52 Notable alumni of
Santa Monica College
Updated:
Santa Monica College is 748th in the world, 278th in North America, and 258th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 52 notable alumni from Santa Monica 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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Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Occupations
- directorfilm produceractorfilm directorsoldier
- Biography
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Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, filmmaker, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder known for his roles in high-profile action movies. He served as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011 and was among Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and 2007.
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Muhammad Ali
- Occupations
- boxer
- Biography
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Muhammad Ali was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "the Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century and is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He held the Ring magazine heavyweight title from 1964 to 1970. He was the undisputed champion from 1974 to 1978 and the WBA and Ring heavyweight champion from 1978 to 1979. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
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Sean Penn
- Enrolled in Santa Monica College
- Studied in 1920
- Occupations
- directorscreenwriterfilm actoractorfilm producer
- Biography
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Sean Justin Penn is an American actor and film director. He has won Academy Awards for his roles in the mystery drama Mystic River (2003) and the biopic Milk (2008).
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James Dean
- Enrolled in Santa Monica College
- Studied Pre-law
- Occupations
- television actorracing automobile driverstage actorfilm actoractor
- Biography
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James Byron Dean was an American actor with a career that lasted five years. He is regarded as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were loner Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955) and surly ranch hand Jett Rink in Giant (1956).
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Monica Lewinsky
- Occupations
- entrepreneurfashion designerbusinesspersonsocial psychologistpsychologist
- Biography
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Monica Samille Lewinsky is an American activist and writer. A former White House intern, Lewinsky gained international celebrity status in the late 1990s as a result of the public coverage of a political scandal when U.S. President Bill Clinton admitted to having an affair with her during her days as an intern between 1995 and 1997. The affair, and its repercussions (which included Clinton's impeachment), became known later as the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal.
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Dustin Hoffman
- Occupations
- television actortheatrical producerstage actorvoice actorcharacter actor
- Biography
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Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Hoffman has received numerous honors, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1997, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999, and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012. Actor Robert De Niro has described him as "an actor with the everyman's face who embodied the heartbreakingly human".
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Tessa Thompson
- Enrolled in Santa Monica College
- Studied cultural anthropology
- Occupations
- film actorcomposertelevision actoractorsinger
- Biography
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Tessa Lynne Thompson is an American actress. She began her professional acting career with the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company while studying at Santa Monica College, appearing in productions of The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet. Her breakthrough came with leading roles in Tina Mabry's independent drama film Mississippi Damned (2009) and Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls (2010).
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Ryan Reynolds
- Occupations
- film actorchild actortelevision directorvoice actoractor
- Biography
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Penn Dayton Badgley is an American actor. He is primarily known for his roles as Dan Humphrey in The CW teen drama series Gossip Girl (2007–2012) and Joe Goldberg in the Netflix thriller series You (2018–present). For Gossip Girl, he received six Teen Choice Award nominations, and for You, he earned MTV Movie & TV Award and Saturn Award nominations.
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Dax Shepard
- Occupations
- voice actoractortelevision presenterfilm directortelevision actor
- Biography
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Dax Randall Shepard is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker and podcaster. Since 2018, he has hosted Armchair Expert, a podcast on which he interviews celebrities, journalists, and academics about their lives.
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Paul Thomas Anderson
- Occupations
- cinematographerdirectorfilm directorscreenwriterfilm producer
- Biography
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Paul Thomas Anderson, also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. His accolades include nominations for eleven Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and eight BAFTA Awards (winning one for Best Original Screenplay). He has also won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and both the Silver and Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
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Phil Hartman
- Occupations
- stage actorcomedianfilm actorscreenwritergraphic designer
- Biography
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Philip Edward Hartman was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and graphic designer. Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and his family moved to the United States when he was ten years old. After graduating from California State University, Northridge with a degree in graphic arts, he designed album covers for bands including Poco and America. In 1975, Hartman joined the comedy group the Groundlings, where he helped Paul Reubens develop his character, Pee-wee Herman. Hartman co-wrote the film Pee-wee's Big Adventure and made recurring appearances as Captain Carl on Reubens' show Pee-wee's Playhouse.
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Kenan Thompson
- Occupations
- comedianfilm actorfilm producermusicianvoice actor
- Biography
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Kenan Thompson is an American comedian and actor. Thompson has been a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live since 2003, making him the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history. He was also the first regular cast member born after the show's premiere in 1975. Outside of SNL, Thompson starred on NBC's sitcom Kenan from 2021 to 2022.
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Laila Ali
- Occupations
- boxertelevision personality
- Biography
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Laila Amaria Ali is an American television personality and retired professional boxer who competed from 1999 to 2007. During her career, from which she retired undefeated, she held the WBC, WIBA, IWBF and IBA female super middleweight titles, and the IWBF light heavyweight title. Ali is widely regarded by many within the sport as one of the greatest female professional boxers of all time. She is the daughter of boxer Muhammad Ali.
