100 Notable alumni of
University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
Updated:
The University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign is 67th in the world, 34th in North America, and 33rd in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 3 individuals affiliated with the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign won Nobel Prizes in Physics and Physiology or Medicine.
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Gene Hackman
- Occupations
- voice actorstage actorracing automobile driveractormilitary personnel
- Biography
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Eugene Allen Hackman was an American actor. Considered one of the greatest actors of his generation and a paragon of the New Hollywood movement, Hackman's mainstream acting career spanned over four decades. He received several accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, one Silver Bear and four Golden Globe Awards.
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Hugh Hefner
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- writernightclub ownervoice actorpolitical activistsocialite
- Biography
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Hugh Marston Hefner was an American magazine publisher and businessman. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles. Hefner extended the Playboy brand into a world network of Playboy Clubs. He also resided in luxury mansions where Playboy Playmates shared his wild partying life, fueling media interest.
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Larry Ellison
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- 1962-1964 studied mathematics
- Occupations
- computer scientistentrepreneuractoraircraft pilot
- Biography
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Lawrence Joseph Ellison is an American centibillionaire businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded the software company Oracle Corporation. He was Oracle's CEO from 1977 to 2014 and is now its CTO and executive chair. According to Forbes, as of 2026, Ellison's estimated net worth is $245.3 billion, making him the world's third-richest person.
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Nick Offerman
- Occupations
- stage actoractorvoice actorfilm producercomedian
- Biography
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Nicholas David Offerman is an American actor, comedian, carpenter, and writer. He became widely known for his role as Ron Swanson in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation (2009–2015), for which he received the Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy and was twice nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
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Jawed Karim
- Occupations
- entrepreneurcomputer scientistYouTubersoftware engineertelevision producer
- Biography
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Jawed Karim is a German-American software engineer and internet entrepreneur. He is one of the co-founders of YouTube and the first person to upload a video to the site. The site's inaugural video, "Me at the zoo", uploaded on April 23, 2005, has been viewed over 382 million times as of February 2026. During Karim's time working at PayPal, where he met fellow YouTube co-founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, he designed many of its core components, including its real-time anti-fraud system.
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Ang Lee
- Occupations
- screenwriterdirectorfilm directorwriterfilm producer
- Biography
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Ang Lee OBS is a Taiwanese filmmaker. His films are known for their emotional charge and exploration of repressed, hidden emotions. During his career, he has received international critical and popular acclaim and numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. In 2003, he was ranked 27th in The Guardian's 40 best directors.
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Roger Ebert
- Occupations
- television presenterfilm criticjournalistpresenterreporter
- Biography
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Roger Joseph Ebert was an American film critic, film historian, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. Ebert was known for his intimate, Midwestern writing style and critical views informed by values of populism and humanism. Writing in a prose style intended to be entertaining and direct, he made sophisticated cinematic and analytical ideas more accessible to non-specialist audiences. Ebert endorsed foreign and independent films he believed would be appreciated by mainstream viewers, championing filmmakers like Werner Herzog, Errol Morris and Spike Lee, as well as Martin Scorsese, whose first published review he wrote. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times said Ebert "was without question the nation's most prominent and influential film critic", and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called him "the best-known film critic in America". Per The New York Times, "The force and grace of his opinions propelled film criticism into the mainstream of American culture. Not only did he advise moviegoers about what to see, but also how to think about what they saw."
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Shahid Khan
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- 1967-1971 graduated with Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering
- Occupations
- engineerbusinesspersonentrepreneur
- Biography
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Shahid Rafiq Khan is a Pakistani and American businessman. He owns the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL) and Fulham F.C. of the Premier League and is also a lead investor of the American wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW), owned by his son, Tony. Khan is also the owner of Flex-N-Gate, an American supplier of motor vehicle components.
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Alan Ruck
- Occupations
- stage actortelevision actorwriteractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Alan Douglas Ruck is an American actor. He is known for portraying Cameron Frye in John Hughes's film Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), as well as television roles as Stuart Bondek on the ABC sitcom Spin City (1996–2002) and Connor Roy on the HBO series Succession (2018–2023), the latter earning him Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations. His other film credits include Class (1983), Bad Boys (1983), Three Fugitives (1989), Young Guns II (1990), Speed (1994), Star Trek Generations (1994), and Twister (1996).
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Temple Grandin
- Occupations
- biologistnon-fiction writeruniversity teacheractivistzoologist
- Biography
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Mary Temple Grandin is an American academic, inventor, and ethologist. She is a prominent proponent of the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter and the author of more than 60 scientific papers on animal behavior. Grandin is a consultant to the livestock industry, where she offers advice on animal behavior.
