100 Notable alumni of
CUNY Brooklyn College
Updated:
CUNY Brooklyn College is 217th in the world, 94th in North America, and 91st in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from CUNY Brooklyn College sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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James Franco
- Occupations
- playwrighttelevision actorpoetfilm editorfilm actor
- Biography
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James Edward Franco is an American actor and filmmaker. He has starred in numerous films, including Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007), Milk (2008), Eat Pray Love (2010), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Spring Breakers (2012), and Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). He has collaborated with fellow actor Seth Rogen on multiple projects, including Pineapple Express (2008), This Is the End (2013), Sausage Party (2016), and The Disaster Artist (2017), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. Franco's performance in 127 Hours (2010) earned a Best Actor nomination at the 83rd Academy Awards.
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Bernie Sanders
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- 1959-1960 studied psychology
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Bernard Sanders is an American politician and activist who is the senior United States senator from Vermont. He is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history, but maintains a close relationship with the Democratic Party, having caucused with House and Senate Democrats for most of his congressional career and sought the party's presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. Sanders has been viewed as the leader of the modern American progressive movement.
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Mel Brooks
- Occupations
- playwrightcinematographercomposeractorstage actor
- Biography
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Melvin James Brooks is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 21 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2024.
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Jimmy Smits
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actorfilm produceractor
- Biography
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Jimmy L. Smits is an American actor. He is best known for playing attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s–1990s legal drama L.A. Law, NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s–2000s police drama NYPD Blue, and Matt Santos on the political drama The West Wing. He appeared in Switch (1991), My Family (1995), The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), and In the Heights (2021). He also appeared as Bail Organa in the Star Wars franchise and as ADA Miguel Prado in Dexter. From 2012 to 2014, he was a member of the main cast of Sons of Anarchy, in the role of Nero Padilla. Smits also portrayed Elijah Strait in the NBC drama series Bluff City Law.
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Alan Dershowitz
- Occupations
- university teacherscreenwriterart collectorlawyer
- Biography
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Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer and law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appointed as the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law in 1993. Dershowitz is a regular media contributor, political commentator, and legal analyst.
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Don Lemon
- Occupations
- opinion journalist
- Biography
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Don Lemon is an American television journalist best known for being a host on CNN from 2014 until 2023. He anchored weekend news programs on local television stations in Alabama and Pennsylvania during his early days as a journalist. Lemon worked as a news correspondent for NBC on its programming, such as Today and NBC Nightly News. Lemon is also a recipient of an Edward R. Murrow Award in 2002 for his coverage of the capture of the Washington, D.C. snipers. He also received three regional Emmy Awards for his special report on real estate in Chicago and a business feature on Craigslist.
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Shirley Chisholm
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- In 1946 studied sociology
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Shirley Anita Chisholm was an American politician who, in 1968, became the first Black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm represented New York's 12th congressional district, a district centered in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972, she became the first Black candidate for a major-party nomination for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Throughout her career, she was known for taking "a resolute stand against economic, social, and political injustices", as well as being a strong supporter of black civil rights and women's rights.
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David Geffen
- Occupations
- businesspersonrecord producertalent agenttheatrical producertelevision producer
- Biography
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David Lawrence Geffen is an American film producer, record executive, and media proprietor. In music, he co-founded Asylum Records with Elliot Roberts in 1971 before founding Geffen Records in 1980, DGC Records in 1990, and co-founding DreamWorks Records (with Mo Ostin, Michael Ostin and Lenny Waronker) in 1996. In film, he founded the Geffen Film Company in 1986 and co-founded DreamWorks SKG (with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg) in 1994.
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Al Sharpton
- Occupations
- human rights activistfilm actorradio personalitytelevision presenterpolitician
- Biography
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Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. is an American civil rights and social justice activist, Baptist minister, radio talk show host, and TV personality, who is also the founder of the National Action Network civil rights organization. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election. He hosts a weekday radio talk show, Keepin' It Real, which is nationally syndicated by Urban One, and he is a political analyst and weekend host for MSNBC, hosting PoliticsNation.
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Dominic Chianese
- Occupations
- executive produceractorsingerproduceranimator
- Biography
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Dominic Chianese is an American actor, singer, and musician. He is best known for his roles as Junior Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos (1999–2007), Johnny Ola in The Godfather Part II (1974), and Leander Whitlock in Boardwalk Empire (2011–2013).
