100 Notable alumni of University of Kent

Steve Rayner was James Martin Professor of Science and Civilization at Oxford University and Director of the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, a member of the Oxford Martin School. He described himself as an "undisciplined social scientist" having been trained in philosophy, comparative religion (BA University of Kent) and political anthropology (PhD University College London).

Dame Margaret Ann Hercus DCMG, best known as Ann Hercus, is a New Zealand diplomat, politician and member of the Labour Party. She represented the Lyttelton electorate from 1978 to 1987.

Martin Richard John Knapp, CBE is an economist and policy analyst whose research, teaching and consultancy activities are concentrated in the areas of health and social care. As well as being Director of the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the London School of Economics, he is Professor of Social Policy and Chair of LSE Health and Social Care....

Carol Gould was an American writer and broadcaster who lived in England.

Belinda Jack is Fellow and Tutor in French literature and Language at Christ Church, Oxford at the University of Oxford, Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College and the author of books such as The Woman Reader and George Sand: A Woman's Life Writ Large.

Sheila Gilmore is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh East from 2010 to 2015. Gilmore stood for the seat following the decision of Gavin Strang to stand down; she is a former councillor at the City of Edinburgh Council.

Abdullah bin Md Zin is a former Member of the Parliament of Malaysia for the Besut constituency in Terengganu from 2004 to 2013, sitting as a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

Choman Hardi is a Kurdish poet and translator.

Henry Fromanteel Lytton Cobbold, 3rd Baron Cobbold, is a British screenwriter. He is the current occupant of Knebworth House in Hertfordshire, England.

Rebecca Elizabeth Taylor is a British health researcher and Liberal Democrat politician, who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber from 2012 to 2014.

Dame Ursula Brennan DCB is a retired British civil servant and a former Permanent Secretary at the United Kingdom's Ministry of Justice where she was also the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery.

Sarah Pink is a British-born social scientist, ethnographer and social anthropologist, now based in Australia, known for her work using visual research methods such as photography, images, video and other media for ethnographic research in digital media and new technologies. She has an international reputation for her work in visual ethnography and her book Doing Visual Ethnography, first published in...

Kim Ismay is a British actress and singer and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. She is perhaps best known for playing the role of Tanya in the London production of the stage musical Mamma Mia!, Madame Morrible in the international and UK & Ireland tours of Wicked and as the Baroness in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Mor Coorilos Geevarghese, formerly George Mathew Nalunnakkal, is the Metropolitan of Niranam Diocese of Malankara Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church.

Wayne Otto OBE he is a British karateka. He has a 5th Dan black belt in karate and is the winner of nine World Karate Championships and is in the Guinness World Records for winning the most Karate medals. In 2012 Wayne became the head coach of the Norwegian Karate Federation.

Elizabeth Buchan, née Oakleigh-Walker is a British writer of non-fiction and fiction books since 1985. In 1994, her novel Consider the Lily won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association, and she was elected its eighteenth Chairman (1995–1997). Her novel, Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman (2001), has been made into a television film for...

Bernd Engler is a German Anglicist and literary scholar. Since October 2006 he is President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Tübingen, Germany.

Dave Kellett is the cartoonist of Drive and Sheldon, and co-director of the documentary Stripped. He is a co-host of the podcast ComicLab and the The Wrong Way… show on YouTube. He has been nominated for various Eisners and Harveys, and won a Reuben Award.

Dame Shan Elizabeth Morgan DCMG is a former British civil servant. Formerly the Deputy Permanent Representative, UK Representation to the European Union, she was the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government until October 2021.

John Morley Harris, FMedSci, FRSA, FRSB is a British bioethicist and philosopher. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Manchester and founded the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation.

Martin Jong-bum Hyun is a German writer and retired professional ice hockey player who played in Germany's Deutsche Eishockey Liga. He was appointed technical coordinator and manager for the 2018 Winter Olympics by the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (POCOG) in the field of ice hockey and ice sledge hockey.