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Jesse Jackson
- Occupations
- religious leaderhuman rights defenderpastorcivil rights advocatefounder
- Biography
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Jesse Louis Jackson was an American civil rights activist, politician, and ordained Baptist minister. A protégé of Martin Luther King Jr. and James Bevel during the civil rights movement, he became one of the most prominent civil rights leaders of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. From 1991 to 1997, he served as a shadow delegate and shadow senator for the District of Columbia.
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Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
- Occupations
- singerstage actortelevision actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is an American actress and singer. She made her Broadway debut as an understudy in the 1980 revival of West Side Story, and went on to appear in the 1983 film Scarface as Al Pacino's character's sister, Gina Montana, which proved to be her breakout role. For her role as Carmen in the 1986 film The Color of Money, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other film roles include The Abyss (1989), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), and The Perfect Storm (2000). In 2003, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the Broadway revival of Man of La Mancha.
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Jerry Orbach
- Occupations
- stage actortelevision actorvoice actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Jerome Bernard Orbach was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his death as "one of the last bona fide leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television" and a "versatile stage and film actor." Over his career he received a Tony Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award.
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Steve Chen
- Occupations
- computer scientistengineerdesignerbusinessperson
- Biography
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Steve Chen is a Taiwanese-American software engineer and Internet entrepreneur who is a co-founder and ex CTO of YouTube. After he co-founded AVOS Systems, Inc. and built MixBit, he joined Google Ventures in 2014.
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Kelly Loeffler
- Occupations
- businesspersonpolitician
- Biography
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Kelly Lynn Loeffler is an American businesswoman and politician who has served as the 28th administrator of the Small Business Administration since February 2025. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a United States senator from Georgia from 2020 to 2021.
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Arden Cho
- Occupations
- film actormodeltelevision actoractortaekwondo athlete
- Biography
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Arden Lim Cho is an American actress, singer, and model. Cho first gained recognition by portraying Kira Yukimura in the MTV series Teen Wolf (2013–2016), as well as her several YouTube collaborations. She has since starred in several Netflix projects, including the legal drama series Partner Track (2022), the live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024), and the Sony Pictures Animation film KPop Demon Hunters (2025).
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Rafael Correa
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- In 2001 graduated with Master of Science
- Occupations
- politicianeconomist
- Biography
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Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado is an Ecuadorian politician and economist who served as the 45th president of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017. The leader of the PAIS Alliance political movement from its foundation until 2017, Correa is a democratic socialist and his administration focused on the implementation of left-wing policies. Internationally, he served as president pro tempore of the UNASUR. Since 2017, he has been living with his family in Belgium.
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David Otunga
- Occupations
- television actorlawyerprofessional wrestleractor
- Biography
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David Daniel Otunga is an American actor, professional wrestler and lawyer. He is best known for his tenure with WWE from 2009 to 2020.
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Deron Williams
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Deron Michael Williams is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Illinois Fighting Illini before being drafted third overall in the 2005 NBA draft by the Utah Jazz. A three-time NBA All-Star with the Jazz and Brooklyn Nets, Williams also played for Beşiktaş of the Turkish Basketball League during the 2011 NBA lockout, and was a gold medal winner on the United States national team at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.
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Jack Welch
- Occupations
- writerbusinesspersonentrepreneurmanagerengineer
- Biography
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John Francis Welch Jr. was an American business executive. He was chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) between 1981 and 2001.
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Betsy Brandt
- Occupations
- television actorstage actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Betsy Brandt is an American actress. She is known for portraying Marie Schrader in the crime drama series Breaking Bad (2008–2013), for which she received three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. She also appears in the sitcoms The Michael J. Fox Show (2013–2014) and Life in Pieces (2015–2019), the miniseries Soulmates (2020), and the psychological drama series Saint X (2023).
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Marc Andreessen
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- In 1993 graduated with bachelor's degree in computer science
- Occupations
- inventorinvestorentrepreneurbloggercomputer scientist
- Biography
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Marc Lowell Andreessen is an American businessman, venture capitalist, and former software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first web browser to display inline images; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He co-founded and later sold the software company Opsware to Hewlett-Packard; he also co-founded Ning, a company that provides a platform for social networking websites. He supported presidential candidates of the Democratic party until 2016. In 2024 he became an advisor to Donald Trump. Andreessen's net worth is estimated at $1.9 billion as of January 2025.
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Andy Richter
- Occupations
- television actortelevision presenteractorwritervoice actor
- Biography
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Paul Andrew Richter is an American actor, comedian, writer, and talk show announcer. He is best known as the sidekick for Conan O'Brien on O'Brien's talk shows: Late Night, The Tonight Show on NBC, and Conan on TBS. He was also the star of the Fox television series Andy Richter Controls the Universe. He voiced Mort in the Madagascar film franchise and Ben Higgenbottom in the animated television series The Mighty B! on Nickelodeon. Since June 2019, Richter has hosted his own podcast, The Three Questions with Andy Richter on the Earwolf network.
