57 Notable alumni of
Santa Monica College
Updated:
Santa Monica College is 736th in the world, 271st in North America, and 251st in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 57 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
- politicianautobiographertelevision actorpowerlifterbusinessperson
- Biography
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Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder, known for his roles in high-profile action films. He served as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011.
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Muhammad Ali
- Occupations
- boxer
- Biography
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Muhammad Ali was an American professional boxer and social activist. A global cultural icon, widely known by the epithet, "the Greatest", he is frequently cited as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He held the Ring magazine heavyweight title from 1964 to 1970, was the undisputed champion from 1974 to 1978, and was 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
- political activiststage actorfilm directorfilm produceractor
- Biography
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Sean Justin Penn is an American actor and film director. He is known for his intense leading man roles in film. Over his career, he has earned numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for three BAFTA Film Awards. Penn received an Honorary César in 2015.
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James Dean
- Enrolled in Santa Monica College
- Studied Pre-law
- Occupations
- actorfilm actorstage actorracing automobile drivertelevision actor
- Biography
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James Byron Dean was an American actor. He became one of the most influential figures in Hollywood in the 1950s, despite a career that lasted only five years. His impact on cinema and popular culture was profound, even though he appeared in just three major films. These films include Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he portrayed a disillusioned and rebellious teenager, East of Eden (1955), which showcased his intense emotional range, and Giant (1956), a sprawling drama released a year after his death. These films have been preserved in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for their "cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance". He was killed in a car accident at the age of 24 in 1955, leaving him a lasting symbol of rebellion, youthful defiance, and the restless spirit.
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Monica Lewinsky
- Occupations
- businesspersonfashion designerentrepreneurpsychologistsocial psychologist
- Biography
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Monica Samille Lewinsky is an American activist. Lewinsky became internationally known in the late 1990s after U.S. President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an affair with her during her days as a White House intern between 1995 and 1997. The affair and its repercussions (which included Clinton's impeachment) became known as the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal.
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Dustin Hoffman
- Occupations
- theatrical producerstage actorfilm directorfilm produceractor
- 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. Among his numerous accolades are two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards as well as a nomination for a Tony Award. He was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1997, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999, and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012.
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Tessa Thompson
- Enrolled in Santa Monica College
- Studied cultural anthropology
- Occupations
- stage actorsingeractortelevision actorcomposer
- 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. Following her role in Veronica Mars (2005–2006), 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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Penn Badgley
- Occupations
- voice actortelevision directorchild actorfilm actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Penn Dayton Badgley is an American actor and producer. He is known for his roles as Dan Humphrey in The CW teen drama series Gossip Girl (2007–2012) and Joe Goldberg in the Netflix psychological thriller series You (2018–present).
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Dax Shepard
- Occupations
- film actorscreenwritertelevision actorfilm directortelevision presenter
- 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 in which he interviews celebrities, journalists, and academics about their lives.
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Paul Thomas Anderson
- Occupations
- directorscreenwriterwriterproducerfilm producer
- Biography
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Paul Thomas Anderson, also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. His accolades include a BAFTA Award, and nominations for 11 Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. He has also won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and the Silver and Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
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Phil Hartman
- Occupations
- voice actorgraphic designerscreenwriterfilm actorcomedian
- Biography
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Philip Edward Hartman was a Canadian-American comedian, actor, screenwriter and graphic designer. Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, 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
- voice actormusicianfilm producerfilm actorcomedian
- Biography
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Kenan Thompson is an American actor and comedian. He 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
- television personalityboxer
- 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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Frank Welker
- Occupations
- voice actor
- Biography
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Franklin Wendell Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting. 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 fourth-highest-grossing actor as of 2024.
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Mahira Khan
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
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Mahira Hafeez Khan is a Pakistani film and television actress. One of the most popular and highest-paid actresses of Pakistan, she is the recipient of several accolades, including seven Lux Style Awards and seven Hum Awards.
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Cam Gigandet
- Occupations
- film actoractortelevision 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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Chad Johnson
- Occupations
- association football playerCanadian football playerAmerican football player
- Biography
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Chad Ochocinco Johnson, known from 2008 to 2012 as Chad Ochocinco, is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. He played college football for the Santa Monica Corsairs and the Oregon State Beavers, and played for the Cincinnati Bengals and the New England Patriots during his tenure playing in the NFL. He was selected by the Bengals in the second round of the 2001 NFL draft, and played for them for 10 seasons. Ochocinco, which means "eight five" in Spanish, was also his number. In 2011, Johnson was traded to the Patriots, for whom he played in Super Bowl XLVI.
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Kel Mitchell
- Occupations
- film actorrapperactorscreenwritercomedian
- Biography
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Kel Johari Rice Mitchell is an American actor, comedian, rapper, singer, and TV host. 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
- 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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Eric Braeden
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actorfilm produceractor
- Biography
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Eric Braeden is a German-American film and television actor, known for his roles as Victor Newman on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless, as Hans Dietrich in the 1960s TV series The Rat Patrol, Dr. Charles Forbin in Colossus: The Forbin Project, as Dr. Otto Hasslein in Escape from the Planet of the Apes, and as John Jacob Astor IV in the 1997 film Titanic. He won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1998 for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the role of Victor Newman on The Young and the Restless.