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Philip Zimbardo
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- In 1954 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in sociology, psychology, and anthropology
- Occupations
- psychologistauthorsocial psychologistscreenwriternon-fiction writer
- Biography
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Philip George Zimbardo was an American psychologist and a professor at Stanford University. He was an internationally known educator, researcher, author and media personality in psychology who authored more than 500 articles, chapters, textbooks, and trade books covering a wide range of topics, including time perspective, cognitive dissonance, the psychology of evil, persuasion, cults, deindividuation, shyness, and heroism. He became known for his 1971 Stanford prison experiment, which was later criticized. He authored various widely-used, introductory psychology textbooks for college students, and other notable works, including Shyness, The Lucifer Effect, and The Time Paradox. He was the founder and president of the Heroic Imagination Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting heroism in everyday life by training people how to resist bullying, bystanding, and negative conformity. He pioneered The Stanford Shyness Clinic in the 1970s and offered the earliest comprehensive treatment program for shyness. He was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and many awards and honors for service, teaching, research, writing, and educational media, including the Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science for his Discovering Psychology video series. He served as Western Psychological Association president in 1983 and 2001, and American Psychological Association president in 2002.
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Barbara Boxer
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- In 1962 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- politiciannewspaper editorcongressional staffwriternovelist
- Biography
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Barbara Sue Boxer is an American politician, lobbyist, and former reporter who served in the United States Senate, representing California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the U.S. representative for California's 6th congressional district from 1983 until 1993.
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Steve Schirripa
- Occupations
- writeractortelevision producer
- Biography
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Steven Ralph Schirripa is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Bobby Bacala on The Sopranos, Leo Boykewich on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Detective Anthony Abetemarco on Blue Bloods. Schirripa is host of two Investigation Discovery series: Karma's A B*tch! and Nothing Personal. He is the voice of Roberto in the Open Season film series.
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Stanley Milgram
- Occupations
- social psychologist
- Biography
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Stanley Milgram was an American social psychologist known for his controversial experiments on obedience conducted in the 1960s during his professorship at Yale.
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Herb Edelman
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actorstage actoractor
- Biography
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Herbert “Herb” Edelman was an American actor of stage, film and television. He was twice nominated for an Emmy Award for his television work. His best-known role was as Stanley Zbornak, the ex-husband of Dorothy Zbornak (played by Bea Arthur) on The Golden Girls. He also had a recurring role on the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere.
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Linda Sarsour
- Occupations
- writerhuman rights activistcommunity organizerpolitical activist
- Biography
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Linda Sarsour is an American political activist. She was co-chair of the 2017 Women's March, the 2017 Day Without a Woman, and the 2019 Women's March. She is also a former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. She and her Women's March co-chairs were profiled in Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People" in 2017.
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Saul Bass
- Occupations
- graphic designerphotographerdesignergraphic artistfilmmaker
- Biography
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Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and Oscar-winning filmmaker, best known for his design of motion-picture title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos.
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Brian Quinn
- Occupations
- comediantelevision actor
- Biography
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Brian Michael "Q" Quinn is an American podcaster, improvisational comedian, and actor. He is a member of The Tenderloins, a comedy troupe also consisting of Sal Vulcano, James Murray, and formerly Joe Gatto. Along with the other members of The Tenderloins, he stars in the television series Impractical Jokers, which premiered in 2011, on TruTV.
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Larry Sanders
- Occupations
- university teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Lawrence Sanders is an American-British academic, social worker, politician, and former Health and Social Care Spokesperson of the Green Party of England and Wales. He is the older brother of Bernie Sanders, United States Senator from Vermont and two-time U.S. presidential candidate.
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Ocean Vuong
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterpoetessayist
- Biography
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Ocean Vuong is a Vietnamese American poet, essayist, and novelist. He is the recipient of the 2014 Ruth Lilly/Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, 2016 Whiting Award, and the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize. His debut novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, was published in 2019. He received a MacArthur Grant that same year.
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Sara Shepard
- Occupations
- writerchildren's writernovelist
- Biography
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Sara Shepard is an American author. She is known for the bestselling Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game book series, both of which have been turned into television shows on Freeform.
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Necro
- Occupations
- rapperrecord producercomposerfilm producerfilm actor
- Biography
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Ron Raphael Braunstein, professionally known by his stage name Necro, is an American rapper and record producer from New York City. He founded his own independent record label Psycho+Logical-Records in November 1999. He is a member of hip hop groups the Circle of Tyrants and Secret Society together with his older brother Ill Bill, and one-half of The Godfathers alongside Kool G Rap.
