100 Notable alumni of University of Melbourne

Toby David Godfrey Ord is an Australian philosopher. In 2009 he founded Giving What We Can, an international society whose members pledge to donate at least 10% of their income to effective charities, and is a key figure in the effective altruism movement, which promotes using reason and evidence to help the lives of others as much as possible.

Mechai Viravaidya is a former politician and activist in Thailand known for promoting condoms, family planning, and AIDS awareness. Since the 1970s, Mechai has been affectionately called "Mr. Condom", and condoms are often referred to as "mechais" in Thailand. From the time that he began his work, the average number of children in Thai families has decreased from 7 to...

Barry Owen Jones AC FAA FAHA FTSE FASSA FACE FRSA is an Australian writer, teacher, lawyer, social activist, quiz champion, and former politician in the Australian Labor Party. He campaigned against the death penalty throughout the 1960s, particularly against the execution of Ronald Ryan. He is on the National Trust's list of Australian Living Treasures.

Richard Gavin Gardiner Casey, Baron Casey was an Australian statesman who served as the 16th governor-general of Australia, in office from 1965 to 1969. He was also a distinguished army officer, long-serving cabinet minister, Ambassador to the United States, member of Churchill's War Cabinet, and Governor of Bengal.

John Flynn OBE was an Australian Presbyterian minister who founded the Australian Inland Mission (AIM) which later separated into Frontier Services and the Presbyterian Inland Mission, as well as founding what became the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the world's first air ambulance.

Sheila Mary Fitzpatrick is an Australian historian, whose main subjects are history of the Soviet Union and history of modern Russia, especially the Stalin era and the Great Purges, of which she proposes a "history from below", and is part of the "revisionist school" of Communist historiography. She has also critically reviewed the concept of totalitarianism and highlighted the differences...

Lieutenant General Sir Leslie James Morshead, KCB, KBE, CMG, DSO, ED was an Australian soldier, teacher, businessman, and farmer, whose military career spanned both world wars. During the Second World War, he led the Australian and British troops at the Siege of Tobruk (1941) and at the Second Battle of El Alamein, achieving decisive victories over Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps....

Colonel Sir Ernest Edward "Weary" Dunlop, AC, CMG, OBE was an Australian surgeon who was renowned for his leadership while being held prisoner by the Japanese during the Second World War.

John Cain was an Australian politician who was the 41st Premier of Victoria, in office from 1982 to 1990 as leader of the Labor Party. During his time as premier, reforms were introduced such as liberalised shop trading hours and liquor laws, equal opportunity initiatives, and occupational health and safety legislation.

Anna Funder is an Australian author. She is the author of Stasiland, All That I Am, Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life and the novella The Girl With the Dogs.

Beverley "Bev" Francis is an Australian gym owner and retired professional bodybuilder, powerlifter, and national shot put champion.

Edwina Jane Hume is an Australian politician who has served as the deputy leader of the Opposition and deputy leader of the Liberal Party since 2026. She has a been a senator for Victoria since 2016, and previously held ministerial positions in the Morrison government. Prior to entering politics, she held senior positions in the banking, finance and superannuation sectors.

Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs was an Australian lawyer, politician, and judge who served as the ninth governor-general of Australia, in office from 1931 to 1936. He was both the first Australian-born and the first Jewish Governor-General of Australia. He had previously served on the High Court of Australia from 1906 to 1931, including as Chief Justice from 1930.

Hun Many is a Cambodian politician who has served as deputy prime minister of Cambodia since 2024 and minister of civil service since 2023. He was a Member of the National Assembly of Cambodia for Kampong Speu Province from 2013 to 2023. He also currently holds the position of chairman of the Cambodian Youth Union.

Stephen William Vizard is an Australian television and radio presenter, producer, writer, lawyer and businessman. He is a research professor at Monash University and the University of Adelaide.

Jeremy Howard is an Australian data scientist, entrepreneur and educator.

Linda Marion Dessau AC CVO is an Australian jurist and barrister who served as the 29th governor of Victoria from 2015 to 2023. She was the first female and the first Jewish holder of the office. She was previously a judge of the Family Court of Australia from 1995 to 2013.

Jonathan Marc Pasvolsky, also known as Jonny Pasvolsky, is a South African-born Australian actor.

Edward Norman Baillieu AO is a former Australian politician who was Premier of Victoria from 2010 to 2013. He was a Liberal Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1999 to 2014, representing the electorate of Hawthorn. He was elected leader of the Liberal Party in opposition in 2006, and served as Premier from 2010 until 2013 after winning...

