100 Notable alumni of Durham University

Roy Ascott FRSA is a British artist, who works with cybernetics and telematics on an art he calls technoetics by focusing on the impact of digital and telecommunications networks on consciousness. Since the 1960s, Ascott has been a practitioner of interactive computer art, electronic art, cybernetic art and telematic art.

Chris Terrill is a British anthropologist, adventurer, broadcaster, author and film-maker.

Ben Witherington III is an American Wesleyan-Arminian New Testament scholar. Witherington is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary, a Wesleyan-Holiness seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, and an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church.

Desra Percaya is an Indonesian diplomat who, since 2020, serves as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Indonesia to the United Kingdom, accredited to Ireland and the International Maritime Organization.

Benjamin John Howlett is an English Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath between the 2015 and 2017 general elections.

John Robert Hall is an English retired priest of the Church of England. He was the Dean of Westminster and a chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II.

Vice Admiral Sir Charles Anthony Johnstone-Burt, KCVO, CB, OBE, DL is a retired Royal Navy officer who is currently serving as the Master of the Household. In this role, he took part in the 2023 Coronation.

Annalissa Firth is a British former politician and former barrister who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Southend West from 2022 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, she was also a councillor on Sevenoaks District Council between 2011 and 2022.

James Savin Foster is an English cricket coach and former cricketer. A wicket-keeper who played seven Tests and 11 One Day Internationals in 2001–02 and 2002–03.

Peter Frank Patrick Watson is a British intellectual historian and former journalist, now perhaps best known for his work in the history of ideas. His journalistic work includes detailed investigations of auction houses and the international market in stolen antiquities.

Roderick Parry Clements is a British guitarist, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He formed the folk-rock band Lindisfarne with Alan Hull in 1970, and wrote "Meet Me on the Corner", a UK Top 5 hit in March 1972, which won Clements an Ivor Novello Award. Lindisfarne broke up in 1973 and Clements became a founding member of Jack the Lad, also working...

Martyn William Percy is a British academic, educator, social scientist and theologian. Ordained as a priest in the Church of England, he served as principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, from 2004 to 2014, and as Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, from 2014 to 2022. He has subsequently held academic posts in the USA, China and Switzerland.

Sir Thomas Woodcock KCVO DL FSA FHS FRHSC is a genealogist who served as Garter Principal King of Arms at the College of Arms from 2010 to 2021.

David Alan Sproxton CBE is a British entrepreneur, best known as one of the co-founders, with Peter Lord, of the Aardman Animations studio. Sproxton was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 17 June 2006.

Alastair David William Fothergill OBE is a British producer of nature documentaries for television and cinema. He is the series producer of the series The Blue Planet (2001), Planet Earth (2006) and the co-director of the associated feature films Deep Blue and Earth.

Bob Fu is a Chinese-American pastor. In 2002, he founded ChinaAid, which provides legal aid to Christians in China, and has been its president since then. Bob Fu was born in Shandong in 1968 and studied English literature at Liaocheng University in the 1980s. He converted to Christianity after an American teacher gave him a biography of a Chinese Christian...

Alan Walker, FRSC is an English–Canadian musicologist and university professor best known as a biographer and scholar of composer Franz Liszt. Walker has also written on composers Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin, as well as conductor Hans von Bülow. He has held posts at a variety of institutions, including the Guildhall School of Music, the University of London, McMaster University,...

Frank Holmes Tyson was an England international cricketer of the 1950s, who also worked as a schoolmaster, journalist, cricket coach and cricket commentator after emigrating to Australia in 1960. Nicknamed "Typhoon Tyson" by the press, he was regarded by many commentators as one of the fastest bowlers ever seen in cricket and took 76 wickets at an average of 18.56...

John Bryn Williams, known as John B, is an English disc jockey and electronic music producer. He is widely recognised for his eccentric clothing, wild hair, and his production of several cutting edge drum and bass tracks.

Philip Ranulph de Glanville is a former English rugby union player who played at centre for Bath and England.

Charles Christopher Hodgson is a retired English rugby union player, having previously been a player for Sale Sharks and Saracens. His position was fly-half and he is the leading Premiership points scorer of all time. Hodgson also played for England, until announcing his international retirement in 2012. Hodgson made 18 consecutive starts at fly half for England between 2004 and...

