25 Notable alumni of
Biola University
Updated:
Biola University is 1358th in the world, 475th in North America, and 445th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 25 notable alumni from Biola University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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John Thune
- Enrolled in Biola University
- In 1983 graduated with Bachelor of Science in business studies
- Occupations
- railway executivebusinesspersonpolitician
- Biography
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John Randolph Thune is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from South Dakota, a seat he has held since 2005. From 1997 to 2003, he was the U.S. representative for South Dakota's at-large congressional district. A Republican, Thune has been the Senate majority leader and Senate Republican leader since January 2025.
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Noah Munck
- Occupations
- comediantelevision actorYouTuberrapperfilm actor
- Biography
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Noah Bryant Munck is an American actor, musician and YouTuber. He is best known for his roles as Gibby in the Nickelodeon series iCarly and "Naked" Rob Smith in the ABC comedy series The Goldbergs. He also releases music under the aliases Sadworldbeats and Noah Praise God and creates independent comedy videos on YouTube.
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Scott Derrickson
- Enrolled in Biola University
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts in humanities
- Occupations
- screenwriterdirectorfilm directorwriterfilm producer
- Biography
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Scott Derrickson is an American filmmaker. He is known for his work in the horror genre, directing films such as The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), Sinister (2012), The Black Phone (2021), and its sequel, Black Phone 2 (2025). He is also known for the superhero film Doctor Strange (2016), based on the Marvel Comics character.
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Zach King
- Occupations
- film directorfilm editorfilm producerexecutive produceractor
- Biography
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Zachary Michael King is an American internet personality and filmmaker known for creating short videos featuring visual effects. He began posting content on YouTube in 2008 and gained widespread recognition on Vine in 2013 for his six-second "magic vines." King later expanded his presence to TikTok, where he has amassed tens of millions of followers for his digitally edited videos, which he describes as "digital sleight of hand."
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Nabeel Qureshi
- Occupations
- missionarywriter
- Biography
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Nabeel Asif Qureshi was a Pakistani-American evangelical Christian apologist. Raised in a devout Ahmadi Muslim family, Qureshi converted to Christianity as a university student following several years of debate with David Wood.
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Judith Hill
- Occupations
- singer
- Biography
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Judith Glory Hill is an American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California. She has provided backing vocals for such artists as Michael Jackson, Prince, and Josh Groban. In 2009, Hill was chosen as Jackson's duet partner for the song "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" during his This Is It rehearsals. After Jackson's death in 2009, she, along with the rest of the This Is It cast members, performed at Jackson's memorial service and attracted global attention when she sang the lead on the song "Heal the World". Hill's rise to fame is recounted in 20 Feet from Stardom, a documentary film that tells the untold story of the backup singers behind some of the "greatest musical legends of the 21st century". She is also a featured artist on the film's soundtrack. She won the Grammy Award for Best Music Film for her performance in this film.
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Cassie Randolph
- Occupations
- reality television participantspeech and language therapist
- Biography
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Cassie Randolph is an American television personality who came to national prominence in 2019, as the winner of season 23 of The Bachelor, starring Colton Underwood.
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Sikhanyiso Dlamini
- Occupations
- politicianbusiness executive
- Biography
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Princess Sikhanyiso Dlamini is a Swazi princess and politician. She is the eldest daughter of King Mswati III of Eswatini, and is the country's former Minister of Information and Communication Technology.
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Steve Bridges
- Occupations
- actorcomedianfilm actorimpressionist
- Biography
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Stephen Lynn Bridges was an American comedian who was known for his impressions of politicians, television characters and broadcasters including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barney Fife, Homer Simpson, Tom Brokaw, Paul Harvey, and Rush Limbaugh.
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Steve Taylor
- Occupations
- songwriterfilm directorfilm producersinger
- Biography
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Roland Stephen Taylor is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, music executive, filmmaker, assistant professor, and actor. A figure in what has come to be known as Christian alternative rock, Taylor enjoyed a successful solo career during the 1980s, and also served in the short-lived group Chagall Guevara.
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George Bell
- Years
- 1957-2025 (aged 68)
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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George Bell, Jr. was an American basketball player, known for his tall stature of 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m). Guinness World Records recognized him as the tallest person in the United States in 2007. Bell played basketball as a college student and as a professional, signing with the Harlem Wizards. After his retirement from competitive sports, he worked as a deputy sheriff in Norfolk, Virginia.
