100 Notable alumni of CUNY Queens College

Peter Calandra is a New York City-based composer and pianist. He is known for his work composing music for television and film as well as conducting and playing piano in Broadway and Off Broadway productions. The former includes the FIFA Men's and FIFA Women's World Cup themes for FOX Sports and, starting 2015, the themes for the Special Olympics World...

Elaine "Ray" Barkin was an American composer, writer, and educator.

Daisy Cocco DeFilippis is a Dominican-American academic administrator and author. She is the current president at Hostos Community College in The Bronx, making her the first person born in the Dominican Republic to serve as President of a college of the City University of New York. From 2008 to 1 August 2020 she was president of Naugatuck Valley Community College...

Mark Meyer Goldblatt is an American journalist, novelist, theologian and educator. He attended Queens College of the City University of New York from 1974 to 1979, where he earned a bachelor's degree in English. After brief stints as a proofreader and copyeditor, he enrolled in the CUNY Graduate Center in 1983 and was awarded a doctorate in English literature in...

Helen Patricia Willey Gillmor is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii.

Joseph Chaim Zinker is a therapist who has contributed to the growth and development of Gestalt theory and also Gestalt methodology. He co-founded the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland.

Merle Hoffman is an American journalist and activist.

Robert Howard Susser was an American songwriter, record producer, and performer, best known for his young children's music. Among some of his several honors, he is the recipient of the "Distinguished Alumni Award" for his life's work, awarded from Teachers College, Columbia University. Susser has sold over 5 million children's albums.

Lloyd Schwartz is an American poet, and the Frederick S. Troy Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He was the classical music editor of The Boston Phoenix, a publication that is now defunct. He is Poet Laureate of Somerville, Massachusetts (2019-present), was Senior Music Editor at New York Arts and the Berkshire Review for the Arts,...

Babette Josephs was a Democratic politician and attorney, who served 28 years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Josephs was first elected in 1984, representing the 182nd Legislative District, which encompasses Center City and South Philadelphia. She held office through November 30, 2012. Josephs served as the Democratic chair of the House State Government Committee from 2001 to 2012. She...

Rosalyn Terborg-Penn was an American professor of history and author. Terborg-Penn specialized in African-American history and black women's history. Her book African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920 was a ground-breaking work that recovered the histories of black women in the women's suffrage movement in the United States. She was a faculty member of Morgan State University.

Darren Barrett is a Canadian jazz musician who won the 1997 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, and is a professor at Berklee College of Music.

Perri Pierre is an American filmmaker and actor of Haitian descent.

Holly-Jane Rahlens is an American writer, journalist and entertainer living in Berlin, Germany. She is best known for her personal essays that were broadcast on German radio in the 1990s and performed for the stage, her “future fiction” novel Infinitissimo, written in English, but first published in German as Everlasting — Der Mann, der aus der Zeit fiel, and her...

Alexander L. Wolf is an American computer scientist known for his research in software engineering, distributed systems, and computer networking. He is credited, along with his collaborators, with introducing the modern study of software architecture, content-based publish/subscribe messaging, content-based networking, automated process discovery, and the software deployment lifecycle. Wolf's 1985 Ph.D. dissertation developed language features for expressing a module's import/export...

John Sitilides is a Washington, D.C. geopolitical strategist and diplomacy consultant to the U.S. Department of State.

Tito Arturo Muñoz is an American conductor. He is currently principal conductor at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He was previously music director of the The Phoenix Symphony, Opéra national de Lorraine and Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy in Nancy, France, and Ensemble LPR in New York City, as well as Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra, the Cincinnati...

Andrew D. Hevesi is a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly representing the 28th Assembly District, which includes Forest Hills, Rego Park, Richmond Hill, Glendale, Kew Gardens, Ridgewood, and Middle Village.

David De Silva is an American film writer and producer, best known for the 1980 MGM movie Fame. De Silva retained the stage rights to the film, and, conceived and developed Fame - The Musical, which has since been produced in many countries around the world, leading De Silva to be known as "Father Fame", and launching a foundation called...

