50 Notable alumni of
De Montfort University
Updated:
De Montfort University is 1075th in the world, 377th in Europe, and 75th in the United Kingdom by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 50 notable alumni from De Montfort 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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Charles Dance
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm directorstage actoractortelevision actor
- Biography
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Walter Charles Dance is an English actor. He is known for playing intimidating, authoritarian characters and villains. Dance started his career on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) before appearing in film and television. For his services to drama he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2006.
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Eddie the Eagle
- Occupations
- singerski jumper
- Biography
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Michael David Edwards, better known as Eddie the Eagle, is an English ski jumper and Olympian who in 1988 became the first competitor to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping, finishing last in the Normal Hill and Large Hill events. He held the British ski jumping record from 1988 to 2001. He also took part in amateur speed skiing, running at 106.8 km/h (66.4 mph), and became a stunt jumping world record holder for jumping over 6 buses.
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John Bain
- Occupations
- punditesports commentatorvloggervideo game criticYouTuber
- Biography
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John Peter Bain, better known as TotalBiscuit, was a British video gaming commentator and game critic on YouTube. He was known for his role in professional shoutcasting and esports, and also known for his gaming commentary audio work on WCradio.com. According to Eurogamer, he gained a large following due to his video commentary on newly developed indie games and analysis of gaming news. Bain voiced strong support for consumer protection in the video gaming industry. In October 2015, Bain announced that he had terminal cancer that had spread to his liver. He continued to critique games after the diagnosis, announcing his retirement only a few weeks before his death in May 2018.
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Jamie-Lee O'Donnell
- Occupations
- film actorvoice actortelevision actoractor
- Biography
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Jamie-Lee O'Donnell is an actress from Derry, Northern Ireland. She is best known for her role as Michelle Mallon in the Channel 4 sitcom Derry Girls.
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Vivek Dahiya
- Occupations
- television actor
- Biography
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Vivek Dahiya is an Indian television actor. He has been seen in shows like Yeh Hai Mohabbatein and Qayamat Ki Raat. He emerged as winner of the reality series Nach Baliye 8 in 2017.
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Franziska Weisz
- Occupations
- stage actorfilm actoractor
- Biography
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Franziska Weisz is an Austrian actress. She starred in the film Hotel, which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
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John Volanthen
- Occupations
- cave divermarathon runnerscout leaderIT consultant
- Biography
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John Paul Volanthen, GM is a British cave diver who undertakes cave rescues through the Cave Rescue Organisation, South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue, and the British Caving Association. In 2018, he played a leading role in the Tham Luang cave rescue. He cave-dives as a hobby and conducts rescues as a volunteer. He works as an IT consultant in Bristol.
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Andy Puddicombe
- Occupations
- businesspersonbhikkhu
- Biography
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Andy Puddicombe is a British author, public speaker and a teacher of meditation and mindfulness. He, alongside Richard Pierson, is the co-founder of Headspace, a digital health company that provides guided meditation training and mindfulness for its users.
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Angela Smith, Baroness Smith of Basildon
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Angela Evans Smith, Baroness Smith of Basildon, PC, is a British politician and life peer serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal since 2024. A member of the Labour and Co-operative Parties, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Basildon from 1997 to 2010.
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Simon Wells
- Occupations
- directorfilm director
- Biography
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Simon Finlay Wells is an English film director of animation and live-action films. He is the great-grandson of author H. G. Wells, and is best known for directing An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), Balto (1995), and The Prince of Egypt (1998).
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Louis de Bernières
- Occupations
- screenwriterwriterpoetnovelist
- Biography
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Louis de Bernières is an English novelist. He is known for his 1994 historical war novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin. In 1993 de Bernières was selected as one of the "20 Best of Young British Novelists", part of a promotion in Granta magazine. Captain Corelli's Mandolin was published in the following year, winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book. It was also shortlisted for the 1994 Sunday Express Book of the Year. It has been translated into at least 11 languages and is an international best-seller.