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Paul Mazursky
- Occupations
- film directorwriterautobiographerfilm produceractor
- Biography
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Irwin Lawrence "Paul" Mazursky was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Known for his dramatic comedies that often dealt with modern social issues, he was nominated for five Academy Awards for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), An Unmarried Woman (1978), Harry and Tonto (1974), and Enemies, A Love Story (1989). He is also known for directing the autobiographical Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), Moscow on the Hudson (1984), Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Moon over Parador (1988), and Scenes from a Mall (1991).
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Sylvia Fine
- Occupations
- composeractorsongwriterlyricistfilm producer
- Biography
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Sylvia Fine Kaye was an American lyricist, composer, and producer. Many of her compositions and productions were performed by her husband, comedian Danny Kaye. Fine was a Peabody Award-winner and was nominated for two Academy Awards and two Emmys during her career. She won an Emmy award in 1976 for a children's special.
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Alan Vega
- Occupations
- musicianpaintersculptorsinger
- Biography
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Alan Bermowitz, known professionally as Alan Vega, was an American vocalist and visual artist, primarily known for his work with the electronic proto-punk duo Suicide.
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Damon Evans
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- In 2019 graduated with bachelor's degree in Africana studies
- Occupations
- actoropera singerstage actortelevision actorperforming artist
- Biography
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Damon Evans is an American actor best known as the second of two actors who portrayed Lionel Jefferson on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons. He also portrayed the young Alex Haley (ages 17–25) in the ABC television miniseries Roots: The Next Generations.
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Sharon Jones
- Occupations
- singer
- Biography
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Sharon Lafaye Jones was an American soul and funk singer. She was the lead singer of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, a soul and funk band based in Brooklyn, New York. Jones experienced breakthrough success relatively late in life, releasing her first record when she was 40 years old. In 2014, Jones was nominated for her first Grammy, in the category Best R&B Album, for Give the People What They Want.
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Benjamin Brafman
- Occupations
- lawyer
- Biography
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Benjamin Brafman is an American criminal defense attorney and founder of the Manhattan-based law firm Brafman & Associates. Brafman is known for representing many high-profile defendants, including celebrities, accused Mafia members, and political figures.
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Bruce Morrow
- Occupations
- disc jockey
- Biography
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Bruce Morrow is an American radio performer, publicly known as Cousin Brucie or Cousin Bruce Morrow. In an October 2020 interview, Morrow said he received the moniker "Cousin" while in the lobby of his midtown Manhattan WABC studio when an elderly woman once asked him "Cousin, lend me fifty cents to get home" to whom he did give that fifty cents. The name stuck for six decades.
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Iris Weinshall
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Iris Weinshall is the chief operating officer of The New York Public Library, former vice chancellor at the City University of New York and a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation. Weinshall was appointed Chief Operating Officer by the Library in July 2014, and she began her tenure on September 1, 2014. She is the wife of U.S. Senator and Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer.
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Ira Rennert
- Occupations
- financier
- Biography
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Ira Leon Rennert is an American billionaire businessman, and the chairman and CEO of Renco Group. As of November 2024, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$3.8 billion.
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Jumaane Williams
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Jumaane D. Williams is an American activist and politician who has served as the New York City Public Advocate since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party and a self-described democratic socialist, He is a former member of the New York City Council from the 45th district, which includes East Flatbush, Flatbush, Flatlands, Marine Park, and Midwood in Brooklyn.
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Gata Kamsky
- Occupations
- chess player
- Biography
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Gata Kamsky is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster, and a five-time U.S. champion.
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Robert Rosenthal
- Occupations
- lawyerprosecutor
- Biography
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Lieutenant Colonel Robert Rosenthal was an American lawyer and Army officer. A highly decorated B-17 commander of the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces in World War II, Rosenthal was a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross and two Silver Stars. Although bomber crews were initially only required to complete 25 combat missions in a combat tour to earn the right to rotate home, Rosenthal flew a total of 52 missions and was shot down twice. After the war, Rosenthal served as an assistant to the U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.
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Charlie Shrem
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- 2008-2012 graduated with Bachelor of Science
- Occupations
- entrepreneur
- Biography
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Charles Shrem IV is an American entrepreneur and bitcoin advocate. He co-founded the now-defunct startup company BitInstant, and is a founding member of the Bitcoin Foundation. In 2014 he was sentenced to two years in prison for aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business related to the Silk Road marketplace. He was released from prison in 2016. In 2017, he joined Jaxx and served as its chief operating officer, and founded cryptocurrency advisory CryptoIQ.