Philip Adrian Ewell is an American professor of music theory at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center. He specializes in Russian and 20th-century music as well as rap and hip-hop. In 2019, he sparked controversy with his conference talk "Music Theory's White Racial Frame", leading to a debate on the racial politics of music theory and resulting in his...

James Vacca is an American politician who served in the New York City Council from the 13th district from 2006 to 2017. He is a Democrat.

Wolfgang Joachim Zuckermann was a German-born American harpsichord maker and writer. He was known for inventing a highly popular kit for constructing new instruments and wrote an influential book, The Modern Harpsichord. As a social activist, he authored books including The Mews of London and The End of the Road.

Annette Insdorf is an American film historian, author and interviewer, who is host of Reel Pieces.

Deborah J. Glick is an American politician who serves in the New York State Assembly from the 66th district since 1993, and from the 61st district between 1991 and 1993, as a member of the Democratic Party.

Elliot Sperling was one of the world's leading historians of Tibet and Tibetan-Chinese relations, and a MacArthur Fellow. He spent most of his scholarly career as an associate professor at Indiana University's Department of Central Eurasian Studies, with seven years as the department's chair.

Rory Lancman is an American politician and former member of the New York City Council, representing the 24th district from 2014 until 2020. He is a Democrat.

Helen Marie Marshall was an American politician from New York City. She was Borough President of Queens from 2002 - 2013. She was also the first African-American Borough President of Queens.

Elizabeth Fondal Neufeld is a French-American geneticist whose research has focused on the genetic basis of metabolic disease in humans.

Rafael L. Espinal Jr. is an American politician and non-profit executive. A Democrat, he began his political career in the New York State Assembly, representing New York's 54th State Assembly district in Brooklyn from 2011 to 2013. He later served on the New York City Council from 2014 to 2020, representing the 37th district, which includes portions of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville,...

Charles Harary is an American investor, strategic adviser and professor who has gained fame as a motivational speaker, radio show host, and television personality. He is an Orthodox Jew.

Costa Constantinides is an American politician and attorney who served as a member of the New York City Council from the 22nd district. The district includes Astoria, East Elmhurst, part of Long Island City, Rikers Island and part of Woodside in Queens.

Gil Dor is an Israeli guitar player mostly known for his long-term collaboration as an accompanist, arranger, producer and co-composer with international concert and recording artist Achinoam Nini, also known as Noa.

Felice Anthony Picano was an American writer, publisher and critic who encouraged the development of gay literature in the United States. His work is documented in many sources.

Arturo Casadevall is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and the Alfred and Jill Sommer Professor and Chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He...

Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis is a Haitian politician who was Prime Minister of Haiti from September 2008 to November 2009. She was Haiti's second female prime minister, after Claudette Werleigh, who served from 1995 to 1996.

Gregory Kelley is a Canadian politician who was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2018 provincial election. He represents the electoral district of Jacques-Cartier as a member of the Quebec Liberal Party.

Jonny Podell is an American music agent and owner of the Podell Talent Agency in New York.

Jerry Colonna is an American venture capitalist and professional coach who played a prominent part in the early development of Silicon Valley. Colonna has been named to Upside magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People of the New Economy, Forbes ASAP's list of the best VCs in the country, and Worth's list of the 25 most generous young Americans....

Michael Jay Wildes is an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician, serving as the 38th mayor of Englewood, New Jersey since 2018, and previously as the 36th mayor from 2004 to 2010. He was a city councilman for Englewood from 1998 until his election as mayor in 2003.

Ester Rachel Fuchs is an American academic. She is Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Fuchs studied at Queens College, CUNY, Brown University, and the University of Chicago.

Susan Isaacs is an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter. She adapted her 1978 debut novel into the film Compromising Positions.

Norman Roberts is a former men's college basketball coach who was most recently an assistant coach at the University of Kansas. He also is the former head coach at St. John's University.

