard Sanders is an American politician and activist serving as the senior United States senator from Vermont, a seat he has held since 2007. He is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history, but maintains a close relationship with the Democratic Party, having caucused with House and Senate Democrats for most of his congressional career and sought the party's presidential...

Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer and law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional and criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appointed as the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law in 1993. Dershowitz is a regular media contributor, political commentator, and legal analyst.

Jimmy L. Smits is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Attorney Victor Sifuentes on the legal drama L.A. Law, NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the police drama NYPD Blue, Matt Santos on the political drama The West Wing and Bail Organa in the Star Wars franchise. He has also appeared as ADA Miguel Prado in...

Sara Shepard is an American author. She is known for the bestselling Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game book series, both of which have been turned into television shows on Freeform.

Benjamin Brafman is an American criminal defense attorney and founder of the Manhattan-based law firm Brafman & Associates. Brafman is known for representing many high-profile defendants, including celebrities, accused Mafia members, and political figures.

Stanley Aronowitz was an American sociologist, trade union official, and political activist. A professor of sociology, cultural studies, and urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center, his longtime political activism and cultural criticism was influential in the New Left movement of the 1960s, 1970s, and beyond. He was also an advocate for organized labor and a member of the interim...

Kristina "Tina" Satter is an American playwright and theater director based in New York City. She is the founder and artistic director of the theater company Half Straddle, which formed in 2008 and received an Obie Award grant in 2013. Satter won a Guggenheim in 2020. Satter was described by Ben Brantley of the New York Times as "a genre-and-gender-bending,...

James Edward Franco is an American actor and filmmaker. He has starred in numerous films, including Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007), Milk (2008), Eat Pray Love (2010), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Spring Breakers (2012), and Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). He has collaborated with fellow actor Seth Rogen on multiple projects, including Pineapple Express (2008),...

Stanley Cohen was an American biochemist who, along with Rita Levi-Montalcini, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986 for the isolation of nerve growth factor and the discovery of epidermal growth factor.

Larry Sanders is an American professional basketball player. He played power forward for the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams before declaring himself eligible for the 2010 NBA draft and was selected 15th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks.

Melvin James Brooks is an American actor, filmmaker, comedian, and songwriter. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 28 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a...