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Marvin Kaplan
- Occupations
- film produceractortelevision actorscreenwriterfilm actor
- Biography
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Marvin Wilbur Kaplan was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter who was best known as Henry Beesmeyer in Alice (1978–1985).
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Doc Pomus
- Occupations
- musicianwritersongwritersinger
- Biography
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Jerome Solon Felder, known professionally as Doc Pomus, was an American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the co-writer of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 1992, the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992), and the Blues Hall of Fame (2012).
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Paul Beatty
- Occupations
- writernovelistpoet
- Biography
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Paul Beatty is an American author and an associate professor of writing at Columbia University. In 2016, he won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout. It was the first time a writer from the United States was honored with the Man Booker.
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Sandy Baron
- Occupations
- film actorscreenwritertelevision actorstage actor
- Biography
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Sandy Baron was an American actor and comedian who performed on stage, in films, and on television. He is best known for his recurring role of Jack Klompus on the NBC sitcom Seinfeld.
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Mousa Kraish
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
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Mousa Hussein Kraish is an American actor and director, who has appeared in several Hollywood films including Steven Spielberg's 2005 film Munich. He is best known for his role as the Jinn in American Gods.
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Malachi Throne
- Occupations
- actorfilm actorstage actortelevision actorvoice actor
- Biography
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Malachi Throne was an American actor known as Noah Bain on It Takes a Thief. He also had guest-starring roles on multiple television series, including Star Trek and Batman, and appeared in films and theater.
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Donald Kagan
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- In 1954 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- academicuniversity teacherhistoriannon-fiction writerclassical philologist
- Biography
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Donald Kagan was a Lithuanian-born American historian and classicist at Yale University specializing in ancient Greece. He formerly taught in the Department of History at Cornell University. Kagan was considered among the foremost American scholars of Greek history and is notable for his four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War.
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Mike Garson
- Occupations
- composerpianist
- Biography
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Michael David Garson is an American pianist, who has worked with David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, St. Vincent, Duran Duran, Free Flight, The Smashing Pumpkins, Melissa Auf der Maur, CSS and The Pretty Reckless.
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Walter Block
- Occupations
- businesspersoneconomistphilosopher
- Biography
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Walter Edward Block is an American Austrian School economist and anarcho-capitalist theorist. He was the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Economics at the School of Business at Loyola University New Orleans and a former senior fellow of the non-profit think-tank Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama.
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Annie Baker
- Occupations
- pedagogueplaywrightfilm directorteacher
- Biography
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Annie Baker is an American playwright and film director. She is known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Flick (2013). She has written a string of plays which are set in the fictional town of Shirley: Body Awareness (2008), Circle Mirror Transformation (2009), The Aliens (2010), and Nocturama (2014). She made her feature film directorial debut with the A24 coming-of-age drama Janet Planet (2023).
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Stanley Cohen
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- Graduated with bachelor's degree in zoology and chemistry
- Occupations
- university teacherendocrinologistphysiologistbiochemist
- Biography
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Stanley Cohen was an American biochemist who, along with Rita Levi-Montalcini, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986 for the isolation of nerve growth factor and the discovery of epidermal growth factor. He died in February 2020 at the age of 97.
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Mark Lane
- Occupations
- politicianconspiracy theoristlawyerwriterjurist
- Biography
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Mark Lane was an American attorney, New York state legislator, civil rights activist, and Vietnam war-crimes investigator. Sometimes referred to as a gadfly, Lane is best known as a leading researcher, author, and conspiracy theorist on the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy. Lane authored many books, including 10 on the JFK assassination, such as Rush to Judgment,, the 1966 number-one bestselling critique of the Warren Commission and Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK, published in 2011.
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Sid Rosenberg
- Occupations
- journalistradio personality
- Biography
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Sidney Ferris Rosenberg is an American radio personality. He is currently the host of Sid and Friends in the Morning and "Sid Sports Sunday" plus sports reporter on 77 WABC in New York City.
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Glenn Thrush
- Occupations
- journalistpolitical reporter
- Biography
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Glenn Thrush is an American journalist, pundit, and author. He is a reporter for The New York Times covering the Department of Justice and was formerly a White House correspondent. He is also a contributor for MSNBC, and was previously chief political correspondent at Politico and a senior staff writer for Politico Magazine.