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Jeffrey Jordan
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Jeffrey Michael Jordan is an American former basketball player who played for the University of Illinois and the University of Central Florida. He is the oldest child of retired Hall of Fame basketball player Michael Jordan. Jeffrey Jordan is the co-founder of Heir Jordan, a philanthropic foundation that he runs with his younger brother Marcus.
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Dan Fogelberg
- Occupations
- singermandolinistsinger-songwritercomposerguitarist
- Biography
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Daniel Grayling Fogelberg was an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist widely known for his 1970s and 1980s soft rock hits, including "Longer" (1979), "Same Old Lang Syne" (1980), and "Leader of the Band" (1981).
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Tony Khan
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- In 2007 graduated with bachelor's degree in finance
- Occupations
- entrepreneurbusinessperson
- Biography
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Antony Rafiq Khan is an American businessman, sports executive, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the founder, owner, president, chief executive officer, executive producer, and head booker of All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He is also the owner of Ring of Honor (ROH), which he purchased and turned into AEW's sister promotion.
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Kevin Anderson
- Occupations
- tennis player
- Biography
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Kevin Michael Anderson is a South African former professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking of world No. 5 on 16 July 2018. He was the first South African to be ranked in the top 5 since Kevin Curren was No. 5 on 23 September 1985.
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Barbara Bain
- Occupations
- stage actormodeltelevision actorvoice actorfilm actor
- Biography
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Barbara Bain is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Cinnamon Carter Crawford on the action television series Mission: Impossible (1966–1969), which earned her three Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as a Golden Globe Award nomination. She also starred as Dr. Helena Russell on the British-Italian coproduction science-fiction television series Space: 1999 (1975–1977). Bain has also appeared in the films Animals with the Tollkeeper (1998), Panic (2000), Forget Me Not (2009) and On the Rocks (2020).
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Shanola Hampton
- Occupations
- actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Shanola Hampton is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Veronica Fisher on Showtime dramedy Shameless, Gabi Mosely in the NBC drama series Found, and as the face model of Rochelle in the video game Left 4 Dead 2.
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James Brady
- Occupations
- press agentpolitician
- Biography
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James Scott Brady was an American journalist, politician, activist and American public official who served as assistant to the U.S. president and the 17th White House Press Secretary, serving under President Ronald Reagan. On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. shot and wounded Brady during Hinckley’s attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, which occurred two months and ten days after Reagan's inauguration.
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James Holzhauer
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science in mathematics
- Occupations
- game show contestantgambler
- Biography
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James Holzhauer is an American game show contestant and professional sports gambler. He is the fourth-highest-earning American game show contestant of all time. Holzhauer is best known for his 32-game winning streak as champion on the quiz show Jeopardy! from April to June 2019, during which he set multiple single-game records for winnings, and for winning the following Tournament of Champions that November.
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Donna Mills
- Occupations
- stage actortelevision actorfilm produceractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Donna Mills is an American actress. She began her television career in 1966 with a recurring role on The Secret Storm, and in the same year appeared on Broadway in Woody Allen's comedy Don't Drink the Water. She made her film debut the next year in The Incident. She then starred for three years on the soap opera Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1967–70), before starring as Tobie Williams, the girlfriend of Clint Eastwood's character in the 1971 thriller Play Misty for Me. Mills played the female lead in the heist film Murph the Surf (1975), and had starring roles in a number of made-for-television movies during the 1970s.
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Martin Eberhard
- Occupations
- entrepreneurengineer
- Biography
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Martin Forest Eberhard is an American engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla, Inc. (then Tesla Motors) with Marc Tarpenning in July 2003, where Eberhard was its original CEO serving until late 2007. In 2015, he was inducted into the University of Illinois Engineering Hall of Fame.
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Meyers Leonard
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Meyers Patrick Leonard is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Illinois Fighting Illini before being selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the 11th overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft. After spending his first seven seasons with the Trail Blazers, he was traded to the Miami Heat in the 2019 off-season. He reached the NBA Finals with the Heat in 2020. No NBA player who is at least 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) has a career three point shot field goal percentage of 40%, but Leonard is one of the few that has one over 39%.
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Terrence C. Carson
- Occupations
- actortelevision actorvoice actor
- Biography
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Terrence "T.C." Carson is an American actor known for his performances across television, film, stage, and video games. He is best known for portraying Kyle Barker on the Fox sitcom, Living Single, and is the original voice of Kratos in the God of War video game series, playing the role from 2005 to 2013 before returning in 2026. Additionally, Carson lent his voice to Mace Windu in various Star Wars media, including Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
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Kendrick Nunn
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- Studied in 2013-2016
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Kendrick Melvin Nunn is an American professional basketball player for Panathinaikos of the Greek Basketball League (GBL) and the EuroLeague.