Anthony John Goldbloom is the founder and former CEO of Kaggle, a data science competition platform which has used predictive modelling competitions to solve data problems for companies, such as NASA, Wikipedia, Ford and Deloitte. Kaggle has operated across a range of fields, including mapping dark matter and HIV/AIDS research. Kaggle has received considerable media attention following news that it...

Mustapa bin Mohamed, commonly known as Tok Pa among local Kelantanese, is a Malaysian former politician who served as the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department for Economic Affairs for third term in the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration under former Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob from August 2021 to the collapse of the BN administration in November 2022, second term...

Peter John Hollingworth is an Australian retired Anglican bishop. Engaged in social work for several decades, he served as the archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane in Queensland for 11 years from 1989 and was the 1991 Australian of the Year. He served as the 23rd governor-general of Australia from 2001 until 2003. He is also an author and...

Alison Bell is an Australian stage, film and television actress and writer.

Bruce Pascoe is an Australian writer of literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays and children's literature. As well as his own name, Pascoe has written under the pen names Murray Gray and Leopold Glass. Pascoe identifies as Aboriginal. Since August 2020, he has been Enterprise Professor in Indigenous Agriculture at the University of Melbourne.

Thomas Reeve Pickering is a former American diplomat. Among his many appointments, he served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1989 to 1992.

Adnan Buyung Nasution, also known as Adnan Bahrum Nasution was an Indonesian lawyer, advocate, and activist.

Tiffiny Elizabeth Hall is an Australian personal trainer, author, journalist and television personality best known from television appearances on Gladiators, the morning show The Circle (2010), The Biggest Loser Australia: Families (2011) and The Biggest Loser Australia: Singles (2012).

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet OM AK KBE FRS FAA FRSNZ, usually known as Macfarlane or Mac Burnet, was an Australian virologist known for his contributions to immunology. He won a Nobel Prize in 1960 for predicting acquired immune tolerance. He also developed the theory of clonal selection.

James William Paterson is an Australian politician. A member of the Liberal Party, he has been a member of the Australian Senate for Victoria since 2016.

Mark Alfred Dreyfus KC is an Australian politician and lawyer. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), and has been the MP for Isaacs since the 2007 election. Dreyfus served as the attorney-general of Australia in 2013 and then 2022 to 2025, and as cabinet secretary from 2010 to 2013 and then 2022 to 2025.

Mark Regev is an Australian-Israeli diplomat, government advisor and civil servant. Between June 2020 and April 2021, he served as the Prime Minister's Senior Advisor for Foreign Affairs and International Communications. From 2016 to 2020 Regev was Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom. Previously, he was the International Spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office (2007 to 2016).

John Michael Landy AC CVO MBE FTSE was an Australian middle-distance runner and state governor. He was the second man to break the four-minute mile barrier in the mile run and held the world records for the 1500-metre run and the mile race. He was also the 26th Governor of Victoria from 2001 to 2006.

Dylan Thomas Lewis is an Australian television and radio host. He is currently the host of Arvo's on Double J. As a musician, he played in funk/alternative rock band The Brown Hornet under the stage name Dirk Vile.

Jenny Hval is a Norwegian singer-songwriter, record producer, and novelist. She has released nine solo albums, two under the alias Rockettothesky and seven under her own name. In 2015, Hval released her fifth studio album, Apocalypse, Girl, to widespread critical acclaim on the label Sacred Bones. She followed with several well-received solo albums on Sacred Bones and later 4AD Records.

Alan Tudge is an Australian former politician. He was a Liberal Party member of the House of Representatives between 2010 and 2023. He was a cabinet minister in the Morrison government from 2019 to 2022.

Kerry Isabelle Greenwood OAM was an Australian author and lawyer. She wrote many plays and books, most notably a string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher, which was adapted as the popular television series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. She wrote mysteries, science-fiction, historical fiction, children's stories, and plays. Greenwood earned the Australian women's crime fiction...

Robert Luketic is an Australian film director. His films include Legally Blonde (2001), Monster-in-Law (2005), 21 (2008), Killers (2010), and Paranoia (2013).

Andrew Sharp Peacock AC GCL was an Australian politician and diplomat. He served as a cabinet minister and went on to become leader of the Liberal Party on two occasions (1983–1985 and 1989–1990), leading the party to defeat at the 1984 and 1990 elections.

Michel Faber is a Dutch-born writer of English-language fiction, including his 2002 novel The Crimson Petal and the White, and Under the Skin (2000) which was adapted for film by Jonathan Glazer, starring Scarlett Johansson. His novel for young adults, D: A Tale of Two Worlds, was published in 2020. His book, Listen: On Music, Sound and Us, a non-fiction...

