100 Notable alumni of University of North Texas

James Robert Rotondi was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, educator, and conductor.

Steven John Fromholz was an American singer-songwriter who was selected as the Poet Laureate of Texas for 2007.

John Manfredo Giannini is an American college basketball coach, Director of Athletics at Rowan University, and college basketball analyst for NBC Sports and other networks. He served as the head men's basketball coach at Rowan University from 1989 to 1996, the University of Maine from 1996 to 2004, and La Salle University from 2004 to 2018. Giannini led Rowan to...

John Bernard Riley is an American jazz drummer and educator. He has performed with Woody Herman, Stan Getz, Milt Jackson, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Scofield, Bob Mintzer, Gary Peacock, Mike Stern, Joe Lovano, Franck Amsallem, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, John Patitucci, and Bob Berg.

Genie Chance was an American journalist, radio broadcaster, and Alaska state politician. She is most well-known for her coverage of the 1964 Alaska earthquake, which netted her numerous journalism awards, and for her contributions to Alaska legislation.

Earl Harvin is an American drummer, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist who has lived in Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles and is now residing in Berlin, Germany.

Dennis Irwin was an American jazz double bassist. He toured and recorded with John Scofield and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra among others, and played on over 500 albums.

Kristopher Lee Carter is an American composer. He grew up in San Angelo, Texas and lives in Los Angeles, California.

Hannibal Lokumbe is an American composer and jazz trumpeter.

Emilia Schatz is an American video game designer best known for her work at Naughty Dog. She studied computer science at the University of North Texas, where she later worked before searching for work in the video game industry. She was hired at Terminal Reality, where she worked as a level scripter on Re-Mission, as a level designer on BlowOut...

Jane Gray Nelson is an American businesswoman and former school teacher who serves as the Secretary of State of Texas since 2023. She was a Texas state senator who represented Texas Senate District 12. She was elected to the Senate in 1992 after serving two two-year terms (1988–1992) on the Texas State Board of Education. In 2023, Governor Greg Abbott...

Patricia Lynn Racette is an American operatic soprano. A winner of the Richard Tucker Award in 1998, she has been a regular presence at major opera houses internationally. Racette has enjoyed long-term partnerships with the San Francisco Opera, where she has been a regular performer since 1989, and with the Metropolitan Opera, where she has performed since 1995. Also active...

Everette Harp is an American jazz saxophonist who has recorded for Blue Note, Capitol and Shanachie Records. His album Jazz Funk Soul, a collaboration with Chuck Loeb and Jeff Lorber, received his first nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album at 57th Annual Grammy Awards.

Fareed Haque is an American jazz guitarist, based in Chicago, Illinois.

Mason Quinn Fine is an American former professional football quarterback. He played in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and played college football for the North Texas Mean Green. He currently serves as the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach for Muskogee High School in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Sara Hickman is an American singer, songwriter, and artist.

Sarah Monique Broom is an American writer. Her first book, The Yellow House (2019), received the National Book Award for Nonfiction.

Zach Woodlee is an American choreographer and dancer. He was choreographer and co-producer of the TV series Glee. He has choreographed many other films such as Hairspray and Bedtime Stories.

Greg Edmonson is an American music composer for television and movies. He is primarily known for composing the soundtrack to the television series Firefly. He is also the composer for the first three games in the Uncharted video game series, and for a number of episodes of the American animated sitcom King of the Hill.

Billy Harper is an American jazz saxophonist, "one of a generation of Coltrane-influenced tenor saxophonists" with a distinctively stern, hard-as-nails sound on his instrument.

Ari Hoenig is an American jazz drummer, composer, and educator.

Riley Gale was an American singer and songwriter who founded and performed with crossover thrash band Power Trip as its lead vocalist. Gale co-founded the band in 2008; with him as songwriter and vocalist, Power Trip released two well-received studio albums, in addition to multiple singles and EPs. He was known for his harsh, growled vocals, intense stage presence, and...

David Ono is a Japanese American filmmaker and news anchor for KABC-TV Channel 7 in Los Angeles, California. He is the co-anchor for ABC7 Eyewitness News at 4 and 6 p.m. with Ellen Leyva. He also fills in for co-anchor Marc Brown at 5 and 11 P.M.