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Chris Williamson
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Christopher Williamson is a British politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby North from 2010 to 2015 and again from 2017 to 2019. He was Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government from October 2010 to October 2013. Williamson was previously a local councillor in Derby, representing the Normanton ward from 1991 until 2011 and serving twice as leader of Derby City Council.
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Manjinder Virk
- Occupations
- film actorscreenwriterfilm directoractor
- Biography
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Manjinder Virk is a British actress, director and writer. She has appeared in the television series Holby City, Doctors (2000), The Bill (2004), The Ghost Squad (2005), Runaway (2009), Skins (2010), Monroe (2011), Hunted (2012) and Midsomer Murders (2016 –2018).
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Akram Khan
- Occupations
- authorartistic directorchoreographerperforming artistdancer
- Biography
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Akram Hossain Khan, MBE is an English dancer and choreographer of Bangladeshi descent. His background is rooted in his classical kathak training and contemporary dance.
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Hsieh Yi-fong
- Enrolled in De Montfort University
- Graduated with Master of Business Administration
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Hsieh Yi-fong is a Taiwanese politician. She was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 2020 for Changhua County's third constituency.
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David Shrigley
- Occupations
- photographerfilm directorsculptorpainterdraftsperson
- Biography
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David John Shrigley OBE is a British visual artist. He lived and worked in Glasgow, Scotland for 27 years before moving to Brighton, England in 2015. Shrigley first came to prominence in the 1990s for his distinct line drawings, which often deal with witty, surreal and darkly humorous subject matter and are rendered in a rough, almost childlike style. Alongside his illustration work, Shrigley is also a noted painter, sculptor, filmmaker and photographer, and has recorded spoken word albums of his writing and poetry.
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Lewis Moody
- Occupations
- rugby union player
- Biography
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Lewis Walton Moody MBE is an English retired rugby union player. He played for Leicester Tigers and Bath Rugby and was part of the 2003 World Cup winning side.
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Emma Twigg
- Occupations
- rower
- Biography
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Emma Kimberley Twigg MNZM is a New Zealand rower. A single sculler, she was the 2014 world champion and won gold in her fourth Olympics in Tokyo in July 2021. Previous Olympic appearances were in 2008 (ninth place), 2012 (fourth place), and 2016 (fourth place). She has retired from rowing twice, first for master-level studies in Europe in 2015 and then after the 2016 Olympics, disappointed at having narrowly missed an Olympic medal for the second time. After two years off the water, she started training again in 2018 and won silver at the 2019 World Rowing Championships. Since her marriage in 2020, she has become an outspoken advocate for LGBT athletes. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Twigg won gold in the woman's single scull. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Twigg won Silver in the same event.
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Peter Soulsby
- Occupations
- politiciancouncil memberteacher
- Biography
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Sir Peter Alfred Soulsby is a British Labour Party politician serving as Mayor of Leicester since 2011. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester South from 2005 until he resigned his seat in April 2011, in order to contest the new post of mayor. He served as Leader of Leicester City Council from 1981 to 1994 and from 1996 to 1999.
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Geordan Murphy
- Occupations
- Gaelic football playerrugby union player
- Biography
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Geordan Edward Andrew Murphy is an Irish rugby union rugby coach and player who retired from the professional game as the most-decorated man in Premiership Rugby history. He played as fullback or wing for the Irish international team and the English club Leicester Tigers as well as for the British & Irish Lions.
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Phuti Mahanyele
- Years
- 1971-.. (age 54)
- Occupations
- chief executive officer
- Biography
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Phuti Mahanyele-Dabengwa, is a South African business executive currently working as the chief executive officer of Naspers South Africa. She previously held the positions of co-founder and chief executive officer at Sigma Capital and CEO at the Shanduka Group. Mahanyele-Dabengwa was included in The Wall Street Journal list of the "Top 50 women in the world to watch in 2008", was recognized by Africa Investors as a "Leading African Woman in Business" in 2012, and named as ForbesWoman Africa "Business Woman of the Year" in 2014. The All Africa Business Leaders Awards (AABLA) named her “Business Woman of the Year” in 2019.