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Bhikkhu Bodhi
- Occupations
- bhikkhu
- Biography
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Bhikkhu Bodhi born Jeffrey Block, is an American Theravada Buddhist monk ordained in Sri Lanka. He teaches in the New York and New Jersey area. He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Society and has edited and authored several publications grounded in the Theravada Buddhist tradition.
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Israel Kirzner
- Occupations
- economistuniversity teacherwriterrabbiethicist
- Biography
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Israel Meir Kirzner is a British-born American economist, historian, rabbi, and Talmudist closely identified with the Austrian School.
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Rachelle Vinberg
- Occupations
- actorskateboarder
- Biography
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Rachelle Vinberg is an American skateboarder and actress. She is best known for starring as Camille, a fictionalized version of herself, in the film Skate Kitchen and the TV series Betty inspired by the real group of female skaters she is a part of.
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Fran Fraschilla
- Occupations
- basketball playerhead coachbasketball coach
- Biography
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Francis John Fraschilla is an American basketball commentator and former college basketball coach.
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Peter Nero
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- Studied in 1956
- Occupations
- musicianpianistconductor
- Biography
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Peter Nero was an American pianist and pops conductor. He directed the Philly Pops from 1979 to 2013, and earned two Grammy Awards, including the award for Best New Artist in 1962, as well as a total of 8 nominations.
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Elliot Tiber
- Occupations
- screenwriterwriterpainterlibrettist
- Biography
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Elliot Michael Tiber was an artist, professor, and screenwriter who wrote a memoir about the Woodstock Festival held in Bethel, New York in 1969. He claimed responsibility for the relocation of the festival after a permit for it was withdrawn by the zoning board of a nearby town.
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Michael Salzhauer
- Occupations
- plastic surgeon
- Biography
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Michael Salzhauer is an American celebrity doctor who practices plastic surgery. He is active on social media as Dr. Miami, has been on reality TV, has recorded a song, and written a children's book. He runs a plastic surgery practice in Bay Harbor Islands, Florida.
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Joel Zwick
- Occupations
- theatrical directorfilm directortelevision directorfilm producer
- Biography
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Joel Rudolf Zwick is an American film director, television director, and theater director. He worked on the television series Perfect Strangers, Full House, and Family Matters, and directed the films My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Second Sight, and Fat Albert.
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Robert A. Daly
- Occupations
- business executive
- Biography
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Robert Anthony Daly is an American business executive who has led organizations such as CBS Entertainment, Warner Bros., Warner Music Group, and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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Marty Markowitz
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Martin Markowitz is an American politician who served as the borough president of Brooklyn, New York City. He was first elected in 2001 after serving 23 years as a New York State Senator. His third and final term ended in December 2013.
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Novella Nelson
- Occupations
- actorfilm actorsingerstage actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Novella Christine Nelson was an American actress and singer. She established her career as a singer, both on the off-Broadway and Broadway stage and in cabaret-style locales.
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Gloria Naylor
- Occupations
- writernovelist
- Biography
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Gloria Naylor was an American novelist, known for novels including The Women of Brewster Place (1982), Linden Hills (1985) and Mama Day (1988).
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Sam Levenson
- Occupations
- writertelevision presenterjournalistteacher
- Biography
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Samuel Levenson was an American humorist, writer, teacher, television host, and journalist.
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Alfred Drake
- Occupations
- singerstage actortheatrical directortelevision actorplaywright
- Biography
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Alfred Drake was an American actor and singer.
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Tuli Kupferberg
- Occupations
- musicianpoetsingersongwriterwriter
- Biography
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Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg was an American counterculture poet, author, singer, cartoonist, publisher, and co-founder of the rock band The Fugs.
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Roya Hakakian
- Occupations
- reporterbiographerwriterhuman rights activistfilm director
- Biography
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Roya Hakakian is an Iranian American Jewish journalist, lecturer, and writer. Born in Iran, she came to the United States as a refugee and is now a naturalized citizen. She is the author of several books, including an acclaimed memoir in English called Journey from the Land of No (Crown), Assassins of the Turquoise Palace (Grove/Atlantic), and A Beginner's Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious (Knopf).