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Tommy DeVito
- Occupations
- American football player
- Biography
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Thomas DeVito is an American professional football quarterback for the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). He played five seasons of college football for the Syracuse Orange and one with the Illinois Fighting Illini before signing with the New York Giants as an undrafted free agent in 2023.
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Jeremih
- Occupations
- singersinger-songwriterlyricistrapperrecord producer
- Biography
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Jeremy Phillip Felton, known professionally as Jeremih, is an American R&B singer. He embarked on a musical career after meeting record producer Mick Schultz in 2008, and signed a recording contract with Def Jam Recordings the following year.
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Max Levchin
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- Studied in 1997
- Occupations
- computer scientistbusinesspersonentrepreneurweb development
- Biography
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Maksymilian Rafailovych "Max" Levchin is a Ukrainian-American software engineer and businessman. In 1998, he co-founded the company that eventually became PayPal. Levchin made contributions to PayPal's anti-fraud efforts and was the co-creator of the Gausebeck-Levchin test, one of the first commercial implementations of a CAPTCHA challenge response human test.
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John Bardeen
- Occupations
- inventorphysicistelectrical engineeruniversity teacher
- Biography
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John Bardeen was an American condensed matter physicist. He is the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for their invention of the transistor; and again in 1972 with Leon Cooper and Robert Schrieffer for their microscopic theory of superconductivity, known as the BCS theory.
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Atsugiri Jason
- Occupations
- board memberowarai tarentoactorwriter
- Biography
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Jason David Danielson, known professionally as Atsugiri Jason (厚切りジェイソン, Atsugiri Jeison; lit. 'Thick-sliced Jason'), is an American comedian based in Japan and associated with Watanabe Entertainment. Danielson's comedic narrative is based on his confusion with kanji, ending with the punchline, "Why Japanese people?!"
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Brendan Eich
- Occupations
- computer scientistchief technology officerprogrammer
- Biography
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Brendan Eich is an American computer programmer and technology executive. He created the JavaScript programming language and co-founded the Mozilla project, the Mozilla Foundation, and the Mozilla Corporation. He served as the Mozilla Corporation's chief technical officer before he was appointed chief executive officer, but resigned shortly after his appointment due to pressure over his opposition to same-sex marriage. He subsequently became the cofounder and CEO of Brave Software.
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Dave Eggers
- Occupations
- novelistscience fiction writereditorjournalistactivist shareholder
- Biography
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Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. His 2000 memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Eggers is also the founder of several literary and philanthropic ventures, including the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the literacy project 826 Valencia, and the human rights non-profit organisation Voice of Witness. Additionally, he founded ScholarMatch, a program that connects donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in publications including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.
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Fidel Ramos
- Occupations
- military personnelmilitary commanderpolitician
- Biography
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Fidel Valdez Ramos CCLH GCS KGCR, popularly known as FVR and Eddie Ramos, was a Filipino general and politician who served as the 12th president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. He was the only career military officer to reach the rank of five-star general. Rising from second lieutenant to commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Ramos is credited for revitalizing and renewing international confidence in the Philippine economy during his six years in office.
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Dorothy Day
- Occupations
- feministwriterautobiographersocial activistsuffragist
- Biography
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Dorothy Day OblSB was an American journalist, social activist and anarchist who, after a bohemian youth, became a Catholic without abandoning her social activism. She was perhaps the best-known political radical among American Catholics.
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Dan Savage
- Occupations
- writerpodcasterjournalistsex educator
- Biography
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Daniel Keenan Savage is an American author, media pundit, journalist, and LGBTQ community activist. He writes Savage Love, an internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column. In 2010, Savage and his husband, Terry Miller, began the It Gets Better Project to help prevent suicide among LGBTQ youth. He has also worked as a theater director, sometimes credited as Keenan Hollahan.
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Sean Evans
- Occupations
- television producerpodcasterYouTubervlogger
- Biography
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Sean Evans is an American YouTuber who is best known for co-creating and hosting the series Hot Ones, in which he interviews celebrities as they eat progressively spicier chicken wings. In July 2025, Evans was named in Time magazine's inaugural “TIME100 Creators” list - branded by the publication as the 100 most influential digital voices.
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Ryan McPartlin
- Occupations
- modeltelevision actorvoice actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Ryan John McPartlin is an American actor, known for his role as Devon "Captain Awesome" Woodcomb on the action-comedy series Chuck.