Raewyn Connell, usually cited as R. W. Connell, is an Australian feminist sociologist and professor emerita at the University of Sydney, mainly known for co-founding the field of masculinity studies and coining the concept of hegemonic masculinity, as well as for her work on Southern theory.

Philip Christopher Harvey is an English music manager and creative director. He contributes exclusively to the rock band Coldplay, who consider him their fifth member. After studying at Sherborne School and befriending Chris Martin, he continued his education at Trinity College, pursuing a degree in Greek and Latin. Harvey also organised student parties at the time, leading him to finance...

Adam Benjamin Elliot is an Australian animator and filmmaker based in Melbourne. Established as an independent auteur of minimalistic narrative-driven films in animation, all of his films have generally use of tragicomedy genre with themes of bittersweet nature and psychological development to the characters; based loosely on his family and friends, each of his films is considered a Clayography –...

Desmond Chiam is an Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as Wyatt Cole on Reef Break, General Riga on The Shannara Chronicles, and Dovich on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Robert Ian Sitch is an Australian filmmaker, actor and comedian. He directed and co-wrote the comedy films The Castle (1997) and The Dish (2000); the former of which is often considered one of the greatest Australian films ever made. On television, he is known for the 1990s comedy series Frontline and the long-running comedy series Utopia (2014–present).

Redmond Symons is an Australian musician and television and radio personality. He was the lead guitarist in the band Skyhooks, the snide judge of 'Red Faces' (a segment of the long-running variety show Hey Hey It's Saturday) and a judge on talent search show Australia's Got Talent. He hosted ABC Radio Melbourne's breakfast show from 2003 until 2017.

Richard Donald Marles is an Australian politician and lawyer who has served as the 19th deputy prime minister of Australia and the minister for defence since 2022. He has been the deputy leader of the Labor Party since 2019 and the member of parliament (MP) for the Victorian division of Corio since 2007.

Alfred Deakin was an Australian politician who served as the second prime minister of Australia from 1903 to 1904, 1905 to 1908, and 1909 to 1910. He held office as the leader of the Protectionist Party, and in his final term as that of the Liberal Party. He is notable for being one of the fathers of Federation and for...

Helen Garner is an Australian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. Garner's first novel, Monkey Grip, published in 1977, immediately established her as an original voice on the Australian literary scene—it is now widely considered a classic. She has a reputation for incorporating and adapting her personal experiences in her fiction, something that has brought her widespread attention, particularly with...

Thomas Edmund Gleisner AO is an Australian comedian and producer. Gleisner co-founded production company Working Dog Productions and currently hosts Network 10's Have You Been Paying Attention?.

Gregory Andrew Hunt is an Australian former politician who was the Minister for Health between January 2017 and May 2022. He was a Liberal Party member of the House of Representatives between November 2001 and 2022, representing the Division of Flinders in Victoria. He has previously served as a parliamentary secretary in the Howard government (2004–2007), Minister for the Environment...

Elizabeth Helen Blackburn is an Australian–American Nobel laureate who is the former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. In 1984, Blackburn co-discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the telomere, with Carol W. Greider. For this work, she was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing it with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak, becoming...

Waleed Aly is an Australian television presenter, journalist, academic, and lawyer.

General Sir John Monash, GCMG, KCB, VD was an Australian civil engineer and military commander of the First World War. He commanded the 13th Infantry Brigade before the war and then, shortly after its outbreak, became commander of the 4th Brigade in Egypt, with which he took part in the Gallipoli campaign.

Feliks Aleksanders Zemdegs is an Australian Rubik's Cube solver. A speedsolver, he is the only person to have won the World Cube Association World Championship twice in a row, in 2013 and 2015, and is often considered the greatest speedcuber of all time. He has set more than 350 records across various speedcubing events: 121 world records, 223 continental records,...

John Bluthal was a Polish-born Australian actor and comedian, noted for his six-decade career internationally in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies was an Australian politician and lawyer who served as the 12th prime minister of Australia from 1939 to 1941 and from 1949 to 1966. He held office as the leader of the United Australia Party (UAP) in his first term, and subsequently as the inaugural leader of the Liberal Party of Australia in his second. He...

Magdalene Mary Therese Szubanski AO is an Australian comedian, actor, author, and LGBT rights advocate. She performed in Fast Forward, Kath & Kim as Sharon Strzelecki, and in the films Babe (1995) and Babe: Pig in the City (1998), Happy Feet (2006) and Happy Feet Two (2011). In 2003 and 2004 surveys, she polled as the most recognised and well-liked...