Iqbal Hussain Mohamed is a British Independent politician, engineer and IT consultant who has served as the Member of Parliament for Dewsbury and Batley since 2024. Mohamed, campaigning on a pro-Palestine platform, defeated Heather Iqbal of the Labour Party. He became the first independent MP to be elected to a seat in Yorkshire since 1907. On 2 September 2024, he...

General Sir Timothy Buchan Radford, KCB, DSO, OBE is a retired British Army officer who served as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Commander Allied Rapid Reaction Corps and Deputy Commander Resolute Support Mission.

Dame Jacqueline Doyle-Price DBE is a British former Conservative Party politician and former civil servant who was member of parliament (MP) for Thurrock from 2010 to 2024. She was first elected as MP in the 2010 general election and was defeated in the 2024 general election.

Michelle Yvonne Simmons is an Australian quantum physicist, recognised for her foundational contributions to the field of atomic electronics.

Mark Clarke is a British former Conservative Party parliamentary candidate who was director of the now-defunct Young Britons' Foundation, as well as a chairman of (also now-defunct) Conservative Future, and ex-director of the Road Trip electioneering organisation (disbanded in 2015) that bussed Conservative party activists to marginal seats during the 2015 general election campaign. Clarke was suspended from the party...

Vice Admiral Sir David George Steel, KBE, KStJ, DL is a retired senior Royal Navy officer who served as Second Sea Lord between 2012 and 2015. He served as Governor of Gibraltar from 2020 to 2024.

Rebecca Smethurst, also known as Dr. Becky, is a British astrophysicist, author, and YouTuber who is a Royal Astronomical Society Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She was the recipient of the 2020 Caroline Herschel Prize Lectureship, awarded by the Royal Astronomical Society, as well as the 2020 Mary Somerville Medal and Prize, awarded by the Institute of Physics....

Matthew Robert Warman is a British Conservative Party politician and former journalist who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Boston and Skegness from 2015 to 2024. He served as Minister of State at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from July to September 2022. Warman was an Assistant Government Whip from April 2019 to July 2019....

Sir Timothy Bartel Smit KBE is a Dutch-born British businessman who jointly helped create the Lost Gardens of Heligan, and the Eden Project in Cornwall, United Kingdom.

Helen Grace is a former actress. She played Georgia Simpson on the Channel 4 soap Brookside.

Rupert Hoogewerf, also known by his Chinese name Hu Run (Chinese: 胡润; pinyin: Hú Rùn), is a British businessman, currently the chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Inc, best known for the "Hurun Rich List", a ranking of the wealthiest individuals.

Lucy Elizabeth Allan is a British politician who served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Telford from the 2015 general election, until standing down at the 2024 general election.

Ayodeji Malcolm Guite is an English poet, singer-songwriter, Anglican priest and academic. Born in Nigeria to British expatriate parents, Guite earned degrees from the University of Cambridge and Durham University. His research interests include the intersection of religion and the arts, and the examination of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and Owen Barfield, and British...

Sebastian Early Anthony Payne is a British journalist and former think tank director. He has formerly reported for The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator, before joining the Financial Times in 2016, where he become the paper's Whitehall correspondent. In 2022, he left the paper to become director of the think tank Onward. He left the think tank and joined The...

Elsie Tu CBE GBM, known as Elsie Elliott in her earlier life, was a British-born Hong Kong social activist, elected member of the Urban Council of Hong Kong from 1963 to 1995, and member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1988 to 1995.

Guy Martyn Thorold Huchet de la Bédoyère is a British historian who has published widely on Roman Britain and other subjects and appeared regularly on Time Team, an archaeological television series first broadcast on Channel 4. One of his male-line ancestors was the cousin of Charles de la Bédoyère (1786–1815), Napoleon's aide-de-camp at Waterloo in 1815.

Mohammad Sadegh Kharazi is a former Iranian diplomat and advisor to Iran's former President Khatami.