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Miguel Bernardeau
- Occupations
- actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Miguel Ángel Bernardeau Duato is a Spanish actor.
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Teena Marie
- Occupations
- music arrangersingerrecord producerguitaristsinger-songwriter
- Biography
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Mary Christine Brockert, known professionally as Teena Marie, was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, 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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Kim Gordon
- Occupations
- film directorfashion designersingersinger-songwriteractor
- Biography
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Kim Althea Gordon is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and rapper 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. It then released nine studio albums on the 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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Sue Lyon
- Occupations
- actorsingertelevision actormodelfilm actor
- Biography
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Suellyn Lyon was an American actress who is most famous today for playing the title role in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, for which she was awarded a Golden Globe.
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Kennedy
- Occupations
- game show hostpolitical punditvideo jockeyactorpresenter
- Biography
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Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, referred to mononymously as Kennedy, is an American libertarian political commentator, radio personality, author, and former MTV VJ. She is a commentator on Fox News Channel, a primary guest host of Fox's Outnumbered and The Five, host of the podcast Kennedy Saves The World on Fox News Radio and a columnist for The Daily Mail. Kennedy was the host of MTV's now-defunct daily late-night alternative-rock program Alternative Nation throughout much of the 1990s. She hosted Kennedy on the Fox Business Network from 2015 to 2023.
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Isaiah Mustafa
- Occupations
- film actorAmerican football playertelevision 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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Rob Bourdon
- Occupations
- composermusiciandrummer
- Biography
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Robert Gregory Bourdon is an American musician, best known as a co-founding member and the former drummer of the rock band Linkin Park. He remained in the band until their hiatus in 2017; when the band members began working together out of the public eye in 2019, he declined to rejoin the band and was succeeded by Colin Brittain.
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Steve Smith Sr
- Enrolled in Santa Monica College
- Studied in 1997-1999
- Occupations
- American football player
- Biography
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Stevonne Latrall Smith Sr., primarily known during his playing career as just Steve Smith, is an American sportscaster and 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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Russell Wong
- Occupations
- taekwondo athleteactortelevision actorfilm actorkarateka
- Biography
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Russell Wong is an American actor and martial artist best known for his roles in various films and television series. Born in New York, Wong attended Santa Monica City College while training to become a dancer. With the desire of becoming an actor, he moved to Hong Kong in 1983, where he learned Cantonese and martial arts.
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Ilan Mitchell-Smith
- Occupations
- television actoractorballet 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
- film actortelevision actortelevision presenteractor
- 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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Sandra Knight
- Occupations
- film actoractortelevision actor
- Biography
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Sandra D. Knight is a retired American actress.
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Jeffrey Weissman
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actorstage 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 competition 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. Hill was the first-ever female in history to redpoint a 5.12d (7c), 5.13a (7c+) and 5.14a (8b+) graded sport climbing route. 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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Walter Cunningham
- Enrolled in Santa Monica College
- In 1958 graduated with associate degree
- Occupations
- astronautmilitary officeraircraft pilotphysicistfighter pilot
- 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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Sandy Johnson
- Occupations
- actortelevision actorcinematographerfilm actormodel
- Biography
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Sandy Johnson is an American model and actress. She was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for the June 1974 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Mario Casilli. (A cropped image from this centerfold was used as a top-sheet graphic for the Burton Love 52 snowboard in 2008).
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Torry Castellano
- Occupations
- musician
- Biography
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Torrance Heather Castellano is an American attorney and the former drummer of The Donnas. She announced her retirement from drumming in July 2010.
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Dustin O'Halloran
- Occupations
- film score composermusiciancomposerpianist
- 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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Daniele Bolelli
- Occupations
- philosopheruniversity teacherpodcaster
- 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
- politiciansociologist
- Biography
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Inonge Mutukwa Wina is a Zambian politician who served as the 13th Vice President 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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Rodney McCray
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Rodney Duncan McCray is an American former professional baseball player who is best known for crashing through an outfield fence attempting to make a catch. He played mostly in the minors, but also made it to the majors with the Chicago White Sox and New York Mets from 1990 to 1992. He is currently the head coach for the New York Rise of the Association of Fastpitch Professionals (AFP).
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Sarah Reich
- Occupations
- dancertap dancer
- 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 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
- songwritercomposersinger-songwritersinger
- 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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Yael Markovich
- Occupations
- modelbeauty pageant contestant
- 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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Lee Grosscup
- Occupations
- American football player
- Biography
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Clyde Lee Edward Grosscup was an American professional football player who later became a sportscaster.
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Dane Elkins
- Years
- 1999-.. (age 26)
- 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.
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Sean Whyte
- Occupations
- Canadian football player
- Biography
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Sean Whyte is a Canadian professional football placekicker for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL).
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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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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
- scientist
- 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, photodiodes, and field-effect transistors.
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Chikezie
- Occupations
- singertelevision actor
- 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 65)
- Occupations
- animatorscreenwriterfilm directorfilm 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 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.