Craig Robertson is an American professional football coach and former player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). He was signed by the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent in 2011. Robertson played college football for the North Texas Mean Green. As of February 2026, Robertson is the defensive quality control coach for the Buffalo Bills.

Susan Wakarura Kihika is a Kenyan lawyer, politician, and the first female governor of Nakuru County. She was also among the seven female Governors that were elected in the 9 August 2022 Kenyan general election against a total 40 male governors, marking significant progress from the three female governors that had been elected in the 2017 elections.

Jon Button is an American bass player based in Los Angeles, California. Button has played on commercial, film and television scores and toured with a number of well-known artists. He plays both electric and upright string bass.

Shara Nova is the lead singer and songwriter for My Brightest Diamond. As a composer she is most recognized for her choral compositions and the baroque chamber opera "You Us We All". New music composers Sarah Kirkland Snider, David Lang, Steve Mackey and Bryce Dessner have composed pieces for Nova's voice. She has recorded as a guest vocalist with David...

Scott R. Kurtz is an American webcomic artist. Known for creating the daily online comic-strip PvP, Kurtz is among the first professional webcomic creators.

Stephen Johnson Turre is an American jazz trombonist and a pioneer of using seashells as instruments, a composer, arranger, and educator at the collegiate-conservatory level. For sixty-two years, Turre has been active in jazz, rock, and Latin jazz – in live venues, recording studios, television, and cinema production.

Michael Kevin Daugherty is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American composer, pianist, and teacher. He is influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism. Daugherty's notable works include his Superman comic book-inspired Metropolis Symphony for Orchestra (1988–93), Dead Elvis for Solo Bassoon and Chamber Ensemble (1993), Jackie O (1997), Niagara Falls for Symphonic Band (1997), UFO for Solo Percussion and Orchestra (1999)...

Jason Sutter is an American musician and drummer based in Los Angeles, California. He is the former drummer of Smash Mouth, and toured with Cher from 2017 to 2020.

Michael Milhoan is an American actor, best known as Dante Pacino in Something So Right (1996-1998).

James Allen Hightower is an American syndicated columnist, progressive political activist, and author.

Robert Lrod Dorough was an American bebop and cool jazz vocalist, pianist, and composer. He became famous as the composer and performer of songs in the TV series Schoolhouse Rock!, as well as for his work with Miles Davis, Blossom Dearie, and others.

Joseph Lauren Lengyel is a retired United States Air Force four-star general who last served as the 28th chief of the National Guard Bureau from August 2016 to August 2020. As chief, he was responsible for ensuring that nearly 460,000 Army National Guard and Air National Guard personnel are accessible, capable and ready to protect the homeland and to provide...

Matt Bissonette is an American bass player and vocalist. According to Guitar 9, an online musicianship magazine, he has played bass and other stringed instruments on at least 22 albums, with music styles ranging from jazz, jazz fusion, progressive metal and instrumental rock. Bissonette has played bass with performers such as David Lee Roth (1987–1992), Jeff Lynne and ELO (2001),...

Leila Rahimi is an American television sports anchor and reporter.

Mitchell Herbert Ellis was an American jazz guitarist. During the 1950s, he was in a trio with pianist Oscar Peterson.

Weldon Dean Parks is an American session guitarist and record producer from Fort Worth, Texas. Parks has one Grammy nomination.

Jeff Stanley Coffin is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator. He is a three-time Grammy Award winner as a member of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, with whom he performed from 1997 until 2010. In July 2008, Coffin began touring with Dave Matthews Band and joined the group in 2009 following the death of founding member LeRoi Moore. He also...

James Farrell Marrs Jr. was an American newspaper journalist and New York Times best-selling author of books and articles on a wide range of alleged cover-ups and conspiracies. Marrs was a prominent figure in the JFK assassination conspiracy theories community and his 1989 book Crossfire was a source for Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK. He subsequently wrote books asserting the...

Larry Pine is an American actor.

Trina Marie Nishimura is an American voice actress. She is most known for voicing Nadie in El Cazador de la Bruja, Mikasa Ackerman in Attack on Titan, Kyoka Jiro in My Hero Academia, Francesca Lucchini in Strike Witches, Kurisu Makise in Steins;Gate, and Etie in Fire Emblem Engage.