Sir Nicolas John Gibb is a British politician who served as Minister of State for Schools from 2010 to 2012; 2014 to 2021 and from 2022 to 2023. He has served at the Department for Education under Conservative Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. A member of the Conservative Party, Gibb served as Member of...

Sir James Loy MacMillan, CBE TOSD is a Scottish classical composer and conductor.

Timothy Melton Willcox is a British journalist who formerly worked as a presenter for BBC News. He presents news programmes on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel. He is probably most recognisable for presenting the BBC's live coverage from Chile during events surrounding the Copiapó mining accident and anchoring the BBC's live daytime coverage during the early days...

Aryo Puspito Setyaki Djojohadikusumo is an Indonesian politician of the Gerindra Party who served as a member of the People's Representative Council between 2014 and 2019. He is a nephew of Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto.

Michael Knighton is an English businessman, best known for his involvement in Manchester United and Carlisle United football clubs. Knighton first came to prominence in 1989 for his aborted £20 million bid to buy Manchester United, which resulted in him taking a seat on the club's board.

Anthony Edward Timpson, CBE KC is a British former Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Eddisbury in Cheshire from 2019 to 2024. Timpson was previously the MP for neighbouring Crewe and Nantwich, winning a 2008 by-election and retaining the seat until the 2017 general election when he lost to the Labour Party candidate, Laura...

Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated included the Ballets Russes, the Huddersfield Choral Society, the Royal Choral Society, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, and the London Philharmonic, Hallé, Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and Royal Philharmonic orchestras. Sargent...

General Francis Richard Dannatt, Baron Dannatt, GCB, CBE, MC, DL is a retired senior British Army officer and member of the House of Lords. He was Chief of the General Staff (head of the British Army) from 2006 to 2009. Dannatt was commissioned into the Green Howards in 1971, and his first tour of duty was in Belfast as a...

Matthew Amroliwala is a British television newsreader, who is one of the chief presenters on the BBC News Channel. He has also been an occasional relief presenter of the BBC News at One on BBC One. He also presented Crimewatch alongside Kirsty Young from January 2008 until March 2015.

Air Commodore Nigel James Phillips, CBE is a British diplomat, former Royal Air Force officer and former Governor of the Falkland Islands and Commissioner of the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. He has served as Governor of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha since 13 August 2022.

Minette Caroline Mary Walters DL is an English writer.

Dame Alison Marie Rose-Slade DBE is a British banker. She was chief executive of NatWest Group from November 2019 to July 2023 and the first woman to lead a major lender in the UK. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2023 New Year Honours.

Nicholas Richard Denis Compton is a South African-born English former Test and first-class cricketer who most recently played for Middlesex County Cricket Club. The grandson of Denis Compton, he represented England in 16 Test matches.

Mary Beatrice Midgley was a British philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University, she was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first book, Beast and Man (1978), when she was in her late fifties, and went on to write over 15 more, including Animals and Why They Matter (1983), Wickedness (1984),...

Heidi Alexander is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Transport since November 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Swindon South since 2024. Previously she was the MP for Lewisham East from 2010 to 2018.

Lily Annabelle Lindon Travers is an English actress. Her films include Late Shift (2016) and Viceroy's House (2017). She joined the main cast of the ITV historical drama Victoria (2019) for its third series. In 2017, Travers played Polly in the Doctor Who special "Twice Upon a Time".

Sir Edward Julian Egerton Leigh is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gainsborough, previously Gainsborough and Horncastle, since 1983. Parliament's longest-serving MP since 2024, Leigh is styled Father of the House and, in July 2024, acted as a Temporary Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.

William John Heaton Greenwood, MBE is an English former rugby union player who played for Leicester Tigers and Harlequins and was a member of England's 2003 World Cup-winning team and the 1997 British & Irish Lions. He played in the centre, mainly as an inside centre.

Sir Harold Matthew Evans was a British-American journalist and writer. In his career in his native Britain, he was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981, and its sister title The Times for a year from 1981, before being forced out of the latter post by Rupert Murdoch. While at The Sunday Times, he led the newspaper's campaign...

Prince Emmanuel de Merode is a conservationist and anthropologist. He has been the director of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since 2008.

Rachel Katherine Schofield is an English career coach and former journalist and news presenter.