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Walter Yetnikoff
- Occupations
- record producer
- Biography
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Walter Yetnikoff was an American music industry executive who was the president of CBS Records International from 1971 to 1975 and then president and CEO of CBS Records from 1975 to 1990. During his career at CBS Records, which included Columbia Records and Epic Records, he guided the careers of Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Culture Club, Earth, Wind & Fire, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Sade, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Miami Sound Machine, and many other successful acts.
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Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
- Occupations
- painterpoetbiographerwritertheologian
- Biography
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Satsvarupa das Goswami is a senior disciple of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), better known in the West as the Hare Krishna movement. Serving as a writer, poet, and artist, Satsvarupa dasa Goswami is the author of Bhaktivedanta Swami's authorized biography, Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta. After Prabhupada's death, Satsvarupa dasa Goswami was one of the eleven disciples selected to initiate future disciples. Satsvarupa dasa Goswami is one of the first few Westerners ordained by Bhaktivedanta Swami in September 1966. He is a Vaishnava writer, poet, and lecturer, who published over a hundred books including poems, memoirs, essays, novels, and studies based on the Vaishnava scriptures.
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Jean-Claude La Marre
- Occupations
- film directorfilm produceractortelevision actorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Jean-Claude La Marre is a Haitian-American actor, writer, and director. His acting credits include the films Malcolm X and Dead Presidents. On television, he has guest-starred on New York Undercover, Law & Order, and NYPD Blue. He is also the writer and director of the independent films Gang of Roses and Go for Broke.
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Vera Katz
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Vera Katz was an American Democratic politician in the state of Oregon. She was the first woman to serve as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives and was the 49th mayor of Portland, Oregon's most populous city. She grew up in New York City, moving to Portland in 1962, and was elected to the Oregon House in 1972. She served as mayor from 1993 to 2005.
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Naren Weiss
- Occupations
- stage actor
- Biography
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Naren Weiss is an actor, playwright, and former model. He played Osama bin Laden in Kamal Haasan's film on terrorism Vishwaroopam, Dekker in the ABC series Deception, and is known for his work in theatre in India and the United States.
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Jack B. Weinstein
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- university teacherjuristlawyerjudge
- Biography
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Jack Bertrand Weinstein was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Until his entry into inactive senior status on February 10, 2020, he maintained a full docket of cases.
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Dmitry Chaplin
- Occupations
- choreographerdancer
- Biography
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Dmitry Chaplin is a Russian dancer, choreographer, and actor, best known for being a Top 10 finalist on the second season of the dance competition series So You Think You Can Dance. While competing on the series, he became known for performing shirtless, with one solo routine having him rip off his shirt. In 2009, Chaplin was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for his choreography.
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Izzy Young
- Occupations
- writermusic journalistmanufacturer
- Biography
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Israel Goodman Young, known as Izzy Young, was a noted figure in the world of folk music, both in America and Sweden. He was once the owner of the Folklore Center in Greenwich Village, New York, and from 1973 until his death, owned and operated the Folklore Centrum store in Stockholm.
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Leonard Lopate
- Occupations
- radio personality
- Biography
-
Leonard Lopate is an American radio personality. He is the host of the radio talk show Leonard Lopate at Large, broadcast on WBAI, and the former host of the public radio talk show The Leonard Lopate Show, broadcast on WNYC. He first broadcast on WKCR, the college radio station of Columbia University, and then later on WBAI, before moving to WNYC.
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Yossi Klein Halevi
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- In 1978 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in Jewish studies
- Occupations
- activistopinion journalistwriterhistorianjournalist
- Biography
-
Yossi Klein Halevi is an American-born Israeli author and journalist.
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Robert Katz
- Occupations
- screenwriternovelistproducerwriterjournalist
- Biography
-
Robert Katz was an American novelist, screenwriter, and non-fiction author.
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Beverly Pepper
- Occupations
- paintersculptorartistland artist
- Biography
-
Beverly Pepper was an American sculptor known for her monumental works, site specific and land art. She remained independent from any particular art movement. She lived in Italy, primarily in Todi, since the 1950s.
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Young Jean Lee
- Occupations
- academicwritertheatrical directorplaywrightcreator
- Biography
-
Young Jean Lee is an American playwright, director, and filmmaker. She was the Artistic Director of Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, a not-for-profit theater company dedicated to producing her work. She has written and directed ten shows for Young Jean Lee's Theater Company and toured her work to over thirty cities around the world. Lee was called "the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation" by Charles Isherwood in The New York Times and "one of the best experimental playwrights in America" by David Cote in Time Out New York. With the 2018 production of Straight White Men at the Hayes Theater, Lee became the first Asian American woman to have a play produced on Broadway.