Scott MacKenzie is a former professional darts player based in Hong Kong. He has represented Hong Kong on numerous occasions (in both steel tip and soft tip darts), including captaining the Hong Kong team at the 2008 Asia Pacific Cup in New Zealand and 2012 team to Australia. He was also a member of the 2010 and 2016 Asia Pacific...

Dame Glenys Jean Stacey DBE is a solicitor and civil servant serving as chair of the Office for Environmental Protection from February 2021. She was Chief Executive and Chief Regulator of Ofqual, acting in the post from August to December 2020, and previously from 2012 to 2016. Stacey also served as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Probation and led HM...

Diana Paulette Wallis, FCIL is a British former Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber. Wallis was first elected in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and in 2009. She resigned her seat in January 2012 and went on to pursue academic, legal and mediation-related activities.

Moyra Tamsin Dunwoody, sometimes known as Tamsin Dunwoody-Kneafsey, is a British Labour politician who served as the Member of the National Assembly for Wales for Preseli Pembrokeshire from 2003 to 2007. She served in the Welsh Government from 2005 to 2007 as the Deputy Minister for Environment, Planning and Countryside and Deputy Minister for Economic Development and Transport.

Christopher David Mole is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Ipswich from a by-election in 2001, after the death of Jamie Cann, and was re-elected in 2005. He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, until his defeat in the 2010 general election by Ben Gummer of the Conservative Party.

Anne Faber is a Luxembourgish writer and television presenter.

Jane Elizabeth Hutt CBE is a Welsh Labour politician serving as Welsh Government Chief Whip since 2023, Trefnydd of the Senedd since March 2024 and Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice since July 2024. She has served as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for the Vale of Glamorgan since 1999.

Kunio Mikuriya was the Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO) from 2009 to 2023.

Earl Okin is an English singer-songwriter, musician and comedian.

Christopher Graham Davies is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom. He was a Member of Parliament for Littleborough and Saddleworth from 1995 to 1997. He served as a Member of the European Parliament for North West England from 1999 to 2014 and from 2019 to 2020.

Sir Hugh Stephen Roden Orde, OBE, QPM is a retired British police officer who was the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), representing the 44 police forces of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Between 2002 and 2009, he was the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). He holds a degree in Public Administration...

Ivo H. Daalder is President of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and has served since July, 2013. He was the U.S. Permanent Representative on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) from May 2009 to July 2013 under President Barack Obama. He was a member of the staff of United States National Security Council (NSC) during the...

Ana Gomes Ferreira, known professionally as Ana Free, is a singer, musician, songwriter and performer who has had a series of top-five hit singles, including 4 number one hits, in Portugal. She has a growing musical presence on the popular video sharing website YouTube, gaining over 40.1 million views to date. Ana Free's single "Electrical Storm" from her debut album...

Zoe Rapti is a Greek lawyer and politician, who has been a Member of the Hellenic Parliament for the New Democracy party for Athens B1 since 2019. She served as Deputy Minister for Mental Health in the Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis from 2020 to 2023.

Ray Edward Harry Collins, Baron Collins of Highbury is a British politician and trade unionist serving as a member of the House of Lords since 2011. A member of the Labour Party, he served as General Secretary of the Party from 2008 to 2011. Collins has been Deputy Leader of the House of Lords, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Africa,...

Kameel Ahmady is a British-Iranian scholar working in the field of social anthropology, with a particular focus on gender, children, ethnic minorities, and child labour. Ahmady, born in 1972 in Naghadeh, West Azerbaijan Province, is a researcher and social anthropologist known for his research and activities in the fields of social science and harmful traditional practices. He is the coordinator...

John Steven Bassam, Baron Bassam of Brighton is a British Labour and Co-operative politician and a member of the House of Lords.

Janusz Bugajski was a British-born American political consultant who was a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, D.C. He also served as the host of the "Bugajski Hour" television shows broadcast in the Balkans. Previously, he held the position of senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington, D.C., and served as the director...