Kenneth Ira Appel was an American mathematician who in 1976, with colleague Wolfgang Haken at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, solved the four-color theorem, one of the most famous problems in mathematics. They proved that any two-dimensional map, with certain limitations, can be filled in with four colors without any adjacent "countries" sharing the same color. The proof was...

Hiram Monserrate is an American politician and ex-convict who was a New York State Senator from 2009 to 2010 and a member of the New York City Council from 2006 to 2009.

Joel Benenson is an American pollster and consultant known for his role as a strategist for Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. He was the chief strategist for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

Reri Grist is an American coloratura soprano, one of the pioneer African-American singers to enjoy a major international career in opera.

David Abraham Adler is an American writer of 265 books for children and young adults, most notably the Cam Jansen mystery series, the "Picture Book of..." series, and several acclaimed works about the Holocaust for young readers.

Jay Pak, more commonly known by his stage name, Flowsik, is a South Korean–American rapper and singer. He debuted in 2011 as a member of the hip-hop trio Aziatix. He released his first solo single, "The Calling," in 2015 and was a contestant on the South Korean rap competition TV show Show Me the Money 5 in 2016.

José Rafael Peralta was an American politician who served in the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate. A member of the Democratic Party, he last represented District 13 in the State Senate, which includes the Queens neighborhoods of Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Woodside. He previously represented District 39 in the New York State Assembly,...

Dov Bernard Hikind is an American politician, former Jewish Defense League member, activist, and radio talk show host in the state of New York. Hikind served in New York State Assembly as a Democrat representing the 48th district from January 1983 until December 2018. He joined the Republican Party in 2023.

Howard Jeffrey Rose is an American sportscaster. He is a radio broadcaster for the New York Mets on WHSQ. Previously, Rose called play-by-play for the New York Rangers and New York Islanders.

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is a political scientist, professor at New York University, and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Nicholas Rescher was a German-born American philosopher, polymath, and author, who was a professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh from 1961. He was chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Science and chairman of the philosophy department.

Iris Marion Young was an American political theorist and socialist feminist who focused on the nature of justice and social difference. She served as Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and was affiliated with the Center for Gender Studies and the Human Rights program there. Her research covered contemporary political theory, feminist social theory, and normative analysis...

Marie Maynard Daly was an American biochemist. She was the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. from Columbia University and the first African-American woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry. Daly made important contributions in four areas of research: the chemistry of histones, protein synthesis, the relationships between cholesterol and hypertension, and creatine's uptake by muscle...

Jason Katims is an American television writer, producer, and playwright. He is best known as the creator of several television series, including Relativity (1996), Roswell (1999–2002), Friday Night Lights (2006–2011), Parenthood (2010–2015), About a Boy (2014–2015) and Rise (2018).

Robert Axelrod, also credited as Axel Roberts and Myron Mensah, was an American actor. He was primarily known for his voice work, which included Digimon, having started voice acting for the English-language versions of anime in 1980; providing the voice of Lord Zedd, the main villain of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; and Finster, the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers...

Young Corky Lee was a Chinese-American activist, community organizer, photographer, journalist, and the self-proclaimed unofficial Asian American Photographer Laureate. He called himself an "ABC from NYC... wielding a camera to slay injustices against APAs." His work chronicled and explored the diversity and nuances of Asian American culture often ignored and overlooked by mainstream media, striving to make Asian American history...

Russell Targ is an American physicist, parapsychologist, and author.

Nestor Serrano is an American film and television actor. He is known for playing Navi Araz in the fourth season of 24. He also appeared as Emilio Loera in the fourth season of the Cinemax series Banshee.

Andrew Goodman was an American civil rights activist. He was one of three Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) workers murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by members of the Ku Klux Klan in 1964. Goodman and two fellow activists, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, were volunteers for the Freedom Summer campaign that sought to register African Americans to vote in Mississippi and...