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Mahira Khan
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
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Mahira Hafeez Khan is a Pakistani actress who primarily works in Urdu films and television. Khan is the recipient of several accolades, including six Lux Style Awards, and six Hum Awards, and was honoured with Contribution to Film and Activism by the UK Asian Film Festival.
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Frank Welker
- Occupations
- comedianactorvoice actor
- Biography
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Franklin Wendell Welker is an American voice actor. He began his career in the 1960s, and holds over 860 film, television, and video game credits as of 2023, making him one of the most prolific voice actors in history. With his films earning a total worldwide box-office gross of $17.4 billion, he is also the third-highest-grossing actor as of 2011.
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Cam Gigandet
- Occupations
- actorfilm actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Cam Gigandet is an American actor whose credits include a recurring role on The O.C. and appearances in feature films Twilight, Pandorum, Never Back Down, Burlesque, Easy A, Priest, and The Magnificent Seven. He also starred in the CBS legal drama series Reckless. From 2016 to 2018, Gigandet starred in the Audience Network drama series Ice.
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Kel Mitchell
- Occupations
- stand-up comedianvoice actortelevision actormusiciandancer
- Biography
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Kel Johari Rice Mitchell is an American actor, comedian and pastor. He was an original cast member of the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series All That for its first five seasons (1994–1999), where he was often paired with Kenan Thompson. His role as Ed in the All That sketch was reprised for the 1997 teen comedy film loosely based on the series, Good Burger. He co-starred with Thompson on the Nickelodeon sitcom Kenan & Kel from 1996 to 2000. Mitchell received two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for his role as "T-Bone" in the children's animated series Clifford the Big Red Dog (2000–2003). From 2015 to 2019, he starred as "Double G" on the Nickelodeon sitcom Game Shakers.
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David Geffen
- Occupations
- music executivetelevision producertheatrical producertalent agentrecord producer
- Biography
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David Lawrence Geffen is an American filmmaker, record executive, and entrepreneur. He co-created Asylum Records in 1971 with Elliot Roberts, Geffen Records in 1980, DGC Records in 1990, and DreamWorks SKG in 1994.
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Miguel Bernardeau
- Occupations
- television actoractor
- Biography
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Miguel Ángel Bernardeau Duato is a Spanish actor.
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Teena Marie
- Occupations
- guitaristrecord producermusic arrangermusiciansinger-songwriter
- Biography
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Mary Christine Brockert, known professionally as Teena Marie, was an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and producer. She was known by her childhood nickname Tina before taking the stage name Teena Marie and later acquired the nickname Lady T, given to her by her collaborator and friend Rick James.
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Sue Lyon
- Occupations
- film actormodeltelevision actorsingeractor
- Biography
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Suellyn Lyon was an American actress who is most famous today for playing Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film adaptation of Nabokov's eponymous novel, for which she was awarded a Golden Globe.
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Isaiah Mustafa
- Occupations
- television actorplayer of American footballfilm actoractor
- Biography
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Isaiah Amir Mustafa is an American actor and former American football wide receiver. Mustafa is widely known as the main character in a series of Old Spice television commercials, "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like". He is also known for portraying Luke Garroway on Freeform's fantasy series Shadowhunters and adult Mike Hanlon in It Chapter Two.
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Kim Gordon
- Occupations
- writerguitaristsongwriteractorsinger-songwriter
- Biography
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Kim Althea Gordon is an American musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Born in Rochester, New York, she was raised in Los Angeles, California, where her father was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. After graduating from Los Angeles's Otis College of Art and Design, she moved to New York City to begin an art career. There, she formed Sonic Youth with Thurston Moore in 1981. She and Moore married in 1984, and the band released a total of six albums on independent labels before the end of the 1980s. They would subsequently release nine studio albums on the major label DGC Records, beginning with Goo in 1990. Gordon was also a founding member of the musical project Free Kitten, which she formed with Julia Cafritz in 1993.
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Steve Smith Sr
- Enrolled in Santa Monica College
- Studied in 1997-1999
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Stevonne Latrall Smith Sr. is an American sportscaster and a former professional football player. Smith was a wide receiver for sixteen seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Carolina Panthers, also playing for the Baltimore Ravens. He played college football for the Utah Utes, and was selected by the Panthers in the third round of the 2001 NFL Draft. After retiring from the NFL, Smith became a sports analyst and show host for NFL Network.
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Rob Bourdon
- Occupations
- musiciancomposerdrummer
- Biography
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Robert Gregory Bourdon is an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-founding member of the rock band Linkin Park.