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Vicky Foxcroft
- Occupations
- trade unionistpolitician
- Biography
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Victoria Jane Foxcroft is a British Labour politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham North, previously Lewisham Deptford, since 2015. She is a former trade union official and was a Member of Lewisham Council from 2010 to 2014.
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Claudia Durastanti
- Occupations
- translatorjournalistwriter
- Biography
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Claudia Durastanti is an Italian writer and translator.
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Stephen Bourne
- Occupations
- historianwriter
- Biography
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Stephen Bourne is a British writer, film and social historian specialising in Black heritage and gay culture.
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Laura Coleman
- Occupations
- modelbeauty pageant contestant
- Biography
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Laura Coleman is an English model, influencer and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss England 2008 and represented England at Miss World 2008.
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Cara Noir
- Enrolled in De Montfort University
- Studied in 2010
- Occupations
- professional wrestlerpersonal trainer
- Biography
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Thomas Edward Dawkins, better known by his ring name Cara Noir, is an English professional wrestler, best known for his work on the British independent circuit. His character has been described as the black swan of professional wrestling, and is noted for his distinctive moveset, owing to previous involvement in ballet, dance, and mixed martial arts.
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Christian Furr
- Occupations
- painter
- Biography
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Christian Furr is an English painter. In 1995 he was commissioned to paint Queen Elizabeth II.
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Kirti Menon
- Occupations
- academic
- Biography
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Kirti Menon is an activist, educator and writer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is the Senior Director at the University of Johannesburg and the chairman of the Gandhi Centenary Committee, South Africa. Menon is known for reforming the policy environment in post-secondary education sector in South Africa. She is the granddaughter of Manilal Gandhi and the great-granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi.
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Neo Masisi
- Occupations
- accountant
- Biography
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Neo Jane Masisi also known as Mma Atsile is the Former First Lady of Botswana and the wife of Former Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi.
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Victoria Coleman
- Born in
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Greece - Enrolled in De Montfort University
- 2017-2021 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- computer scientist
- Biography
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Victoria Stavridou-Coleman is currently serving as the 37th Chief Scientist of the United States Air Force. She took her oath of office on April 6, 2021, administered by the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.
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Debra Searle
- Occupations
- ocean rowertelevision presentermotivational speaker
- Biography
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Debra Louise Searle MVO MBE, née Newbury, later Veal, is a British adventurer, businesswoman, author and keynote speaker. Searle is famous for having rowed across the Atlantic alone after her then husband and rowing partner, Andrew Veal, was rescued from their plywood rowing boat.
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Tom Wood
- Occupations
- photographer
- Biography
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Thomas Wood is an Irish street photographer, portraitist and landscape photographer, based in Britain. Wood is best known for his photographs in Liverpool and Merseyside from 1978 to 2001, "on the streets, in pubs and clubs, markets, workplaces, parks and football grounds" of "strangers, mixed with neighbours, family and friends." His work has been published in several books, been widely shown in solo exhibitions and received awards. He has a retrospective exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool until 7 January 2024.
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Andy Lee
- Occupations
- snooker player
- Biography
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Andy Lee, also known as Lee Chun Wai, is an English and Hong Kong former professional snooker player.
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Gary Porter
- Years
- 1960-.. (age 65)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Gary Andrew Porter, Baron Porter of Spalding CBE is a British Conservative politician, local government leader, member of the House of Lords and former South Holland district councillor, who was elected unopposed as Chair of the Local Government Association in June 2015. He has been the leader of South Holland District Council since 2003 until 2023. Nominated for a life peerage in August 2015, he was created Baron Porter of Spalding, of Spalding in the County of Lincolnshire on 15 October 2015.
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Ken Shuttleworth
- Occupations
- architect
- Biography
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Ken Shuttleworth is an English architect.
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Andy Miah
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Andy Miah is an English bioethicist, academic and journalist. His work often focuses on technology and posthumanism.