Franklin Edward Kameny was an American gay rights activist. He has been referred to as "one of the most significant figures" in the American gay rights movement.

Theodore Alvin Hall was an American physicist and an atomic spy for the Soviet Union, who, during his work on United States efforts to develop the first and second atomic bombs during World War II (the Manhattan Project), gave a detailed description of the "Fat Man" plutonium bomb, and of several processes for purifying plutonium, to Soviet intelligence.

Joseph Crowley is an American former politician who served as U.S. Representative from New York from 1999 to 2019 changing districts once in 2013. He was defeated by Democratic primary challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in what was viewed as one of the biggest upsets of the 2018 midterm elections.

Richard Kline is an American actor and television director. His roles include Larry Dallas on the sitcom Three's Company, Richie in the later seasons of It's a Living and Jeff Beznick in Noah Knows Best.

Bruce Howard Kulick is an American guitarist best known as a former guitarist of the band Kiss (1984–1996). He was also a member of Union with John Corabi from 1997–2002, Blackjack from 1979–1980 and Grand Funk Railroad from 2000–2023.

Gerald Anderson Lawson was an American electronic engineer. Besides being one of the first African-American computer engineers in Silicon Valley, Lawson was also known for his work in designing the Fairchild Channel F video game console, leading the team that refined ROM cartridges for durable use as commercial video game cartridges. His innovations in this area led to his being...

Marvin Frederick Hamlisch was an American composer and conductor. He is one of a handful of people to win Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards, a feat dubbed the "EGOT". He and composer Richard Rodgers are the only people to have won those prizes and a Pulitzer Prize ("PEGOT").

Shaunette Renée Wilson is a Guyanese actress. She is best known for four seasons in the role of Dr. Mina Okafor in The Resident (2018–2021). She has also appeared in Billions (2017), Black Panther (2018), and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).

Peter Marc Jacobson is an American television writer, director, producer, and actor. He is best known as the executive producer of the popular sitcom The Nanny, which he created and produced with his then-wife, Fran Drescher, who also starred in the series. He was often credited as Peter Marc in his early acting roles.

Hal Linden is an American stage and screen actor, television director and musician.

Barbara Bach, Lady Starkey is an American former actress and former model. She played the Bond girl Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me. She is married to former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.

Louis Jay Pearlman was an American music manager and scam artist. He was the person behind many successful 1990s boy bands, having formed and funded the Backstreet Boys. After their massive success, he then developed NSYNC.

Carole King Klein is an American singer-songwriter and musician renowned for her extensive contributions to popular music. She wrote or co-wrote 118 songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 during the latter half of the 20th century and 61 songs that reached the UK charts, establishing her as the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts from...

Raymond Albert Romano is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is best known for his role as Raymond "Ray" Barone on the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond (1996–2005), for which he won three Primetime Emmy Awards (one as an actor and two as producer). He is also known for being the voice of Manny in the Ice Age franchise....

Jeffrey David Klein is an American politician and a member of the Democratic Party. He represented the New York State Senate's 34th District, serving parts of Bronx and Westchester Counties from 2005 to 2018. Klein also served as Deputy Democratic Conference Leader.

Danny Burstein is an American actor and singer. Known for his work on Broadway stage, he's received numerous accolades including a Tony Award, a Drama League Award and two Drama Desk Awards, in addition to nominations for four Grammy Awards.

Michael Alan Weiner known by his professional name Michael Savage, is an American author, political commentator, activist, and former radio host. Savage is best known as the host of The Savage Nation, a nationally syndicated talk show that aired on Talk Radio Network across the United States until 2021, and in 2009 was the second most listened-to radio talk show...

Gerald Goffin was an American lyricist. Collaborating initially with his first wife, Carole King, he co-wrote many international pop hits of the early and mid-1960s, including the US No. 1 hits "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "Take Good Care of My Baby", "The Loco-Motion", and "Go Away Little Girl". It was later said of Goffin that his gift was "to...