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Russell Wong
- Occupations
- television actortaekwondo athletekaratekafilm actorvoice actor
- Biography
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Russell Wong is an American actor of film and television.
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Ilan Mitchell-Smith
- Occupations
- actortelevision actorballet dancer
- Biography
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Ilan Mitchell-Smith is an American academic and former actor, best known as a co-star of the film Weird Science (1985) and Andy McCalister in Superboy.
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Gary Collins
- Occupations
- television actorfilm actoractortelevision presenter
- Biography
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Gary Ennis Collins was an American actor and television host. Throughout his career, he won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1984 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1985.
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Jeffrey Weissman
- Occupations
- stage actortelevision actorfilm actoractor
- Biography
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Jeffrey Weissman is an American actor. He has appeared in dozens of motion pictures and TV shows, most notably as George McFly in Back to the Future Part II and III and as Teddy Conway in Pale Rider. He has guest starred spots on Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Max Headroom, Dallas, The Man Show, and with Dick Van Dyke on Diagnosis: Murder and as Screech's Guru on Saved by the Bell.
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Lynn Hill
- Occupations
- rock climber
- Biography
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Carolynn Marie Hill is an American rock climber. Widely regarded as one of the leading competitive climbers, traditional climbers (and particularly big wall climbers), sport climbers, and boulderers in the world during the late 1980s and early 1990s, she is famous for making the first free ascent of the difficult sheer rock face of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, and for repeating it the next year in less than 24 hours. She has been described as both one of the best female climbers in the world and one of the best climbers in the history of the sport. One of the first successful women in the sport, Hill shaped rock climbing for women and became a public spokesperson, helping it gain wider popularity and arguing for sex equality. Hill has publicized climbing by appearing on television shows and documentaries and writing an autobiography, Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World.
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Dom Kennedy
- Occupations
- rappersongwriter
- Biography
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Dominic Ross Hunn, better known by his stage name Dom Kennedy, is an American rapper from Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California. Since 2008, Kennedy has released 5 independent mixtapes, most notably his 2010 critically acclaimed mixtape From the Westside with Love. His first commercial studio album From the Westside with Love II was released on iTunes June 28, 2011. Despite it being his iTunes debut, FTWSWL2 received "a top 10 spot on Hip Hop/Rap albums chart during its release week" and was Kennedy's first album associated with The OpM Company, Kennedy's self-established record label. His song "My Type of Party" was ranked by Complex at #43 in the magazine's Best 50 Songs of 2012 list.
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Walter Cunningham
- Enrolled in Santa Monica College
- In 1958 graduated with associate degree
- Occupations
- fighter pilotphysicistaircraft pilotmilitary officerastronaut
- Biography
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Ronnie Walter Cunningham was an American astronaut, fighter pilot, physicist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author of the 1977 book The All-American Boys. NASA's third civilian astronaut (after Neil Armstrong and Elliot See), he was a lunar module pilot on the Apollo 7 mission in 1968.
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Dustin O'Halloran
- Occupations
- pianistcomposermusicianfilm score composer
- Biography
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Dustin O'Halloran is an American composer and pianist. Aside from releasing music as a recording artist, O'Halloran is a film and TV composer, as well as one half of ambient act A Winged Victory for the Sullen.
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Torry Castellano
- Occupations
- musician
- Biography
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Torrance Heather Castellano is an American percussionist and the former drummer of The Donnas. She announced her retirement from drumming in July 2010.
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Daniele Bolelli
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopherpodcaster
- Biography
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Daniele Bolelli is an Italian writer, university lecturer, martial artist, and podcaster based in Southern California. He is the author of several books on philosophy, and martial arts, including On the Warrior's Path. Known for his writing since the 1990s in Italy and the early 2000s in the United States, Bolelli rose to greater public prominence in the 2010s, beginning with his appearances on popular podcasts such as The Joe Rogan Experience. He went on to create his own podcasts, and has hosted The Drunken Taoist since 2012 and History on Fire since 2015.
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Inonge Wina
- Occupations
- sociologistpolitician
- Biography
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Inonge Mutukwa Wina is a Zambian politician who served as the 13th vice-president of Zambia from 2015 to 2021. She was the first woman to hold the position, which made her the highest ranking woman in the history of the Zambian government.
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Johnny Gray
- Occupations
- athletics competitor
- Biography
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John Lee Gray Jr. is a retired American world class 800 meter runner from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s and the holder of the 600m world best. A four-time-Olympian (1984-1996) in 1985 he set the US record of 1:42.60 at a meet in Koblenz. That time puts Gray as the nineteenth fastest performer of all time. He came seventh in the 1984 Summer Olympics, fifth in 1988, and won the bronze medal at the Barcelona Olympics of 1992. In 1993 Gray was one of the favourites to win a gold medal at the World Championships in Stuttgart as he had won the A-race at the prestigious meeting in Zurich. However, he failed to qualify for the final in Stuttgart. He also set the world 600 meter record in 1986 at 1:12.81. In 1992 and 1993 Gray came close to breaking the world indoor record over 800 m several times. He held the US indoor record at 1:45.00 (Sindelfingen 1992) till February 2019.