Michael League is an American composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is the bandleader of instrumental band Snarky Puppy and the international music ensemble Bokanté. He also founded the band Forq with keyboardist Henry Hey, and is also an owner and founder of the record label GroundUP Music. League has won five Grammy Awards.

William James Basinski is an American avant-garde composer based in Los Angeles, California. He is also a clarinetist, saxophonist, sound artist, and video artist.

Robert Longo is an American artist, filmmaker, photographer and musician. Longo became first well known in the 1980s for his Men in the Cities drawing and print series, which depict sharply dressed men and women writhing in contorted emotion. He lives in New York and East Hampton.

John Laird Abercrombie was an American jazz guitarist. His work explored jazz fusion, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Abercrombie studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He was known for his understated style and his work with organ trios.

Ray Wylie Hubbard is an American singer and songwriter.

Carmen Cusack is an American musical theater actress and singer. She is known for playing Elphaba in the Chicago, North American Tour, and Melbourne productions of the musical Wicked and for originating the roles of Alice Murphy and Clare Boothe Luce in the Broadway musicals Bright Star and Flying Over Sunset, respectively.

Vincent Mark "Sparky" Matejka, is an American rock guitarist. He joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 2006, replacing Hughie Thomasson who had left to reform Outlaws. He first played with the band on their Christmas Time Again album in 2000 and was credited with guitar and vocals.

Tom "Bones" Malone is an American jazz musician, arranger, and producer. As his nickname implies, he specializes on the trombone but he also plays saxophone, trumpet, tuba, flute, and bass guitar. He has been a member of the Blues Brothers, Saturday Night Live Band, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and the CBS Orchestra, the house band for the Late Show with...

Alexis Tipton is an American voice actress and ADR director. She has provided voices for English-language versions of anime series, films and video games. Some of her roles include Sun Seto in My Bride Is a Mermaid, Musubi in Sekirei, Reze in Chainsaw Man and Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc, Yomi Isayama in Ga-Rei: Zero, Mizuki Himeji in...

Christopher Young is an American composer of film and television scores.

Louis Eugene Marini Jr., known as "Blue Lou" Marini, is an American saxophonist, arranger, and composer. He is best known for his work in jazz, rock, blues, and soul music, as well as his association with The Blues Brothers.

Aaron Mitchell Dismuke is an American voice actor, ADR director and script writer. He is known for his role as Alphonse Elric in the English dub of the first Fullmetal Alchemist television series, whom he voiced when he was 12 years old. He is also known for his directorial work for the English dubs of Nanbaka, Shomin Sample, Tsugumomo, Cheer...

David Hungate is an American retired bass guitarist noted as a member of the Los Angeles pop-rock band Toto from 1976 to 1982 and again from 2014 to 2015, and the son of judge William L. Hungate. Along with most of his Toto bandmates, Hungate did sessions on a number of hit albums of the 1970s, including Boz Scaggs's Silk...

Kyle Henry Hebert is an American voice actor known for his work in anime and video game series, such as the teenage/adult Gohan and the narrator in the Funimation dub of the Dragon Ball series, Sousuke Aizen in Bleach, Ryu in the Street Fighter video game series, Kiba Inuzuka in Naruto, Kamina in Gurren Lagann, Ryuji Suguro in Blue Exorcist,...

Clint Allen Lorance is a former United States Army officer who is known for having been convicted and pardoned for war crimes related to the killing of two Afghan civilians.

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

Justin Briner is an American voice actor. He has provided voices for English-language versions of anime films and television series. He is best known for his role as Izuku "Deku" Midoriya in My Hero Academia.

Brina Michelle Palencia is an American voice and television actress. She has voiced a number of English-language versions of characters featured in anime.

Jacob Lynn "Jake" Pavelka is an American television personality, pilot, actor, and model who appeared on six reality TV programs, most notably The Bachelor.

Lawrence Billy Jones III is an American libertarian political commentator, author and a current co-host of the weekday edition of Fox & Friends on the Fox News Channel. He served as host of Lawrence Jones Cross Country from 2022–2023. In September 2023, Jones, 30, became the youngest Black co-host on cable news.