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Budge Pountney
- Occupations
- rugby union player
- Biography
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Anthony Charles 'Budge' Pountney is a rugby union coach and retired player. A flanker, he played in the Northampton Saints side that won the 1999–2000 Heineken Cup.
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Andy Reed
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Andrew John Reed OBE is a British Labour Co-operative politician who was the Member of Parliament for the key marginal Constituency of Loughborough from 1997 to 2010. Reed was awarded the OBE in June 2012 for service to the community and sport in Leicestershire.
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Bryan Avery
- Occupations
- architect
- Biography
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Bryan Robert Avery MBE RIBA was an English architect, born in Wallingford, Berkshire. After his childhood years spent in Lymington in the New Forest, Hampshire, he studied architecture at Leicester College of Art (now the De Montfort University), followed by an MA in the History and Theory of Architecture at Essex University under Professors Joseph Rykwert and Dalibor Vesely.
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Karolina Laskowska
- Occupations
- fashion designer
- Biography
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Karolina Zofia Laskowska is a British fashion designer. She won the New Designer of the Year award at the 2014 UK Lingerie Awards.
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Chris Sugden
- Years
- 1952-.. (age 73)
- Biography
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Chris Sugden was a Norfolk humorist, best known for his portrayal of fictional folk singer Sid Kipper, the younger half of the Kipper Family.
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Mike Foyle
- Occupations
- disc jockeyrecord producer
- Biography
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Mike Foyle is a British producer, composer and DJ of progressive electronic dance music.
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MJ Hibbett
- Years
- 1970-.. (age 55)
- Occupations
- guitaristsinger-songwriterblogger
- Biography
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Mark John Hibbett (born 19 June 1970) is an English guitarist singer-songwriter, often compared to Billy Bragg and Richard Digance.
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Zeinab Camara
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Zeinab Camara is a Guinean politician. She was the first woman to lead a football club in Guinea.
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Amanda Hack
- Years
- 1976-.. (age 49)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Amanda Jayne Hack is a British Labour Party politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Leicestershire since 2024.
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Pedro Yang
- Occupations
- badminton playerOlympic competitor
- Biography
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Pedro Alejandro Yang Ruiz is a retired male badminton player from Guatemala.
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Ian Hughes
- Occupations
- television presentercomputer scientistblogger
- Biography
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Ian Hughes, also known as epredator, is a British metaverse evangelist, technology industry analyst, and television personality. In 2006, he set about leading a group of like-minded individuals and subsequently many thousands of colleagues at IBM into virtual worlds like Second Life, and beyond. (Hughes' effort in Second Life, where he is known as Epredator Potato was documented extensively in a 2007 report.) This sparked a massive growth in interest from enterprises and press alike. Hughes was a public figure in Web 2.0 and, formerly, a blogger on Eightbar, a site maintained by former and current IBM employees on the fringes of innovation within their labs.
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Alun Evans
- Occupations
- athlete
- Biography
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Alun E. Evans was general secretary of the Football Association of Wales between 1982 and 1995 and club Secretary of Welsh League side, UWIC FC.
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Amanda Broderick
- Years
- 1971-.. (age 54)
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Amanda Jayne Broderick is a British marketer, academic and academic administrator who has been the vice-chancellor and president of the University of East London since September 2018. She is also professor of international business.
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C. J. Carter-Stephenson
- Years
- 1977-.. (age 48)
- Occupations
- science fiction writernovelist
- Biography
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Christian James Carter-Stephenson is an English writer of fiction, poetry and drama. He writes primarily in the genres of horror, science fiction and fantasy. He was born in the county of Essex on 31 January 1977 and attended King Edward VI Grammar School from the ages of 11 to 18. In 1998, he graduated from De Montfort University in Leicester with a BA in English and Performing Arts, and in 1999, obtained a postgraduate diploma in Acting from the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London. He went on to gain an MA in creative writing from the University of Southampton in 2016 and has been a finalist in the Writers of the Future contest. In 2012, he won a silver award in the Children's Literary Classics award for his children's novel The Crystal Ship.