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Sarah Reich
- Occupations
- tap dancerdancer
- Biography
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Sarah Reich is a tap dance instructor, choreographer and performer. She is best known as a featured artist for Postmodern Jukebox, touring the U.S. and Europe in both 2015 and 2016. In addition to performing tap-percussion solos with numerous featured vocalists, her rendition of a Star Wars medley was featured in Slate and People magazines. She appears alongside vocalist Sara Niemietz in London, for an MTV, Postmodern Jukebox feature shoot, covering "Ex's & Oh's" in 2016.
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Rachel Fannan
- Occupations
- singer-songwritercomposersongwritersinger
- Biography
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Rachel Fannan is an American singer, songwriter, musician and poet from Los Angeles, California. She made her musical debut in 2008, with the release of a solo album entitled Deeper Lurking, under the moniker Birds Fled from Me. She is best known as the lead vocalist of the band Only You, and formerly as co-lead vocalist of San Francisco psych-rockers Sleepy Sun, as well as for collaborations with UNKLE and progressive rock band Anywhere. She has also recorded and toured with the Canadian rock band, Black Mountain, and spent 2019 drumming for the Russian group Pussy Riot.
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Lee Grosscup
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Clyde Lee Edward Grosscup was an American professional football player who later became a sportscaster.
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Yael Markovich
- Occupations
- beauty pageant contestantmodel
- Biography
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Yael Markovich is an Israeli-American model and beauty pageant titleholder. Markovich is the only Miss Israel who represented her country in three worldwide beauty pageants.
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Rob Picciolo
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Robert Michael Picciolo was an American Major League Baseball player and coach.
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Dane Elkins
- Years
- 1999-.. (age 25)
- Occupations
- racquetball player
- Biography
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Dane Elkins is a professional racquetball player. He holds 23 major national junior racquetball championships (12 world outdoor racquetball championships, 8 USA National Junior Indoor Championships (including 6 titles at Jr. Olympics), and 3 USA National High School Championships). He is also the 2017 National Paddleball Association-(NPA) Junior's 18-and-under National Champion. Elkins holds a black belt in taekwondo.
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Sean Whyte
- Occupations
- Canadian football player
- Biography
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Sean Whyte is a professional Canadian football placekicker for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL).
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Bobbi Fiedler
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Roberta Frances "Bobbi" Fiedler was an American politician who served three terms as a Republican U.S. Representative from California from 1981 to 1987.
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Thuc-Quyen Nguyen
- Occupations
- scientistresearcher
- Biography
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Thuc-Quyen Nguyen is director and Professor at the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids, and a professor of the Chemistry & Biochemistry department at the University of California Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on organic electronic devices, using optical, electrical, and structural techniques to understand materials and devices such as photovoltaics, LEDs, and field-effect transistors.
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Chikezie
- Occupations
- television actorsinger
- Biography
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Chikezie Eze is an American singer and the tenth place finalist on the seventh season of the television series American Idol.
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Tommy McCraw
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Tommy Lee McCraw is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman and outfielder for the Chicago White Sox (1963–70), Washington Senators (1971), Cleveland Indians (1972 and 1974–75) and California Angels (1973–74).
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Brian Kingman
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Brian Paul Kingman is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher from 1979 to 1983 for the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants.
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Vic Darensbourg
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Victor Anthony Darensbourg is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He made his MLB debut with the Florida Marlins in 1998, and went on to play eight seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB).
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Robert L. Simpson
- Occupations
- missionary
- Biography
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Robert Leatham Simpson was a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1961 until his death.
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Ken Mora
- Years
- 1960-.. (age 64)
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwriteranimatorfilm producer
- Biography
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Kenneth Oscar Mora is an American graphic novel publisher, screenplay writer, director, producer, and voice actor. In film, he is best known for creating the computer-animated shorts entitled Magnum Farce: (2009, 2011) and the mixed-media Your Face Global Jam (2017). In publishing, Mora is creator/producer of the serialized Comic Book and subsequent Graphic Novel biography of Caravaggio Caravaggio: A Light Before The Darkness (2015,2019). Mora is also executive producer of Adventures in Plymptoons (2012) the official biographical documentary of animator Bill Plympton, and associate producer of Revengeance (2017) the feature animated film by Plympton and Jim Lujan.