Maszlee bin Malik is a Malaysian politician who has served as Chairman of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) since March 2023.

Dame Patricia Mary W. Barker, DBE, FRSL, HonFBA is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres on themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. She is known for her Regeneration Trilogy, published in the 1990s, and, more recently, a series of books set during the Trojan War, starting with The Silence of...

Richard Charles Lintern is an English stage, voice and screen actor.

John David Pawson was an English evangelical minister, writer and prominent Bible teacher.

Nigel Kim Darroch, Baron Darroch of Kew, KCMG is a former British diplomat. He served as the British Ambassador to the United States between January 2016 and December 2019, and previously as National Security Adviser and UK Permanent Representative to the European Union.

Jonathan Michael Graham Ashworth CBE is a British former Labour and Co-op politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester South from 2011 to 2024. He had served as Shadow Paymaster General from September 2023. Having lost his seat at the 2024 general election, he was appointed chief executive of the Labour Together thinktank.

Faisal bin Mishaal Al Saud is a Saudi Arabian politician and writer who has served as the governor of Al-Qassim Region since 29 January 2015. He is the eldest son of Prince Mishaal bin Saud Al Saud, a grandson of King Saud and a great-grandson of King Abdulaziz.

Thomas Hedley Fairfax Harwood is a British journalist, political commentator and television show host. He became the deputy political editor of GB News in March 2023. Harwood previously worked as a reporter for the right-wing political news website Guido Fawkes between 2018 and 2021, and was a regular contributor to The Daily Telegraph, writing online columns from 2019 to 2021.

Alice May Oseman is an English author and illustrator of young adult fiction. She secured her first publishing deal at 17 and published her first novel Solitaire in 2014.

M. A. Wazed Miah was a Bangladeshi physicist and the writer of a number of texts in physics and some political history books, a former chairman of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission and husband of former prime minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina.

Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam was a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and served in the Cabinet of Tony Blair as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Graham Stuart Brady, Baron Brady of Altrincham, PC, is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Altrincham and Sale West from 1997 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the chairman of the 1922 Committee from 2010 to 2024, except for a brief period during the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election.

Shan Masood Khan is a Pakistani international cricketer who is the current captain of the Pakistan national cricket team in Test cricket since November 2023. Previously, he served as a captain of Karachi Kings, Multan Sultans, Southern Punjab, and Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

Tom Rosenthal is an English singer-songwriter and composer. His music has been described as "short, expertly crafted pop songs".

Alexander Tulloch Macqueen is an English actor and writer. He has appeared on television, film, and radio in the UK in productions such as Holby City, Doctor Who, Hut 33, Peep Show, The Thick of It, Keeping Mum, Fate: The Winx Saga, and The Inbetweeners. He also guest-starred in The Durrells in series 4.

James Holland is an English popular historian, author and broadcaster, who specialises in the history of the Second World War.

Kate Silverton is an English child therapist. She formerly worked as a broadcaster and newsreader for the BBC. Silverton was a regular presenter of BBC News at One and BBC Weekend News, as well as making occasional appearances on the BBC News Channel and BBC World News. In 2018 she participated in series 16 of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, where...

Sir Andrew John Strauss OBE is an English cricket administrator and former player, formerly the Director of Cricket for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). He played county cricket for Middlesex, and captained the England national team in all formats of the game. A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss favoured scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and...

Nasser Hussain OBE is an English cricket commentator and former player who captained the England cricket team between 1999 and 2003, with his overall international career extending from 1990 to 2004. A pugnacious right-handed batsman, Hussain scored over 30,000 runs from more than 650 matches across all first-class and List-A cricket, including 62 centuries. His highest Test score of 207,...

Edward Stephenson Gamble is an English comedian, podcaster and television personality. He is best known for co-presenting the Off Menu podcast with James Acaster and appearances on comedy panel shows including Mock the Week and Taskmaster. He studied at Hatfield College, Durham University, where he began his comedy career performing with the Durham Revue, and was a finalist in the...

Justin Gunnar Walter Chancellor is an English musician, best known as the bassist for rock band Tool, a position he has held since 1995. Prior to joining Tool, he played in a band called Peach. After settling in the US, along with his engagement in his musical projects, he and his wife Shelee Dykman Chancellor ran a store called Lobal...