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Greg Grandin
- Occupations
- historian
- Biography
-
Greg Grandin is an American historian and author. He is a professor of history at Yale University. He previously taught at New York University.
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Stanley Aronowitz
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- Studied in 1950
- Occupations
- politiciansociologistcultural studies scholar
- Biography
-
Stanley Aronowitz was an American sociologist, trade union official, and political activist. A professor of sociology, cultural studies, and urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center, his longtime political activism and cultural criticism was influential in the New Left movement of the 1960s, 1970s, and beyond. He was also an advocate for organized labor and a member of the interim consultative committee of the International Organization for a Participatory Society. In 2012, Aronowitz was awarded the Center for Study of Working Class Life's Lifetime Achievement Award at Stony Brook University.
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Arturo O'Farrill
- Occupations
- bandleaderconductorcomposerjazz musicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Arturo O'Farrill is a jazz musician, the son of Latin jazz musician, arranger and bandleader Chico O'Farrill, and pianist, composer, and director for the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. He is best known for his contributions to contemporary Latin jazz (more specifically Afro-Cuban jazz), having received Grammy Awards and nominations, though he has trained in other forms such as free jazz and experimented briefly with hip hop.
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Paul Tripp
- Occupations
- film actorscreenwritervoice actorstage actor
- Biography
-
Paul Tripp was an American children's musician, author, songwriter, and television and film actor. He collaborated with a fellow composer, George Kleinsinger. Tripp was the creator of the 1945 "Tubby the Tuba", a piece of classical music for children that has become his best-known work. He authored several books, including Rabbi Santa Claus and Diary of a Leaf.
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Edward Taub
- Occupations
- neuroscientist
- Biography
-
Edward Taub is a behavioral neuroscientist on the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is best known for his involvement in the Silver Spring monkeys case, for making discoveries in the area of neuroplasticity, and developing constraint-induced movement therapy; a family of techniques which helps the rehabilitation of people who have developed learned non-use as a result of suffering neurological injuries from a stroke or other cause.
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David Weiss Halivni
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- Graduated with bachelor's degree
- Occupations
- theologiantalmudisteducatorrabbi
- Biography
-
David Weiss Halivni was a European-born American-Israeli rabbi, scholar in the domain of Jewish sciences, and Professor of Talmud. He served as Reish Metivta of the Union for Traditional Judaism's rabbinical school.
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Naomi Ragen
- Occupations
- writerchildren's writeractivist
- Biography
-
Naomi Ragen is an American-Israeli modern-Orthodox Jewish author and playwright. Ragen lives in Jerusalem, and writes in English. A recurring theme in her fictional works is injustice against women in the Haredi Jewish community. Ragen has been the subject of various lawsuits over claims of plagiarism.
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Tom Kahn
- Occupations
- trade unionist
- Biography
-
Tom David Kahn was an American social democrat known for his leadership in several organizations. He was an activist and influential strategist in the Civil Rights Movement. He was a senior adviser and leader in the U.S. labor movement.
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Bill Baird
- Occupations
- human rights activist
- Biography
-
Bill Baird is a reproductive rights pioneer, called by some media the "father" of the birth control and abortion-rights movement. He was jailed eight times in five states in the 1960s for lecturing on abortion and birth control. Baird is believed to be the first and only non-lawyer in American history with three Supreme Court victories.
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Stanley Shapiro
- Occupations
- writerfilm producerscreenwriter
- Biography
-
Stanley Shapiro was an American screenwriter and producer responsible for three of Doris Day's most successful films.
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Paul Davidson
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- In 1950 graduated with Bachelor of Science
- Occupations
- university teachereconomist
- Biography
-
Paul Davidson was an American macroeconomist who has been one of the leading spokesmen of the American branch of the post-Keynesian school in economics. He has actively intervened in important debates on economic policy (natural resources, international monetary system, developing countries' debt) from a position critical of mainstream economics.
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Tina Satter
- Occupations
- screenwritertheatrical directorplaywrightfilm director
- Biography
-
Kristina "Tina" Satter is an American filmmaker, playwright, and director based in New York City. She is the founder and artistic director of the theater company Half Straddle, which formed in 2008 and received an Obie Award grant in 2013. Satter won a Guggenheim in 2020. Satter was described by Ben Brantley of the New York Times as "a genre-and-gender-bending, visually exacting stage artist who has developed an ardent following among downtown aesthetes with a taste for acidic eye candy and erotic enigmas." Her work often deals with subjects of gender, sexual identity, adolescence, and sports.
