The following is a list of individuals associated with Berkeley High School (California) through attending as a student, or serving as a member of the faculty or staff.
Notable alumni
Activists
- Bob Avakian, 1960, head of Revolutionary Communist Party
- David Brower, 1928, president of Sierra Club; founder of Friends of the Earth
- John Froines, 1957, Chicago Seven defendant, state track title team member, UCLA professor
- Bobby Seale, 1954, co-founder of Black Panther Party
Actors
- Raymond Burr, 1935, actor
- Rafael Casal, actor, writer, producer
- Justin Chu Cary, 2000, actor
- Robert Culp, 1947, actor
- Daveed Diggs, 2000, actor, producer, rapper (Hamilton)
- Richard Gant, 1961, television and film actor
- Nina Hartley, 1977, adult film actress
- Timothy Hutton, 1978, film and television actor
- Paul Mooney, 1959, actor, comedian
- Rebecca Romijn, 1990, model, actress
- Andy Samberg, 1996, actor, former cast member of Saturday Night Live
- Akiva Schaffer, 1995, comedy writer and director, Saturday Night Live writer and director
- Adivi Sesh, Tollywood actor
- Jorma Taccone, 1995, comedy writer-actor, Saturday Night Live writer
Artists and photographers
Athletes
- Chidi Ahanotu, 1988, football defensive end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL
- Shooty Babitt, 1977, Major League Baseball player, Oakland A's
- Don Barksdale, 1941, All-American basketball player at UCLA; first African-American on US Olympic basketball team (1948); first African-American to play in NBA All-Star game (1953)
- Rich Barry, Major League Baseball outfielder for Philadelphia Phillies
- Brittany Boyd, 2011, basketball player
- Glenn Burke (1970 Athlete of the Year), Major League Baseball player
- Phil Chenier, basketball player for the Washington Bullets in the 1970s
- Je'Rod Cherry, football player; won three Super Bowls with the New England Patriots
- Merv Connors, former MLB player (Chicago White Sox)
- Bill Durkee, 1939, National Basketball League player for the Minneapolis Lakers
- Jack Faszholz, former MLB player (St. Louis Cardinals)
- Leah Freeman, 2020, soccer player
- Augie Galan, former MLB outfielder
- Hal Gilson, former MLB pitcher
- Jacob Grandison, 2016, College Basketball player for Holy Cross and Illinois
- Chick Hafey, 1921, Major League Baseball player; won two World Series with St. Louis Cardinals; had first hit in All-Star Game history
- Kamani Hill, 2004, soccer player; forward for Colorado Rapids
- Ruppert Jones (1973 Athlete of the Year), Major League Baseball player; 2-time All-Star
- Jack LaLanne, 1935, fitness educator
- Ray Lamanno, former MLB catcher
- John Lambert, basketball player at University of Southern California and in NBA
- Billy Martin, 1946, Major League Baseball player; second baseman for five New York Yankees World Series teams in the 1950s, and manager of four playoff teams (Twins, Yankees, Detroit, A's), including one championship
- Lawrence McGrew, 1975, football player, linebacker for New England Patriots, New York Giants 1980âÂÂ1991
- Walter Murray, gridiron football player
- Hannibal Navies, 1995, football player
- Steve Odom, football player, wide receiver for Green Bay Packers 1974âÂÂ1977
- Gene Ransom, basketball player for University of California, Berkeley
- Jeff Ransom, former MLB catcher
- Earl Robinson, former MLB player
- Claudell Washington, Major League Baseball outfielder
- Jason Young, former MLB pitcher
Authors, journalists, and poets
- Miguel Almaguer, c. 1995, correspondent, NBC News
- Peter J. Aschenbrenner, 1963, author
- Belva Davis, 1951, journalist
- Philip K. Dick, 1947, author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, on which the movie Blade Runner was based, and many other books
- Aaron Cometbus Elliott, 1986, writer/publisher of Cometbus zine, musician
- Vincent Duffey, 1911, playwright
- David Gordon, 1961, editor of Harvard Crimson, economist, syndicated columnist
- Sandra Gulland, 1962, novelist
- Shelley Jackson, author of Patchwork Girl
- Ursula K. Le Guin, 1947, science fiction author of the Earthsea series, The Left Hand of Darkness, and many other books
- Thomas Levenson, 1958, science writer, author of Newton and the Counterfeiter, Einstein in Berlin and other books
- Leza Lowitz, 1980, author, poet, editor, journalist
- Ariel Schrag, 1998, autobiographical graphic novelist
- Joel Selvin, 1967, rock music critic and author
- Frank Somerville, 1976, television news anchor, KTVU Oakland
- Ricardo Sternberg, 1967, poet
- Tess Taylor, 1995, poet and CNN contributor
- Elizabeth Treadwell, 1985, poet