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Solomon Mercado
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Solomon Jemuel Rayos Mercado is a Filipino-American former professional basketball player in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Known as the "Sol-Train", he had an impressive PBA rookie season and eventually became a reliable point guard for most of the teams he played for.
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Daniel B. Wallace
- Occupations
- writertheologian
- Biography
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Daniel Baird Wallace is an American professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is also the founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, the purpose of which is digitizing all known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament via digital photographs.
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Danny Yamashiro
- Occupations
- missionaryreligious writerautobiographerevangelistradio personality
- Biography
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Daniel Keauhou Matsu Yamashiro is an American author, guest lecturer at Harvard, a chaplain at MIT, researcher, clergyman, and podcast host who survived a 400-foot (120-meter) fall from the Nuʻuanu Pali ridge in Honolulu, Hawaii, at 18. He is the first scholar to present aggregate data on childhood trauma as it relates to American presidents. Yamashiro also produced the first comprehensive study on American presidents that investigates the influence of religious development from a lens of trauma.
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Todd Worrell
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Todd Roland Worrell is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. He played all or part of eleven seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball, serving as those teams' closer for most of his seasons from 1985 through 1997. During his playing career, Worrell was a three-time National League (NL) All-Star.
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Josh Staumont
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Joshua Tyler Staumont is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Cincinnati Reds organization. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins. He made his MLB debut in 2019.
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Mark Joseph
- Years
- 1968-.. (age 58)
- Occupations
- composermusic historianfilm producerrecord producer
- Biography
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Mark Joseph is an American multimedia producer, author, and founder/CEO of MJM Entertainment Group and Bully! Pulpit. He lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife and children.
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David Eastman
- Occupations
- military officerfirefighterparamedicpolitician
- Biography
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David C. Eastman Jr. is a former Republican member of the Alaska House of Representatives, representing District 27 until January 2025. He originally represented District 10 from 2017 until 2022. His career has been marked by various controversial statements and political positions.
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Michael Cranford
- Occupations
- engineer
- Biography
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Michael Cranford is a video game designer and programmer. As a designer and programmer his works include The Bard's Tale, The Bard's Tale II, and Dark Seed. Cranford left the video game industry in 1992 to pursue an academic career as an ethicist.
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Aaron Sams
- Occupations
- teacher
- Biography
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Aaron Sams is one of the developers of the flipped classroom model for education, which seeks to shift lecture from classroom onto video so that teachers can dedicate class time to more interactive activities and extra help. Sams developed the idea with fellow chemistry teacher Jonathan Bergmann at Woodland Park High School, at first to help students who fell behind and later to completely change the structure of their classes. The popularity of the online videos with both students and those outside their classes has led Sams to speak at conferences and train teachers in the method. He was also awarded the 2009 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching for his work.
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Dennis Linthicum
- Years
- 1950s
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Dennis Linthicum is an American politician who served in the Oregon Senate from 2017 until 2025. He is a member of the Republican Party.
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Harry Rimmer
- Years
- 1890-1952 (aged 62)
- Occupations
- evangelistpastor
- Biography
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Harry Rimmer was an American evangelist and creationist. He is most prominent as a defender of creationism in the United States, a fundamentalist leader and writer of anti-evolution publications.
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Russ Hiebert
- Occupations
- lawyerbusinesspersonpolitician
- Biography
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Russel "Russ" Hiebert is a Canadian lawyer, politician and businessman. He was the Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada for South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale from 2004 to 2015. He was born in Steinbach, Manitoba. He has a BA from Biola University, and an MBA and LL.B from the University of British Columbia. Hiebert was a practicing lawyer and small businessman prior to entering Parliament. He is married with four children.
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Robert Pierce
- Occupations
- basketball coach
- Biography
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Robert Pierce is an American former professional basketball coach. He was the head coach for Sun Rockers Shibuya (1997–2001), Shiga Lakestars (2008–2010), Akita Northern Happinets (2010–2011), and the Sendai 89ers (2011–2013) in Japan and a former college basketball assistant coach for University of Southern California.
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Adam Christing
- Occupations
- writerfilm director
- Biography
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Adam Christing is an American comedian, author, and motivational speaker from La Mirada, California. He is the founder and president of Clean Comedians, an organization composed of comedians, speakers, and entertainers who refrain from using objectionable material and profanity during their performances.