Mickey Jones was an American musician and actor. He played drums with acts such as Trini Lopez and Bob Dylan, with whom he played on his 1966 world tour. He became a founding member of The First Edition with singer Kenny Rogers, and played on all of their albums. Overall, Jones played on 17 gold records from his musical career...

Gregg Bissonette is an American rock drummer and vocalist. He is the brother of bassist Matt Bissonette, with whom he frequently collaborates. Bissonette is known for playing and recording many different styles of music. That experience led to him winning the 2023 Modern Drummer readers poll for best "All Around" drummer and also winning their 2015 category of best "Studio"...

James Wade Hampton was an American actor, television director, and screenwriter. He is best known for his TV roles such as Private Hannibal Shirley Dobbs on F Troop (1965–1967), Leroy B. Simpson on The Doris Day Show (1968–1969), Love, American Style (1969–1974), and his movie roles such as "Caretaker" in The Longest Yard (1974), a role which garnered him a...

Sean Schemmel is an American voice actor, ADR director, and screenwriter known chiefly for his work in cartoons, anime, and video games. Since 1999, he has served as the adult voice for Son Goku in the English dub of the Dragon Ball franchise.

Charles Edward Greene, better known as "Mean" Joe Greene, is an American former professional football defensive tackle who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1969 to 1981. A recipient of two NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards, five first-team All-Pro selections, and ten Pro Bowl appearances, Greene is widely considered to be one...

Sue Ane Langdon is an American actress. She has appeared in dozens of television series and had featured roles in films such as A Guide for the Married Man and The Cheyenne Social Club, both directed by Gene Kelly, as well as The Rounders opposite Henry Fonda and Glenn Ford and two films starring Elvis Presley, Roustabout and Frankie and...

Erin Cummings is an American actress and online film pundit. She has appeared in the television series, Charmed, Dante's Cove, The Bold and the Beautiful, Cold Case, Dollhouse, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and Detroit 1-8-7.

Lecrae Devaughn Moore is an American Christian rapper, singer-songwriter, actor, and recording producer and executive. Since having begun his career in 2004, he has released ten studio albums and four mixtapes as a solo artist, as well as recording with the hip-hop collective 116, which he co-founded.

Larry Jeff McMurtry was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. During a career spanning six decades, he wrote more than thirty novels, numerous essays and memoirs, and approximately fifty screenplays. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations with 13 wins, and his novels were the...

R'Bonney Nola Gabriel is an American fashion designer and beauty pageant titleholder best known for winning the title of she had previously. Gabriel won the Miss Texas USA 2022 and Miss USA 2022 titles, becoming the ninth competitor from the United States to win the Miss Universe 2022 title, as well as the oldest entrant.

Rose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in film and television for 50 years.

Adel bin Ahmad al-Jubeir is a Saudi diplomat serving as the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs since 2018. He also serves as a Member of the Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia and has been the Climate Affairs Envoy since 2022. Notably, he is the second non-royal to hold the office of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,...

Christopher Robin Sabat is an American voice actor. Some of his prominent roles in animations and anime include Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha, Shenron, and various characters in Dragon Ball, Roronoa Zoro in One Piece, Giroro in Sgt. Frog, All Might in My Hero Academia, Daisuke Jigen in Lupin the Third, And Yami Sukehiro in Black Clover.

Clara Lou "Ann" Sheridan was an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in the films San Quentin (1937), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), They Drive by Night (1940), City for Conquest (1940), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942), Kings Row (1942), Nora Prentiss (1947), and I Was a Male War Bride (1949).

Maren Larae Morris is an American country singer and songwriter from Arlington, Texas. Her eclectic music has been described as country pop, incorporating elements of R&B, hip-hop, and rock in addition to country and pop. Her accolades include a Grammy Award, an American Music Award, five Country Music Association Awards, and five Academy of Country Music Awards.

Patrick Charles Eugene Boone is an American singer, songwriter, actor, author, television personality, radio host, and philanthropist. One of the best-selling American recording artists of the 1950s and early 1960s, he has sold nearly 50 million records, charted 38 Top 40 hits in the United States, and appeared in numerous feature films.

David Alan Adkisson was an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name David Von Erich. A member of the Von Erich family, Von Erich is best known for his appearances with World Class Championship Wrestling, the Dallas, Texas-based professional wrestling promotion owned by his father, Fritz Von Erich.