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George Will
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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George Frederick Will is an American libertarian conservative writer and political commentator. He writes columns for The Washington Post on a regular basis and provides commentary for NewsNation. In 1986, The Wall Street Journal called him "perhaps the most powerful journalist in America". Will won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977.
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Mike Cernovich
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Michael Cernovich is an American right-wing social media personality and political commentator. Though he initially called himself alt-right, he dissociated from the movement after Richard Spencer became its public face. Cernovich describes himself as part of the new right and some have described him as part of the alt-lite.
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Sri Mulyani Indrawati
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- Graduated with master's degree in economics
- Occupations
- university teachereconomistpolitician
- Biography
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Sri Mulyani Indrawati is an Indonesian economist who served as minister of finance from 2016 to 2025 under President Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto. She also served in the role under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono between 2005–2010.
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Philip Ng
- Occupations
- choreographertelevision actoractorkickboxerstunt performer
- Biography
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Philip Ng Wan-lung is a Hong Kong-born actor, martial artist and action choreographer. He is currently based in Hong Kong.
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Money Boy
- Occupations
- singerrapper
- Biography
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Sebastian Meisinger, better known by his stage name Money Boy, is an Austrian rapper and singer. He became famous with his hit "Dreh den Swag auf".
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Fazlur Khan
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in structural engineering
- Graduated with Master of Engineering in structural engineering
- Occupations
- engineerstructural engineercivil engineerarchitect
- Biography
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Fazlur Rahman Khan was a Bangladeshi-American structural engineer and architect, who initiated important structural systems for skyscrapers. Considered the "father of tubular designs" for high-rises, Khan was also a pioneer in computer-aided design (CAD). He was the designer of the Sears Tower, since renamed Willis Tower, the tallest building in the world from 1973 until 1998, and the 100-story John Hancock Center.
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Iris Chang
- Occupations
- writerhuman rights defenderjournalistpolitical activist
- Biography
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Iris Shun-Ru Chang was an American journalist, historian, and political activist. She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanjing Massacre, The Rape of Nanking, and in 2003, The Chinese in America: A Narrative History. Chang is the subject of the 2007 biography Finding Iris Chang, and the 2007 documentary film Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking starring Olivia Cheng as Iris Chang. The independent 2007 documentary film Nanking was based on her work and dedicated to her memory.
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Esther Povitsky
- Occupations
- television actorstand-up comedianactorfilm actor
- Biography
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Esther Povitsky, for a time known by the stage name "Little Esther," is an American stand-up comedian, actress, writer, and producer. Povitsky, from Chicago, is the co-creator and star of the comedy series Alone Together (2018); she starred as Izzy in the Hulu series Dollface. Her debut comedy special, Hot for My Name, premiered on Comedy Central on July 17, 2020.
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David A. Johnston
- Occupations
- volcanologistgeologist
- Biography
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David Alexander Johnston was an American United States Geological Survey (USGS) volcanologist who was killed by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in the U.S. state of Washington. A principal scientist on the USGS monitoring team, Johnston was killed in the eruption while manning an observation post six miles (10 km) away on the morning of May 18, 1980. He was the first to report the eruption, transmitting "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" before he was swept away by a lateral blast; despite a thorough search, Johnston's body was never found, but state highway workers discovered remnants of his USGS trailer in 1993.
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Robert L. Johnson
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Robert Louis Johnson is an American entrepreneur, media magnate, executive, philanthropist, and investor. He is the co-founder of BET, which was acquired by Viacom in 2001. He also founded RLJ Companies, a holding company that invests in various business sectors. Johnson is the former majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats (now Charlotte Hornets). He became the first African American billionaire in 2001. Johnson's companies have counted among the most prominent African-American businesses in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
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Ed Boon
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science in computer science and mathematics
- Occupations
- screenwritervideo game designergame programmerdirectorvideo game developer
- Biography
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Edward Boon is an American video game programmer, voice actor, and director. Boon is best known for co-creating the fighting game series Mortal Kombat along with John Tobias, and directing the Injustice series. In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time for his involvement in the Mortal Kombat series.
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Robert Mercer
- Occupations
- computer scientistbankerhedge fund managerentrepreneur
- Biography
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Robert Leroy Mercer is an American hedge fund manager, computer scientist, and political donor. Mercer was an early artificial intelligence researcher and developer and is the former co-CEO of the hedge fund company Renaissance Technologies.
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Avery Brundage
- Occupations
- businesspersonathletics competitormodern pentathletebasketball playerart collector
- Biography
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Avery Brundage was the fifth president of the International Olympic Committee, serving from 1952 to 1972, the only American and first non-European to attain that position. Brundage is remembered as a zealous advocate of amateurism and for his involvement with the 1936 and 1972 Summer Olympics, both held in Germany.