Penelope Mitchell is an Australian actress, best known for playing the roles of Letha Godfrey in the American horror television series Hemlock Grove, and Liv Parker in The Vampire Diaries.

Patrick Brammall is an Australian actor and writer. He is best known for his roles as Sean Moody in the ABC comedy A Moody Christmas; as Leo Taylor in Channel Ten's Offspring (2014–2016); and as Sergeant James Hayes in the ABC series Glitch (2015–2019). Alongside his wife Harriet Dyer, he is the co-creator, co-writer, and co-star of the comedy series...

Vincenzo Colosimo is an Australian stage, television and screen actor. He has worked in both Australia and the United States. He is of Italian descent and lives in Melbourne, Australia. He was previously married to Australian actress Jane Hall.

Tahir Raj Bhasin is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. Bhasin made his screen debut with Kismat Love Paisa Dilli (2012) and made brief appearances in Kai Po Che! (2013) and One by Two (2014).

Bennett Foddy is an Australian video game designer based in New York. Raised in Australia and trained as a moral philosopher on topics of drug addiction, Foddy was a bassist in the electronic music group Cut Copy and a hobbyist game designer while he finished his dissertation. During his postdoctoral research at Princeton University and time on staff at Oxford...

Harold Edward Holt was an Australian politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until his disappearance and presumed death in 1967. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and held various ministerial positions from 1949 to 1966 in the governments of Robert Menzies and Arthur Fadden.

Samuel Pisar was a Polish-American lawyer, author, and Holocaust survivor.

James Patrick Gorman AO is an Australian-American businessman and financier. He is Chairman Emeritus of Morgan Stanley. Prior to becoming Chairman Emeritus in January 2025, Gorman served as Executive Chairman from January to December 2024, CEO from January 2010 until December 2023 and Chairman from January 2012 until December 2023. He joined the firm in February 2006 and was named...

Peter James Yates was an English film director and producer, known for making films in a wide variety of genres. He received nominations for four Academy Awards (twice for Best Director and Best Picture), three BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards.

Portia Lee James DeGeneres, known professionally as Portia de Rossi, is an Australian and American former actress. She played Nelle Porter on the American drama series Ally McBeal (1998–2002), for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award; Lindsay Bluth Fünke on the American television sitcom Arrested Development (2003–2006, 2013, 2018–2019), and Elizabeth North on the American political thriller series...

The 14th Dalai Lama is the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He served as the resident spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet before 1959 and subsequently led the Tibetan government in exile represented by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, India.

Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian moral philosopher who is Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. Singer's work specialises in applied ethics, approaching the subject from a secular, utilitarian perspective. He wrote the book Animal Liberation (1975), in which he argues for vegetarianism, and the essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality", which argues the moral imperative...

John Barry Humphries AC CBE was an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He was best known for writing and playing his stage and television characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He appeared in numerous stage productions, films and television shows.

Isabel Lucas is an Australian actress, environmentalist and model. She is best known for her roles in Home and Away (2003–06), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Daybreakers (2009), The Waiting City (2009), The Pacific (2010), Immortals (2011), A Heartbeat Away (2011), Red Dawn (2012), The Loft (2014), The Water Diviner (2014), Knight of Cups (2015), and That's Not Me...

Randeep Hooda is an Indian actor, who works predominantly in Hindi cinema. Hooda is known for his versatility and physical transformations for his roles. He made his Hindi film debut with Monsoon Wedding (2001). He had a turning point in his career with the gangster film Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010), and continued to gain attention with supporting...

Bianca Censori is an Australian architect and performance artist, known for her relationship with American rapper Kanye West, whom she married in a private ceremony in December 2022.

Elizabeth Debicki is an Australian actress. Born in Paris, France and raised in Melbourne, she studied acting at the University of Melbourne. Her accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as a nomination for a British Academy Television Award. She received the Cannes Trophée Chopard in 2018.

Catherine Élise Blanchett is an Australian actor and producer. Regarded as one of the best performers of her generation, she is recognised for her versatile work across stage and screen. Blanchett has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three...

David Ronald de Mey Warren AO was an Australian scientist, best known for inventing and developing the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder (also known as FDR, CVR and "the black box").

Germaine Greer is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminism movement in the latter half of the 20th century.

Marta Dusseldorp is an Australian stage, film and theatre actress. Her television credits include BlackJack, Crownies, Jack Irish and A Place to Call Home.

Graeme C. Simsion is a New Zealand-born Australian author, screenwriter, playwright, and data modeller, best known for his first novel The Rosie Project.

