29 Notable alumni of Otis College of Art and Design
Updated: June 15, 2026 EliteDegrees
Otis College of Art and Design is ranked #5,525 in the world and #1,448 in United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 29 notable alumni from Otis College of Art and Design sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with Otis College of Art and Design won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.
1. Ruth G. Waddy
1909-2003 (aged 94)
activist
artist
printmaker
Ruth G. Waddy was an American artist, printmaker, activist, and editor, based in Los Angeles, California.
2. Ada Mae Sharpless
1899-1988 (aged 89)
sculptor
Ada May Sharpless was an American artist and sculptor.
3. Beulah Woodard
1895-1955 (aged 60)
sculptor
Beulah Ecton Woodard was an American sculptor and painter based in California. Woodard was the first African American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
+ show more
4. Patrick Ching
1962-. (aged 64)
illustrator
Patrick Ching is a Hawaiian conservationist and wildlife artist, ornithological illustrator, and author of children's books.
5. Mayuka Thaïs
1979-. (aged 47)
singer
film director
singer-songwriter
Mayuka Thaïs is an American singer-songwriter, artist, voice over artist, art educator, and edutainer. She is known for her role as a bilingual singer and actress on the popular children's program Shimajiro.
+ show more
6. Alonzo Davis
1942-2025 (aged 83)
academic
artist
Alonzo Joseph Davis Jr. was an American visual artist, gallerist, and educator. He is known for co-founding the Brockman Gallery in Los Angeles with his brother Dale Brockman Davis. In reaction to a perceived lack of coverage of black art, Davis became an advocate for black art and artists. His best-known work is the Eye on '84 mural he painted...
+ show more
7. Darren Waterston
1965-. (aged 61)
painter
Darren Waterston is an American artist who is mainly known for his ethereal paintings.
8. Mark Bryan
1950-. (aged 76)
painter
Mark Bryan is an American painter. Bryan's work travels in two distinct directions. Satirical works of social, political and religious comment and works which take an inward track to the imagination and subconscious. Humor and parody play a large role in many of his paintings. Style elements and influences in his work include classical painting, illustration, Romanticism, Surrealism and Pop...
+ show more
9. Khoi Vinh
1971-. (aged 55)
graphic designer
designer
Khoi Vinh is a graphic designer, blogger, and former Design Director for The New York Times, where he worked from January 2006 until July 2010. Fast Company named Vinh one of "The 50 Most Influential Designers in America" in September 2011.
+ show more
10. Dorothy Jeakins
1914-1995 (aged 81)
costume designer
actor
Dorothy Jeakins was an American costume designer.
11. Judithe Hernández
1948-. (aged 78)
educator
painter
Judithe Hernández is a Mexican-American artist and educator, she is known as a muralist, pastel artist, and painter. She is a pioneer of the Chicano art movement and a former member of the art collective Los Four. She is based in Los Angeles, California and previously lived in Chicago.
+ show more
12. Dean Tavoularis
1932-. (aged 94)
production designer
painter
scenographer
Dean Tavoularis is an American motion picture production designer whose work appeared in numerous box office hits such as The Godfather films, Apocalypse Now, The Brink's Job, One from the Heart and Bonnie and Clyde.
+ show more
13. Masami Teraoka
1936-. (aged 90)
painter
printmaker
ukiyo-e artist
Masami Teraoka is an American contemporary artist. His work includes Ukiyo-e-influenced woodcut prints and paintings in watercolor and oil. He is known for work that merges traditional Edo-style aesthetics with icons of American culture.
+ show more
14. Marisol Escobar
1930-2016 (aged 86)
painter
designer
assemblage artist
sculptor
draftsperson
Marisol Escobar, otherwise known simply as Marisol, was a Venezuelan-American sculptor born in Paris, who lived and worked in New York City. She became world-famous in the mid-1960s, but lapsed into relative obscurity within a decade. She continued to create her artworks and returned to the limelight in the early 21st century, capped by a 2014 major retrospective show organized...
+ show more
15. Robert Irwin
1928-2023 (aged 95)
scenographer
painter
installation artist
artist
Robert Walter Irwin was an American installation artist who explored perception and the conditional in art, often through site-specific, architectural interventions that alter the physical, sensory and temporal experience of space.
+ show more
16. Tyrus Wong
1910-2016 (aged 106)
painter
concept artist
lithographer
background artist
designer
Tyrus Wong was a Chinese-born American artist. He was a painter, animator, calligrapher, muralist, ceramicist, lithographer and kite maker, as well as a set designer and storyboard artist. One of the most-influential and celebrated Asian-American artists of the 20th century, Wong was also a film production illustrator, who worked for Disney and Warner Bros. He was a muralist for the...