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César Pelli
- Occupations
- university teacherarchitectentrepreneur
- Biography
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César Pelli was an Argentine-American architect who designed some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. Three of his most notable buildings are the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the World Financial Center in New York City, and the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco. The American Institute of Architects named him one of the ten most influential living American architects in 1991 and awarded him the AIA Gold Medal in 1995. In 2008, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat presented him with The Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Suze Orman
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- In 1976 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in social work
- Occupations
- investorwriterscreenwriterpodcasterfinancial adviser
- Biography
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Susan Lynn "Suze" Orman is an American financial advisor, author, and podcast host. In 1987, she founded the Suze Orman Financial Group. Her work as a financial advisor gained notability with The Suze Orman Show, which ran on CNBC from 2002 to 2015.
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Ned Luke
- Occupations
- voice actortelevision actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Ned Armstrong Luke is an American actor and YouTuber. He is known for portraying Michael De Santa in the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V, a role he reprised in 2025 for Grand Theft Auto Online. Throughout his acting career, he has appeared in 29 films and television shows, in addition to performing in over 100 commercials.
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Jonathan Kite
- Occupations
- film actoractortelevision actor
- Biography
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Jonathan Kite is an American actor, comedian and impressionist. He is best known for his role as Oleg Golishevsky on 2 Broke Girls.
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Arte Johnson
- Occupations
- screenwritervoice actortelevision actoractor
- Biography
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Arthur Stanton Eric Johnson was an American actor and comedian, who was best known for his work as a regular, portraying himself, in the NBC sketch comedy series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967–1971).
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Annette Lu
- Years
- 1944-.. (age 82)
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- 1969-1971 graduated with master's degree
- Occupations
- women's rights activistlawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Lu Hsiu-lien, also known by her English name Annette, is a Taiwanese politician and lawyer. A feminist active in the Tangwai movement, she joined the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 1990 and was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 1992. Subsequently, she served as Taoyuan County Magistrate between 1997 and 2000, and was vice president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2000 to 2008, under President Chen Shui-bian.
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Jon Corzine
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- In 1969 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- bankerchief executive officerpolitician
- Biography
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Jon Stevens Corzine is an American financial executive and retired politician who served as a United States senator from New Jersey from 2001 to 2006, and the 54th governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. Corzine ran for a second term as governor in 2009 but was defeated for re-election by Republican Chris Christie. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously worked at Goldman Sachs; after leaving politics, he was CEO of MF Global from 2010 until its collapse in 2011.
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Arvind Krishna
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- 1985-1991 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in electrical engineering
- Occupations
- chief executive officer
- Biography
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Arvind Krishna is an Indian-American business executive, and the chairman and CEO of IBM. He has been CEO of IBM since April 2020 and chairman since January 2021. Krishna began his career at IBM in 1990, at its Thomas J. Watson Research Center, and was promoted to senior vice president in 2015, managing IBM Cloud & Cognitive Software and IBM Research divisions. He was a principal architect of the acquisition of Red Hat, the largest acquisition in the company's history.
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Chadchart Sittipunt
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Chadchart Sittipunt is a Thai politician, engineer, and professor who is the incumbent Governor of Bangkok. He previously was Minister of Transport from 2012 to 2014.
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Jack Kilby
- Occupations
- photographerphysicistuniversity teacherengineerinventor
- Biography
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Jack St. Clair Kilby was an American electronics engineer who took part, along with Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor, in the realization of the first integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments in 1958. For this invention, Kilby shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.
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Jesse Jackson Jr
- Occupations
- taekwondo athletelawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Jesse Louis Jackson Jr. is an American former politician. He served as the U.S. representative from Illinois's 2nd congressional district from 1995 until his resignation in 2012. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the son of activist and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson and, prior to his career in elected office, worked for his father in both the elder Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign and his social justice, civil rights and political activism organization, Operation PUSH. Jackson's then-wife, Sandi Jackson, served on the Chicago City Council. He served as a national co-chairman of the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign. Jackson established a consistent liberal record on both social and fiscal issues, and he has co-authored books on civil rights and personal finance.
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Richard Powers
- Occupations
- novelistscience fiction writerwriter
- Biography
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Richard Powers is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel The Echo Maker won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction. He has also won many other awards over the course of his career, including a MacArthur Fellowship. As of 2024, Powers has published fourteen novels and has taught at the University of Illinois and Stanford University. He won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory.
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John B. Anderson
- Occupations
- university teacherpolitician
- Biography
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John Bayard Anderson was an American lawyer and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Illinois's 16th congressional district from 1961 to 1981. Initially a member of the Republican Party, he also served as the Chairman of the House Republican Conference from 1969 until 1979. In 1980, he ran an independent campaign for president, receiving 6.6% of the popular vote.