Jeremy Guy Vine is an English television and radio presenter and journalist. He is best known as the host of his BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme which presents news, views, interviews with live guests, consumer issues and popular music.

Charlotte Frances Riley is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Sarah Hurst in Easy Virtue (2008) and as Catherine Earnshaw in ITV's adaptation of Wuthering Heights (2009).

Vice Admiral Sir Timothy James Hamilton Laurence is a British retired Royal Navy officer and husband of Anne, Princess Royal, the only sister of King Charles III.

Graham Bruce Hancock is a British author known for promoting pseudoscientific explanations of ancient civilizations and hypothetical lost lands. Hancock argues that an advanced society with spiritual technology thrived during the last Ice Age until comet impacts triggered the Younger Dryas about 12,900 years ago. He maintains that survivors of the disaster shared their knowledge with hunter-gatherer communities in regions...

Nicholas George Mohammed is a British actor, comedian and writer. He is known for portraying the character Mr. Swallow on stage and television. He is the creator of the Sky One/Peacock comedy series Intelligence, as well as starring in it alongside actor, comedian and director David Schwimmer. Mohammed portrayed the character of Nathan Shelley in the Apple TV+ series Ted...

Gabrielle Nicole Logan is a Welsh television and radio presenter, and a former rhythmic gymnast who represented Wales and Great Britain. She hosted Final Score for BBC Sport from 2009 until 2013. She has also presented live sports events for the BBC, including a revived episode of Superstars in December 2012 and the London Marathon since 2015. Since 2013, she...

Justin Portal Welby GCVO is a retired Anglican bishop who served as the 105th archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England from 2013 to 2025.

Robert Charles Swan, OBE, FRGS is the first person to walk to both poles.

Giles Ji Ungpakorn is a Thai-British academic, and Marxist political activist, who formerly worked as a teacher at Chulalongkorn University. He worked as an associate professor in the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, before he fled to the United Kingdom in 2009 after facing a lèse majesté charge in Thailand.

Jennifer Chapman, Baroness Chapman of Darlington is a British politician and life peer who has served as Minister of State for International Development, Latin America and Caribbean since 2025. She previously served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Latin America and Caribbean from 2024 to 2025. A member of the Labour Party, she served as Member of Parliament (MP) for...

Sir Robert James Buckland is a British politician who served as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice from 2019 to 2021, and as Secretary of State for Wales from July to October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he was first elected as the member of Parliament (MP) for South Swindon in 2010, until losing the seat...

Crispin Jeremy Rupert Blunt is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Reigate from 1997 to 2024. Formerly a member of the Conservative Party, he was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Youth Justice within the Ministry of Justice from 2010 to 2012 and chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee from 2015...

Anwar Bakht Choudhury is a British diplomat of Bangladeshi origin. Through his career, he has served as Governor of the Cayman Islands, British Ambassador to Peru, Director of International Institutions at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and British High Commissioner to Bangladesh. Choudhury has spent much of his life working intimately with the British Bangladeshi community, cementing himself as a...

Alexandra Lesley Phillips is a British journalist, broadcaster, and former politician.

David Jonathan Edwards is a Welsh politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr from 2010 to 2024. Initially elected as a Plaid Cymru MP. He sat as an Independent MP after the party's disciplinary panel suspended him in 2020. His membership of Plaid was restored in July 2022, and the whip was returned...

George-Mihail Neamțu is a Romanian theologian and politician who has served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies since 2024. A member of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party since that year, he was previously a member of the Peasants' Party from 1993 to 2012 before founding the New Republic party, which he led until 2015.

Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem is the current Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem since 2005. He is styled Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine, Syria, Arabia, beyond the Jordan River, Cana of Galilee, and Holy Zion.

Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi is an Emirati politician, author, historian, and the current and 11th ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah and a member of the Federal Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates since January 1972. He is best known for his historical publications, support for education, and preservation of cultural landmarks. He restored the Al Hisn Fort...

Ramadan Abdullah Mohammed Shalah was a Palestinian militant and politician who served as the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) from 1995 to 2018.