+ show more
17. Michael Gira
1954-. (aged 72)
singer
poet
writer
composer
record producer
Michael Rolfe Gira is an American singer-songwriter, composer, author and artist. Now based in New Mexico, he founded the band Swans, in which he sings and plays guitar, in New York City in the 1980s at the height of the no wave movement. He is also the founder of Young God Records and previously fronted Angels of Light.
+ show more
18. Bob Clampett
1913-1984 (aged 71)
composer
puppeteer
actor
director
writer
Robert Emerson Clampett Sr. was an American animator, director, producer and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros. as well as the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil. He was born and raised not far from Hollywood and, early in life, showed an interest in animation and puppetry. After...
+ show more
19. Hana Mae Lee
1988-. (aged 38)
make-up artist
model
television actor
comedian
film actor
Hana Mae Lee is an American actress, model, comedian, and fashion designer. She portrayed Lilly Onakurama in the musical comedy Pitch Perfect film series (2012–2017) and Sonya in the horror comedy film The Babysitter (2017) and its 2020 sequel. Lee also owns the fashion line Hanamahn.
+ show more
20. Damon Wayans Jr
1982-. (aged 44)
screenwriter
television actor
voice actor
actor
film actor
Damon Kyle Wayans Jr. is an American actor and comedian. He starred as Brad Williams in the ABC sitcom Happy Endings, for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2012, and as Coach in the Fox sitcom New Girl. In 2014, he starred in the comedy film Let's...
+ show more
21. Edith Head
1897-1981 (aged 84)
costume designer
fashion designer
Edith Claire Head was an American film costume designer. She received a record 35 nominations for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design and won a record eight times, making her both the most honored and most nominated woman in the Academy's history. She also holds the Guinness World Record for most-credited costume designer in film history, with a total...
+ show more
22. Carlos Almaraz
1941-1989 (aged 48)
painter
Carlos D. Almaraz was a Mexican-American artist and a pioneer of the Chicano art movement. He was one of the founder of the Centro de Arte Público (1977–1979), a Chicano/Chicana arts organization in Highland Park, Los Angeles.
+ show more
23. Alison Saar
1956-. (aged 70)
painter
printmaker
installation artist
sculptor
illustrator
Alison Saar is a Los Angeles-based sculptor, mixed-media, and installation artist. Her artwork focuses on the African diaspora and black female identity and is influenced by African, Caribbean, and Latin American folk art and spirituality. Saar is well known for "transforming found objects to reflect themes of cultural and social identity, history, and religion." Saar credits her parents, collagist and...
+ show more
24. David Hammons
1943-. (aged 83)
architectural draftsperson
video artist
draftsperson
installation artist
conceptual artist
David Hammons is an American artist, best known for his works in and around New York City and Los Angeles during the 1970s and 1980s.
25. Billy Al Bengston
1934-2022 (aged 88)
ceramicist
painter
lithographer
sculptor
Billy Al Bengston was an American visual artist and sculptor who lived and worked in Venice, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii. Bengston was probably best known for work he created that reflected California's "Kustom" car and motorcycle culture. He pioneered the use of sprayed layers of automobile lacquer in fine art and often used colors that were psychedelic and shapes that...
+ show more
26. Zhenya Gershman
1975-. (aged 51)
painter
Zhenya Gershman is an American painter and portraitist. She is known for her "dramatic monumental portraits of iconic public and private figures" and interest in art history.
+ show more
27. Michael Lin
1964-. (aged 62)
video artist
painter
textile artist
Michael Lin is a Taiwanese artist who lives and works in Brussels, Belgium and Taipei, Taiwan. He was born in Tokyo, Japan, and grew up in Taiwan and the United States. Lin is considered a leading Taiwanese contemporary painter and conceptual artist.
+ show more
28. Evan Spiegel
1990-. (aged 36)
computer scientist
entrepreneur
Evan Thomas Spiegel is an American and French businessman who is the co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc. Spiegel was the youngest billionaire in the world in 2015. As of August 2025, he had a personal net worth of $2.5 billion according to Forbes.
+ show more
29. Kim Gordon
1953-. (aged 73)
guitarist
art critic
exhibition curator
visual artist
songwriter
Kim Althea Gordon is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known as the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Born in Rochester, New York, she was raised in Los Angeles, California, where her father was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. After graduating from Los Angeles's Otis College of Art and Design,...
+ show more