Daniel Thomas Tehan is an Australian politician who is the Manager of Opposition Business in the House. He has been the member of parliament (MP) for the Victorian division of Wannon since 2010.

Kevin James Andrews AM was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Liberal Party and served as a cabinet minister in the Howard and Abbott governments. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1991 to 2022, representing the Victorian seat of Menzies.

Airlangga Hartarto is an Indonesian politician and businessman. He is the current Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs in President Prabowo Subianto's Red and White Cabinet. He was also the chairman of Golkar Party from 2017 to 2024.

William Richard Shorten is an Australian former politician and trade unionist. He was the leader of the Australian Labor Party and leader of the opposition from 2013 to 2019, and served as a cabinet minister in the Gillard, Rudd and Albanese governments.

Gareth John Evans is an Australian politician, international policymaker, academic, and barrister. He represented the Labor Party in the Senate and House of Representatives from 1978 to 1999, serving as a Cabinet Minister in the Hawke and Keating governments from 1983 to 1996 as Attorney-General, Minister for Resources and Energy, Minister for Transport and Communications and most prominently, from 1988...

Sir John Carew Eccles was an Australian neurophysiologist and philosopher who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synapse. He shared the prize with Andrew Huxley and Alan Lloyd Hodgkin.

Kate Box is an Australian stage, film, and television actress. She is known for her roles as Nicole Vargas in Rake, Lou Kelly in Wentworth, and as Dulcie Collins in Deadloch.

Gillon McLachlan is a former Australian sports administrator and now CEO of a major gambling company. He is the former chief executive officer of the Australian Football League (AFL). He was appointed to the role in 2014, succeeding Andrew Demetriou, having previously been his deputy, and finished his contract at the end of the 2023 season, passing the reins to...

Julia Eileen Gillard is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013. She held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as the 13th deputy prime minister from 2007 to 2010. She is the first and only woman to hold either office.

David Ean Leyonhjelm is an Australian former politician. He was a Senator for New South Wales, representing the Liberal Democratic Party from 2014 to 2019. Having been elected at the 2013 federal election, he took office on 1 July 2014, and was re-elected in the 2016 full Senate election. He resigned from the Senate in March 2019 to stand for...

Denis Vincent Napthine AO is an Australian former politician and veterinarian who served as the 47th premier of Victoria from 2013 to 2014. He held office as the leader of the Victorian division of the Liberal Party of Australia (LPA) and was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the district of Portland from 1988 to 2002, before...

John Mansfield Brumby AO is the current Chancellor of La Trobe University and former Victorian Labor Party politician who was Premier of Victoria from 2007 to 2010. He became leader of the Victorian Labor Party and premier after the resignation of Steve Bracks. He also served as the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. He contested...

Michael Sven Sukkar is an Australian former politician who was the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Housing and as the Minister for Homelessness, Social and Community Housing in the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Liberal government. From 2022 to 2025, Sukkar was the Shadow Minister for Housing, NDIS, and Social Services from 2022 to 2025. He was a member of the House of Representatives...

Livinia Helen Nixon is an Australian former television presenter and actress.

Stella Jane Young was an Australian comedian, journalist and disability rights activist.

Goh Kiat Chun, known as Wu Chun (Chinese: 吳尊; pinyin: Wú Zūn), is a Bruneian singer, actor, and entrepreneur. He was a founding member of Fahrenheit, a Taiwanese Mandopop vocal quartet boy band. He left the group in June 2011. Wu Chun has appeared in numerous Taiwanese television series including Tokyo Juliet, Hanazakarino Kimitachihe, Romantic Princess, Hot Shot, Sunny Girl,...

Judith Durham was an Australian singer, songwriter and musician who became the lead singer of the Australian folk music group the Seekers in 1962.

Gillian May Armstrong is an Australian feature film and documentary director, best known for My Brilliant Career (1979), Mrs. Soffel (1984), High Tide (1987), The Last Days of Chez Nous (1992), and Little Women (1994). She is a Member of the Order of Australia. She has won many film awards, including an AFI Best Director Award, has been nominated for...

Agnes Milowka was an Australian technical diver, underwater photographer, author, maritime archaeologist and cave explorer. She gained international recognition for penetrating deeper than previous explorers into cave systems across Australia and Florida, and as a public speaker and author on the subjects of diving and maritime archaeology. She died aged 29 while diving in a confined space.

Morris Langlo West AO was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels The Devil's Advocate (1959), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963) and The Clowns of God (1981). His books were published in 27 languages and sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. Each new book he wrote after he became an established writer sold more than...