Zameer Mohammed Choudrey, Baron Choudrey CBE SI Pk is a British-Pakistani businessman who is the chief executive of the multinational conglomerate Bestway.

Raychelle Awuor Omamo is a Kenyan lawyer and diplomat and former Cabinet Minister. She is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya. From 2020 to 2022, she was the Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister.

Kennedy Wong Ying-ho BBS, JP is a Hong Kong solicitor. He is a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong. He was also a member of the Provisional Legislative Council which existed from 1996 to 1998 and councillor of the Hong Kong Baptist University. He was the part-time member of the government's Central Policy Unit from 2002 to 2004...

Carolyn Quinn is a British journalist best known for her work on BBC Radio 4 as a political correspondent and for presenting the Today programme and PM.

Rosel Marie "Rosie" Boycott, Baroness Boycott is a British journalist and feminist.

Andrew Ross, a Scottish-born social activist and analyst, is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University (NYU). He has authored and edited numerous books, and written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Newsweek, and Al Jazeera. Much of his writing focuses on labor, the urban environment, and the organisation of work, from the Western...

Susannah Townsend is an English field hockey player who plays as a midfielder for Canterbury.

Alex Yam Ziming is a Singaporean politician who has served as Mayor of the North West District since 2020. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Yew Tee division of Marsiling–Yew Tee Group Representation Constituency since 2015, and previously represented it under Chua Chu Kang Group Representation Constituency...

Kishwer Falkner, Baroness Falkner of Margravine is a British politician. She was appointed a life peer in 2004, initially sitting as a Liberal Democrat but latterly as a cross-bencher. She served the House of Lords on many committees, including as its Chairman of the European Union Financial Affairs Sub-Committee from 2015 to 2019. From December 2020 to December 2025 she...

John Baine, better known by his stage name Attila the Stockbroker, is an English punk poet, multi instrumentalist musician and songwriter. He performs solo and as the leader of the band Barnstormer 1649, who combine early music and punk. He has performed over 4000 concerts, published nine books of poems, an autobiography (which itself has 38 poems in it) and...

Robin Charles William Tilbrook is an English nationalist politician and solicitor who has been chairman of the English Democrats since its foundation in 2002 and chairman of the Workers of England Union.

Said Sayed Bedair was an Egyptian scientist in electrical, electronic and microwave engineering and a colonel in the Egyptian army. He received his Bachelor's and master's degrees from the Egyptian Military Technical College in Cairo. He obtained a PhD from the University of Kent in UK. He worked as a researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany under the...

Homa Katouzian is an economist, historian, sociologist and literary critic, with a special interest in Iranian studies. Katouzian's formal academic training was in economics and the social sciences but he concurrently continued his studies of Persian history and literature at a professional academic level. He began studying the life and works of the modern Persian writer, Sadeq Hedayat, and that...

Jamie Rix is an English children's author, television comedy writer, and media producer. He is best known for the book series Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids and The War Diaries of Alistair Fury; both were adapted into children's television programmes.

Asef Bayat is an Iranian-American professor of sociology. He currently holds the Catherine and Bruce Bastian Chair in Global and Transnational Studies in the Department of Sociology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Bayat's works focuses on social movements and social change, religion and public life, and urban space and politics and contemporary Middle Eastern societies. Prior to his tenure...

Hurşit Güneş is a Turkish politician and professor of economics, who had served as deputy chairman of Republican People's Party (CHP); and he has been deputy of Kocaeli Province since 2011.

Stuart Hazeldine is a British screenwriter, film producer and director. He is best known for his 2009 psychological thriller Exam, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. He also directed the 2017 film adaptation of William P. Young's novel The Shack. He currently resides in London.

Matthew Crosby is an English comedian and writer.

Peter Wittig is a former German diplomat who was Ambassador to the United Kingdom from July 2018, to April 2020, after having served as Ambassador to the United States from 30 April 2014, to 20 June 2018 and Permanent Representative at the United Nations in New York from 2009 to 2014.

Taiwo Victoria Owatemi is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry North West since 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she currently holds the position of Junior Lord of the Treasury (Government Whip).