Jonathan Edward Favreau is an American political commentator, podcaster, and the former director of speechwriting for President Barack Obama.

Adriano de Jesús Espaillat Rodríguez is a Dominican-American politician who has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 13th congressional district since 2017. He is the first Dominican American and first formerly undocumented immigrant to serve in Congress. He previously served in the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly.

Robert Arthur Moog was an American engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthesizer, which debuted in 1964. In 1970, Moog released a more portable model, the Minimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history. Among Moog's honors are...

Jeffrey Steven White is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Josephine Victoria "Joy" Behar is an American comedian, television host, actress, and playwright. She co-hosts the ABC talk show The View, on which she has appeared since the beginning of the series. For her work on The View, Behar won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2009. She hosted The Joy Behar Show on HLN from 2009 to 2011 and Joy...

Adrien Nicholas Brody is an American actor. Prolific in both independent films and blockbusters, he has received various accolades including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award with nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Laurence Olivier Award.

Mel Alexenberg is an American-Israeli artist, art educator, and writer recognized for his pioneering work exploring the intersections of art, science, technology and digital culture. He experimental with digital fine art prints in the 1980s that are in 30 museum collections worldwide, circumglobal cyberangel flights honoring Rembrandt in 1989 and in 2019.

Gary Leonard Ackerman is an American retired politician and former U.S. representative from New York, serving from 1983 to 2013. He is a member of the Democratic Party. On March 15, 2012, Ackerman announced that he would retire at the end of the 112th Congress on January 3, 2013, after fifteen terms, and would not seek re-election in November 2012.

Jacob M. Appel is an American polymath, author, bioethicist, physician, lawyer, and social critic. He is best known for his short stories, his work as a playwright, and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, organ donation, neuroethics, and euthanasia. He is also an authority on the health of United States Presidents.

Donna Geils Orender is a sports executive and a former collegiate and professional basketball player. She was formerly president of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and senior vice president of the PGA. She played college basketball for Queens College in New York and later professionally in the Women's Professional Basketball League, the first women's pro league in the United...

Jerome Allen Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, filmmaker, and television producer specializing in observational comedy. Seinfeld gained stardom playing a fictionalized version of himself in the NBC sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), which he co-created and wrote with Larry David. Seinfeld earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1995. The show...

Robert F. Holden is an American professor, graphic designer, and a former New York City Council member from the 30th district, representing the neighborhoods of Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood, and parts of Woodside and Woodhaven in the borough of Queens.

Francine Joy Drescher is an American actress, writer, comedian, producer, and former trade union leader. She played Fran Fine in the television sitcom The Nanny (1993–1999), which she created and produced with her then-husband Peter Marc Jacobson.

Richard A. Muller is an American historian of theology and professor emeritus at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A leading scholar of Reformation and post-Reformation thought, he is best known for his work on Reformed scholasticism and Protestant orthodoxy, particularly through his multi-volume study Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics. Muller has taught at Fuller Theological Seminary and served on the...

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...

Paul Martin Simon was an American author and politician from Illinois. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1985 and in the United States Senate from 1985 to 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, he unsuccessfully ran for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination.

Daniel John Bongino is an American conservative podcaster, radio host, and law enforcement officer who served as the 20th deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2025 to 2026. He hosted The Dan Bongino Show on Rumble and previously hosted Unfiltered with Dan Bongino on Fox News until April 2023.

Cara Louise Santa Maria is an American science communicator. She hosts the podcast Talk Nerdy and co-hosts The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast, and was a co-host of TechKnow on Al Jazeera America.

Marilyn Singer is an author of children's books in a wide variety of genres, including fiction and non-fiction picture books, juvenile novels and mysteries, young adult fantasies, and poetry. Some of her poems are written as reverso poems.

Sir Nasser David Khalili KCSS is a British scholar, collector, and philanthropist based in London. Born in Iran and educated at Queens College, City University of New York and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, he is a naturalised British citizen.