Kevin Ross Adkisson is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Kevin Von Erich. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under a "Legends" deal and as a coach. A member of the Von Erich family, Adkisson is best known for his appearances with his father's World Class Championship Wrestling promotion. He is a former...

Thomas Christian Sadoski is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Don Keefer in the HBO series The Newsroom (2012–14) and as Matt Short in the CBS sitcom Life in Pieces (2015–19).

Thomas Haden Church is an American actor. After starring in the 1990s sitcom Wings and playing the lead for two seasons in Ned & Stacey (1995–1997), Church became known for his film work, including his role of Lyle van de Groot in George of the Jungle (1997), his Academy Award–nominated performance in Sideways (2004), his role as the Marvel Comics...

Peter Francis Weller is an American actor and television director. He has appeared in more than 70 films and television series, including RoboCop (1987) and its sequel RoboCop 2 (1990), in which he played the titular character; The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984); and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). He appeared in such films as Woody...

Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has won several awards for her music and, as of 2023, has sold more than 53 million records worldwide. Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000s decade. She has won ten Grammy Awards and was ranked 60th on Billboard magazine's Artists of the 2000s Decade chart.

Steve Austin, also known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American media personality, actor, producer and retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, as an ambassador. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he was integral to the development and success of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as...

Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were in the early 1960s and the late 1980s. Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male performers projected strength. He performed with minimal motion and in black...

Michael Clifton Burgess is an American physician and politician who represented Texas's 26th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2003 to 2025. The district is anchored in Denton County, a suburban county north of Dallas and Fort Worth. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Phyllis Ann George was an American businesswoman, actress, and sportscaster. In 1975, George was hired as a reporter and co-host of the CBS Sports pre-show The NFL Today, becoming one of the first women to hold an on-air position in national televised sports broadcasting. She also served as the first lady of Kentucky from 1979 to 1983.

Anne Rice was an American author of Gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Bible fiction. She is best known for writing The Vampire Chronicles. She later adapted the first volume in the series into a commercially successful eponymous film, Interview with the Vampire (1994).

Walter Dewey Redman was an American saxophonist who performed free jazz as a bandleader, and as a member of bands including those led by Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett.

Donald Hugh Henley is an American singer, songwriter and musician. Henley is a founding member of the Eagles, serving as a songwriter, drummer, and vocalist for the band. He sang lead vocals on Eagles songs such as "Witchy Woman", "Desperado", "Best of My Love", "One of These Nights", "Hotel California", "Life in the Fast Lane", and "The Long Run". The...

Michael Lee Aday, better known by his stage name Meat Loaf, was an American singer and actor. He was known for his powerful, wide-ranging voice and theatrical live shows. His Bat Out of Hell album trilogy—Bat Out of Hell (1977), Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (1993), and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (2006)—has...

John Charles Hagee is an American pastor and televangelist. He founded John Hagee Ministries, which telecasts to the United States and Canada. He is also the founder and chairman of the Christian Zionist organization Christians United for Israel, the largest Zionist organization in America.

Emmet C. "Tom" Thompson II is an American former college football player who was a member of the football team at Austin College in Sherman, Texas during the 2009 NCAA Division III football season. In 2011, he earned a graduate degree from Austin College. He has been the kicking coach for the football team at Austin College since the 2010...

Lyle David Mays was an American jazz pianist, composer, and member of the Pat Metheny Group. Metheny and Mays composed and arranged nearly all of the group's music, for which Mays won eleven Grammy Awards.

Taher Nashat al-Masri is a Jordanian politician who served as the 28th Prime Minister of Jordan from 19 June 1991 to 21 November 1991. He opposed the invasion of Iraq but reportedly wanted the Americans to stay in Iraq and keep it "out of the hands of the fundamentalists".

Billy Don Moyers was an American journalist and political commentator who served as the eleventh White House Press Secretary from 1965 to 1967 during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. He also served as the de facto White House Chief of Staff for a brief period from 1964 until 1965.

David George Hanson, Baron Hanson of Flint, PC, is a British politician who has served as Minister of State for the Home Office since July 2024. He previously served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Delyn from 1992 to 2019. He held several ministerial offices in the Blair and Brown governments, serving in the Home Office, the Ministry of...