Stephen Patrick Gethins is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician and academic serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry since the 2024 general election.

Gareth Andrew Bacon is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Orpington since 2019. He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sentencing from November 2023 to July 2024. He was Shadow Minister for London from July 2024 to November 2024 and Shadow Transport Secretary between November 2024 and July 2025.

Abena Oppong-Asare is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Erith and Thamesmead since 2019. In September 2025, Oppong-Asare was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. She was previously a Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from July 2024 to September 2025. Oppong-Asare and Bell Ribeiro-Addy, both elected...

Nicole Sinclaire is a British former politician who was leader of the We Demand a Referendum Party, and served as a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands from 2009 to 2014.

Ariel Vromen is an Israeli film director, screenwriter and DJ, best known for directing the 2012 American film The Iceman.

Jonathan Yeo is a British contemporary artist who specializes in both traditional and experimental forms of portraiture. His most celebrated paintings include King Charles III, Malala Yousafzai, Sir David Attenborough, Dennis Hopper, and Cara Delevingne, among others. GQ described him as "one of the world's most in-demand portraitists."

Peter Robin Whittle was a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who served as a Member of the London Assembly from 2016 to 2021 and as Deputy Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) to Paul Nuttall from 2016 to 2017. He was the founder and director of the New Culture Forum think tank and host of So What You're...

Jacqueline Clune is a British actress and writer. She became established through her Edinburgh Fringe one-woman cabaret shows and her 1995 Karen Carpenter tribute act before graduating to mainstream acting.

Seyed Hossein Mousavian is an Iranian policymaker and scholar who served on Iran's nuclear diplomacy team in negotiations with the EU and International Atomic Energy Agency. He resides in the United States and was a visiting research scholar at Princeton University.

Zainab Balogun-NwachukwuListen is a Nigerian actress, model and television presenter. She began modelling at an early age after being scouted at 16. She has been featured in several international campaigns for different brands. She co-founded The J-ist TV, an online entertainment web-series that highlights African culture and a range of topical issues; the series features interviews involving some of Africa's...

Stephen Simpson Hillage is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s. Besides his solo recordings he has been a member of Uriel, Khan, Gong and System 7.

Natalie Cecilia Elphicke is a British former politician and finance lawyer. She was elected as a member of the Conservative Party during the 2019 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dover. She defected to the Labour Party on 8 May 2024, shortly before standing down at the 2024 general election.

Fiona Susannah Grace Glover is a British journalist and presenter who currently hosts a two-hour show for Times Radio and the Off Air podcast for The Times. Before joining The Times in October 2022, Glover worked for the BBC for almost thirty years, most recently presenting the Fortunately podcast, with Jane Garvey, The Listening Project for BBC Radio 4 and...

Gavin William James Esler is a Scottish journalist, television presenter and author. He was a main presenter on BBC Two's flagship political analysis programme, Newsnight, from January 2003 until January 2014, and presenter of BBC News at Five on the BBC News Channel. From 2014 to 2023 he served as the Chancellor of the University of Kent. On 11 March...

Elizabeth Jane Kucinich is a British organic food and vegan advocate. She has produced two documentaries and is married to the retired eight-term US Congressman and two-time Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.

Fu Ying is a Chinese politician and diplomat, best known for her terms as the ambassador to the Philippines, Australia, and the United Kingdom, as well as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Dame Carolyn Julia McCall is a British businesswoman. She was the chief executive of EasyJet from 2010 to 2017.

Abbas Araghchi is an Iranian diplomat and politician, who has served as the foreign minister of Iran since August 2024. He previously served as the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as the Iranian ambassador to Finland and to Japan.

Sarah Ann Waters OBE is a Welsh novelist. She is best known for her novels set in Victorian society and featuring lesbian protagonists, such as Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith.

Olga Karlatos is a retired Greek actress and Bermudian lawyer, known primarily for performing in Italian horror cinema.