- Shannon Wheeler, c. 1984, cartoonist, author of Too Much Coffee Man; published in The Onion, The New Yorker, and Mad magazine
- Charlotte Wilder, c. 1915, poet, sister of Thornton Wilder
- Thornton Wilder, c. 1915, novelist and playwright
Educators
Entrepreneurs
Filmmakers
- Amir Bar-Lev, 1990, documentary director/producer
- Gregory Hoblit, 1962, television and film director
- Ian Inaba, 1989, music video/film director
- Leah Meyerhoff, 1997, Student Academy Award-nominated filmmaker
- Dave Meyers, 1990, music video/film director
- Michael Ritchie, 1956, film director
- Colin Tilley, 2006, music video/film director (including music videos for Chris Brown and Justin Bieber)
Mathematicians, scientists and inventors
- Richard Bolt, 1928, physics professor at MIT with an interest in acoustics; created BBN ("modem" and "e-mail")
- John Brillhart, 1948, mathematician, author of books on large-number factorization
- Andrew Gleason (graduated elsewhere), mathematician
- Sam Ruben, 1931?, co-discoverer of C14, a radioactive isotope of carbon, in 1940; the isotope led to many advances in the fields of biochemistry and medicine as well as its use in carbon dating for archeology
- Pei-Yuan Wei, 1986, (éÂÂå¹æºÂ, pinyin: Wèi Péiyuán), created ViolaWWW, one of the first graphical web browsers
- Bill Woodcock, 1989, developed anycast DNS, and built more than 100 Internet exchange points around the world
Media
Musicians
- Ambrose Akinmusire, 2000, jazz trumpet player
- Peter Apfelbaum, 1978, multi-instrumentalist/composer of Hieroglyphics Ensemble
- Will Bernard, 1977, guitarist
- Steven Bernstein, 1979, jazz trumpeter, slide trumpeter, arranger/composer and bandleader
- Stephen Bishop, 1958, classical pianist also known as Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich and Stephen Kovacevich
- Kevin Cadogan, 1988, rock guitarist, formerly of Third Eye Blind
- The Cataracs, indie-pop duo
- Aaron Cometbus, drummer in punk bands Crimpshrine and Pinhead Gunpowder, author of Cometbus fanzine
- DJ Hollygrove- Grammy Winner, DJ and on air radio personality, attended, Class of 2002
- DJ Fuze, hip hop DJ and record producer
- Gabriela Lena Frank, 1990, classical composer and pianist
- G-Eazy, 2007, rapper, songwriter
- Benny Green, 1980, jazz pianist
- Charlie Hunter, 1985, jazz guitarist
- David Immerglück, 1979, multi-instrumentalist/guitarist for Counting Crows, Camper Van Beethoven and the Monks of Doom
- Joe and Eddie (Joe Gilbert and Eddie Brown), folk singers
- Greg 'Curly' Keranen, 1973, bassist, The Rubinoos, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
- KSHMR, 2006, electronic musician, record producer
- Stephen "Doc" Kupka, 1964, founding member/baritone saxophone of Tower of Power
- Phil Lesh, 1957, Grateful Dead bass player
- Jesse Michaels, singer of the East Bay punk band Operation Ivy, Common Rider; son of writer Leonard Michaels
- Johnny Otis (1921âÂÂ2012), musician, record producer, disc jockey
- Jeff Ott, 1988, vocalist/guitarist of Crimpshrine and Fifteen
- Lenny Pickett, Saturday Night Live saxophone player
- Julian Waterfall Pollack, 2006, jazz pianist
- Thomas Pridgen, drummer for The Mars Volta
- Joshua Redman, 1986, jazz musician
- Alex Skolnick, 1987, guitarist of the thrash metal band Testament
- Geoff Tyson, guitarist and record producer
- Evanora Unlimited, 2018, record producer, multimedia artist
- The Uptones, ska band
- Kyle Vincent, contemporary pop recording artist/singer-songwriter, producer
- Donald Weilerstein, 1958, classical violinist, founder of Cleveland String Quartet, faculty member at Juilliard School
- Kate Wolf, née Allen, 1960, folk singer/songwriter
Politicians
- Audie Bock, 1963, California politician and film scholar
- Shirley Dean, 1950, Berkeley City Council member 1975âÂÂ1982 and 1986âÂÂ1994, and mayor 1994âÂÂ2002
- Matthew Denn, 1984, lieutenant governor of Delaware 2009âÂÂ2014, Attorney General of Delaware 2015
- Elihu Harris, 1965, mayor of Oakland, California, 1991âÂÂ99
- George Livingston, first elected African American Mayor of Richmond 1985âÂÂ1993
- Aaron Peskin, 1982, former president, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
- Nick Sinai, former Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States and gov-tech pioneer
Notable faculty
- Charles L. Biedenbach, principal of Berkeley High
- Pumpsie Green, first black player for the Boston Red Sox; coached baseball at Berkeley High for many years
- Edgar Manske, member of the College Football Hall of Fame, former assistant football coach at Cal under Pappy Waldorf; taught biology at Berkeley High for 20 years (1955âÂÂ1975)
Notes
External links