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Lin Chuan
- Occupations
- politicianeconomist
- Biography
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Lin Chuan is a Taiwanese economist, lawyer, and politician who served as the Premier of the Republic of China from 2016 to 2017. He was the first cabinet head under the Tsai Ing-wen government. Before his premiership, he had also served as the Minister of Budget, Accounting and Statistics and Minister of Finance during Chen Shui-bian's presidency.
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Luke Nosek
- Occupations
- engineer
- Biography
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Łukasz Nosek is an entrepreneur, notable for being a co-founder of PayPal.
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Irving Azoff
- Occupations
- talent manager
- Biography
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Irving Azoff is an American businessman, who is chairman of Full Stop Management, a company that represents recording artists. During the course of his career, he has worked as an agent, personal manager, concert promoter, movie producer, independent record label owner, merchandiser, music publisher, and CEO of a record label.
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Sheila Crump Johnson
- Occupations
- businesspersonviolinistfilm producereditor
- Biography
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Sheila Crump Johnson is an American billionaire businesswoman, co-founder of BET, and CEO of Salamander Hotels and Resorts.
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Gene Shalit
- Occupations
- literary criticfilm criticjournalist
- Biography
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Eugene Shalit is an American retired journalist, television personality, film and book critic and author. After starting to work part-time on NBC's The Today Show in 1970, he filled those roles from January 15, 1973, until retiring on November 11, 2010. He is known for his frequent use of puns and his comical “absent-minded professor” appearance, which consists of an oversized handlebar moustache, fuzzy hair, large glasses, and colorful bow ties.
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Timothy Zahn
- Occupations
- novelist
- Biography
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Timothy Zahn is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy. He is known best for his prolific collection of Star Wars books, chiefly the Thrawn trilogy, and has published several other series of sci-fi and fantasy novels of his own original creation, in addition to many works of short fiction.
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Tim McCarthy
- Occupations
- U.S. Secret Service agentpolice officer
- Biography
-
Timothy J. McCarthy is an American retired police officer and special agent of the U.S. Secret Service. He is best known for defending then-president Ronald Reagan during the assassination attempt on Reagan's life on March 30, 1981, in Washington, D.C.
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Piergiorgio Odifreddi
- Occupations
- historian of scienceuniversity teacherlogicianmathematicianscience communicator
- Biography
-
Piergiorgio Odifreddi is an Italian mathematician, logician, scholar of the history of science, and popular science writer and essayist, especially on philosophical atheism as a member of the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics. He is philosophically and politically near to Bertrand Russell and Noam Chomsky.
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Andrew Davis
- Occupations
- film producerscreenwritercinematographerdirectorfilm screenwriter
- Biography
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Andrew Davis is an American filmmaker, known for having directed several successful action and thriller films during the 1980s and 1990s. His best known works include Above the Law (1988), Under Siege (1992), The Fugitive (1993), Chain Reaction (1996), A Perfect Murder (1998), and Holes (2003). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director and a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film for The Fugitive.
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Ayo Dosunmu
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Quamdeen Ayopo "Ayo" Dosunmu is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Illinois Fighting Illini, earning consensus first-team All-American honors in his junior season. The Chicago Bulls selected him with the 38th pick in the 2021 NBA draft.
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Neel Kashkari
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- In 1995 graduated with Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering
- In 1998 graduated with Master of Science in mechanical engineering
- Occupations
- engineerbusinesspersoninvestment bankerpolitician
- Biography
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Neel Tushar Kashkari is an American banker, economist, and politician who is the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. As interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability from October 2008 to May 2009, he oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that was a major component of the U.S. government's response to the 2008 financial crisis. A Republican, he unsuccessfully ran for governor of California in the 2014 election.
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Jerry Colangelo
- Occupations
- basketball coachentrepreneurbasketball playerautobiographerbusinessperson
- Biography
-
Jerry Colangelo is an American businessman and sports executive. He formerly owned the Phoenix Suns of the NBA, the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, the Arizona Sandsharks of the Continental Indoor Soccer League, the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League, and the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball. He was also instrumental in the relocation of the original Winnipeg Jets team in the NHL to Phoenix to become the Phoenix Coyotes (later renamed to the Arizona Coyotes). In 2014, Grand Canyon University renamed its Christian based school of business after Colangelo, replacing Ken Blanchard's namesake. From December 2015 to April 2016, Colangelo served as chairman of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers, before serving as a special advisor to the team until December 2018.