Alan Roger Davies is an English actor, presenter, stand-up comedian, and writer. He is known for his portrayal of the title role in the BBC mystery drama series Jonathan Creek (1997–2016) and as the only permanent panellist on the BBC panel show QI since its premiere in 2003, outlasting its original host Stephen Fry. He began his career as a...

Tiwatope Omolara Savage, known professionally as Tiwa Savage (listen), is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and actress. Savage sings in English, Nigerian Pidgin and Yoruba; her music is a blend of afrobeats, R&B, afropop, pop and hip-hop. Savage's contributions to the Nigerian music industry have earned her several recognitions.

Dame Emily Anne Thornberry DBE is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington South and Finsbury since 2005. A member of the Labour Party, she served as Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales from 2021 until the 2024 general election, and previously from 2011 to 2014. Thornberry has also served in a number...

Matt Preston is an English-Australian food critic, writer, food journalist, television and radio presenter.

Abdulrazak Gurnah FRSL is a Tanzanian novelist and academic of Yemeni origin. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution. His novels include Paradise (1994), which was shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize; By the Sea (2001), which was longlisted for...

Elena Jane Goulding is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Hereford and raised in Lyonshall, Goulding began writing songs at the age of 15. She released her debut single "Under the Sheets" through Neon Gold Records in 2009, and signed with Polydor Records that same year, releasing her debut extended play (EP) An Introduction to Ellie Goulding. Her debut studio album,...

Sir Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese-born British novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. He is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary fiction authors writing in English, having been awarded several major literary prizes, including the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, the Swedish Academy described Ishiguro as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has...

Thomas Geoffrey Wilkinson OBE was an English actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2005, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire...

Erika Mitchell, known by her pen name E. L. James, is a British author. She wrote the best-selling Fifty Shades series of erotic romance novels, which spawned a multimedia franchise including a film trilogy of the same name. Prior to this, she wrote the Twilight fan fiction "Master of the Universe" that served as the basis for the Fifty Shades...

Richard Barbrook is an academic in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages at the University of Westminster.

Debjani Chatterjee MBE is an Indian-born British poet and writer. She lives in Sheffield, England.

Alexander James Kent FBCartS FRGS FRSA FSA SFHEA is a British cartographer, geographer and academic, currently serving as Vice President of the International Cartographic Association. He leads the Coastal Connections Project for World Monuments Fund and English Heritage and is honorary Reader in Cartography and Geographical Information Science at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) and also a senior research associate...

Roys Poyiadjis is a Greek Cypriot entrepreneur and financier. He is most notable for his role in the largest Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settlement with an individual, $200 million, after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit security fraud.

Maria Mezentseva is a Ukrainian politician. Mezentseva was elected to Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, in 2019. She holds several positions related to European integration, including deputy chairperson of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the European Union (as of 2020) and chairperson of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (as of 2021).

Konstantinos Hatzidakis (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος (Κωστής) Χατζηδάκης; born 20 April 1965 in Rethymno) is a Greek politician who currently serves as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State in the Second Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He also serves as Vice President of New Democracy, alongside Adonis Georgiadis.

Marietta Slomka is a German journalist who has been the anchor of TV news show heute-journal since 2001.

Mathilda Twomey is a Seychellois lawyer and academic. She is the first female judge in the history of Seychelles and also the first woman to be appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Seychelles.

Annita Demetriou is a Cypriot politician, who serves as President of the Cypriot House of Representatives since June 2021, and as the President of the Democratic Rally (DISY) since March 2023. The latter role effectively designates her as the Leader of Opposition to the incumbent Christodoulides government.

Sílvio Romero de Lemos Meira is a Brazilian computer scientist, professor and entrepreneur in the area of software engineering and innovation. Currently, he is an emeritus professor at the Centre of Informatics of the Federal University of Pernambuco. Additionally, he also is the chairman of the Porto Digital - the biggest Brazilian tech park - and is member of the...

Alice Bahumi Mogwe is a Motswana activist and lawyer. She is the founder and director of the human rights organization Ditshwanelo.