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Shosha Goren
- Occupations
- stage actoractor
- Biography
-
Shosha Goren is an Israeli actress and comedian of Iraqi Jewish descent. She immigrated to Israel in 1951. While on a visit to the United States, she abandoned her position as teacher of Hebrew Literature and Language and went on to pursue her acting career at Brooklyn College in New York. However, in 1980, she returned to Israel with her family.
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Frank Harary
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- Studied in 1938-1945
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Frank Harary was an American mathematician, who specialized in graph theory. He was widely recognized as one of the "fathers" of modern graph theory. Harary was a master of clear exposition and, together with his many doctoral students, he standardized the terminology of graphs. He broadened the reach of this field to include physics, psychology, sociology, and even anthropology. Gifted with a keen sense of humor, Harary challenged and entertained audiences at all levels of mathematical sophistication. A particular trick he employed was to turn theorems into games—for instance, students would try to add red edges to a graph on six vertices in order to create a red triangle, while another group of students tried to add edges to create a blue triangle (and each edge of the graph had to be either blue or red). Because of the theorem on friends and strangers, one team or the other would have to win.
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Steve Malzberg
- Years
- 1959-.. (age 66)
- Occupations
- radio personality
- Biography
-
Stephen D. Malzberg is an American television and radio host, syndicated columnist, and political commentator. He hosted The Steve Malzberg Show, a cable news and opinion show on Newsmax TV. He has also hosted The Steve Malzberg Show and various other radio shows on WABC Radio in NYC and on WOR Radio, also in NYC where his show was syndicated on the WOR Radio Network.
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Irving Greenberg
- Occupations
- philosopherhistorianeducatorrabbi
- Biography
-
Irving Yitzchak Greenberg, also known as Yitz Greenberg, is an American scholar, author and rabbi. He is known as a strong supporter of Israel, and a promoter of greater understanding between Judaism and Christianity.
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R. O. Kwon
- Born in
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South Korea - Occupations
- university teachernovelist
- Biography
-
R. O. Kwon, also known as Reese Okyong Kwon, is a South Korean and American author. In 2018, she published her nationally bestselling debut novel The Incendiaries with Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Her nationally bestselling second novel, Exhibit, was published in 2024 with Riverhead Books.
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Aleksandr Lenderman
- Occupations
- chess player
- Biography
-
Aleksandr "Alex" Lenderman is an American chess grandmaster. He won the 2005 World Under-16 Championship in Belfort with a score of 9/10 (+8 −0 =2), becoming the first American to win a gold medal at the World Youth Chess Championship since Tal Shaked won the World Junior Championship in 1997.
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Sante D'Orazio
- Occupations
- photographerfashion photographer
- Biography
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Sante D'Orazio is an American photographer. D'Orazio exhibited in the Kunsthaus Munich, Kunsthauswien Vienna, the L.A. County Museum, Kahmann Gallery (Amsterdam), Stellan Holm Gallery (New York), Cameraworks Gallery (Berlin) Hilario Galguera Gallery (Mexico City), and NRW Forum in Düsseldorf. His publications include: A Private View, Sante D'Orazio Photographs, Pam: American Icon, Katlick School, Gianni and Donatella, and Barely Private.
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Melvin Konner
- Occupations
- psychiatristanthropologist
- Biography
-
Melvin Joel Konner is an American anthropologist who is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology and of Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University.
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Bernice Sandler
- Occupations
- women's rights activist
- Biography
-
Bernice Resnick Sandler was an American women's rights activist. She is best known for being instrumental in the creation of Title IX, a portion of the Education Amendments of 1972, in conjunction with representatives Edith Green and Patsy Mink and Senator Birch Bayh in the 1970s. She has been called "the Godmother of Title IX" by The New York Times. Sandler wrote extensively about sexual and peer harassment towards women on campus, coining the phrase "the chilly campus climate".
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Joel Lebowitz
- Enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College
- In 1952 graduated with Bachelor of Science
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teachermathematician
- Biography
-
Joel Louis Lebowitz is a mathematical physicist widely acknowledged for his outstanding contributions to statistical physics, statistical mechanics and many other fields of Mathematics and Physics.