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Scott Atlas
- Occupations
- punditneurosurgeonradiologist
- Biography
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Scott William Atlas is an American radiologist, political commentator, and health care policy advisor. He is the Robert Wesson Senior Fellow in health care policy at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank located at Stanford University. During the United States presidential campaigns of 2008, 2012, and 2016, Atlas was a Senior Advisor for Health Care to several presidential candidates. From 1998 to 2012 he was a professor and chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center.
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Red Grange
- Occupations
- actorAmerican football player
- Biography
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Harold Edward "Red" Grange, nicknamed "the Galloping Ghost" and "the Wheaton Iceman", was an American college and professional football halfback who played for Illinois, the Chicago Bears and the short-lived New York Yankees. His signing with the Bears helped legitimize the National Football League (NFL). Grange became a nationally known celebrity in the 1920s and is often cited as one of the most iconic athletes of all time, as well as one of the greatest college football players ever and the biggest star of the early days of the NFL.
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Scott Turner
- Occupations
- athletics competitorAmerican football playerpolitician
- Biography
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Eric Scott Turner is an American politician and former professional football player who is serving as the 19th United States secretary of housing and urban development since February 2025. He played cornerback in the NFL.
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Nelson Algren
- Occupations
- writernovelist
- Biography
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Nelson Algren was an American writer. His 1949 novel The Man with the Golden Arm won the National Book Award and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name.
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Thomas Siebel
- Occupations
- computer scientistbusinesspersonentrepreneurinformation scientist
- Biography
-
Thomas M. Siebel is an American businessman, technologist, and author. He founded the enterprise software company Siebel Systems and was the founder, chairman, and former CEO of C3 AI, an artificial intelligence software platform and applications company. He is currently the chairman of First Virtual Group, a diversified holding company.
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Derek Harper
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
-
Derek Ricardo Harper is an American former professional basketball player. A second-team All-American at the University of Illinois, he was the 11th overall pick of the 1983 NBA draft and spent 16 seasons as a point guard in the National Basketball Association with the Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, and Los Angeles Lakers. Harper is widely regarded as one of the best players to never have been selected to an All-Star game.
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Jill Lepore
- Occupations
- writeruniversity teacheressayistacademicjournalist
- Biography
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Jill Lepore is an American historian and journalist. She is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she has contributed since 2005. She writes about American history, law, literature, and politics.
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Chris Lattner
- Years
- 1978-.. (age 48)
- Enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
- In 2005 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- computer scientist
- Biography
-
Christopher Arthur Lattner is an American software engineer and creator of LLVM, the Clang compiler, the Swift programming language and the MLIR compiler infrastructure.
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James Tobin
- Occupations
- economiststatisticianmilitary personnelprofessor
- Biography
-
James Tobin was an American economist who served on the Council of Economic Advisers and consulted with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and taught at Yale University. He contributed to the development of key ideas in the Keynesian economics of his generation and advocated government intervention in particular to stabilize output and avoid recessions. His academic work included pioneering contributions to the study of investment, monetary and fiscal policy and financial markets. He also proposed an econometric model for censored dependent variables, the well-known tobit model.
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Jill Wine-Banks
- Occupations
- lawyerwriter
- Biography
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Jill Wine-Banks, formerly Jill Wine-Volner, is an American lawyer who was one of the prosecutors during the Watergate scandal. She was the first woman to serve as US General Counsel of the Army (1977–80) under President Jimmy Carter. She is also the first woman to have held the position of executive director of the American Bar Association.
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Robert Novak
- Occupations
- journalistbusinesspersoncolumnistpolitician
- Biography
-
Robert David Sanders Novak was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for The Wall Street Journal. He teamed up with Rowland Evans in 1963 to start Inside Report, which became the longest running syndicated political column in U.S. history and ran in hundreds of papers. They also started the Evans-Novak Political Report, a notable biweekly newsletter, in 1967.
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Kendall Gill
- Occupations
- basketball playerboxer
- Biography
-
Kendall Cedric Gill is an American former professional basketball player who now works as a television basketball analyst. Throughout his NBA career he was known as “Cold World” for his ice cold demeanor on the court.
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Andrew Yao
- Occupations
- computer scientistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Andrew Chi-Chih Yao is a Chinese computer scientist, theoretical physicist, and computational theorist. He is currently a professor and the dean of Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences (IIIS) at Tsinghua University. Yao used the minimax theorem to prove what is now known as Yao's principle.
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Stephen Moore
- Occupations
- writerpundit
- Biography
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Stephen Moore is an American economist, writer, and conservative television commentator. He co-founded and served as president of the Club for Growth from 1999 to 2004. Moore is a former member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board. He worked at The Heritage Foundation from 1983 to 1987 and again since 2014. Moore advocates tax cuts and other supply-side policies. His columns have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Weekly Standard, and National Review.
