This is a list of notable alumni and faculty of Queens College, City University of New York.
Business
Education
Entertainment and media
- Ted Alexandro - comedian
- Martin Aronstein - theatrical lighting designer
- Annet Artani - singer, songwriter, co-wrote "Everytime" with Britney Spears
- Jay Bak - rapper and singer based in South Korea
- Lidia Bastianich - celebrity chef and host of Lidia's Italy
- Joy Behar - comedian and co-host of The View
- Adrien Brody - actor, Academy Award winner, attended in 1990
- Glen Brunman - film and television soundtrack executive and producer
- Danny Burstein - Broadway actor
- Fran Capo - comedian
- Lucille Carra - documentary film producer
- Angelo Corrao - Italian-American film editor
- Jason Cuadrado - director and producer
- Yanna Darili - model, Greek television personality
- Peter Dizozza - composer
- Fran Drescher - actress, producer The Nanny
- Dennis Elsas - radio personality at WNEWâÂÂFM, WFUVâÂÂFM
- Nargis Fakhri - model and Bollywood actress
- Jon Favreau - actor and director, director of Iron Man and Iron Man 2
- David Zelag Goodman - screenwriter, playwright
- Marvin Hamlisch - Hollywood and Broadway composer
- Annette Insdorf - film historian and author
- Alan Jacobson - thriller writer
- Ron Jeremy - prolific pornographic film actor
- Herb Kaplow - television news correspondent
- Jason Katims - television writer and producer
- Carole King - songwriter and recording artist
- Richard Kline - played "Larry Dallas" on Three's Company
- Carol Leifer - stand-up comedian, writer, actress and producer
- Bob Linden - host and producer of Go Vegan Radio
- Hal Linden - actor, producer, and musician
- Clair Marlo - composer, singer, record producer, songwriter; attended 1976âÂÂ1977, then went to Berklee College of Music
- Perri Pierre - actor and film producer
- DJ Rekha - DJ, producer, educator of South Asian music
- Ray Romano - actor, comedian (attended 1975âÂÂ1978; dropped out after accumulating only 15 credits in three years, but returned later, during which he made the dean's list)
- Howie Rose - sportscaster for the New York Mets and New York Islanders
- Neil Rosen - Emmy award-winning movie critic, NY1
- Michael Savage (formerly known as Michael Weiner) - radio talk show personality and author
- Nancy Savoca - screenwriter, film director and producer
- Jerry Seinfeld - comedian
- Nestor Serrano - actor
- Paul Simon - singer, songwriter, musician, and member of Simon and Garfunkel
- Michael Stewart - playwright
- Bobby Susser - songwriter, record producer, and performer
- Lorenzo Thomas - poet
- Mal Waldron - jazz pianist
- Dorothy Wiggins (born 1925), socialite and social media personality.
- Dennis Wolfberg - comedian
- Marv Wolfman - comic book and animation writer
- Jay Wolpert - television producer, screenwriter
- Ben Younger - screenwriter and director
- Karen Yu (born 1992) - professional wrestler, also known as "Karen Q" and "Wendy Choo".
Fictional characters
Government and politics
- Gary Ackerman - United States representative from New York (1983âÂÂ2013)
- Joel Benenson - Democratic pollster, chief political consultant for Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016
- Shifra Bronznick - prominent Jewish women's rights activist
- Kema Chikwe - National Women Leader of the Nigerian political party PDP, former aviation minister
- Nikos Christodoulides - president of Cyprus (2023âÂÂpresent)
- Anthony Como - former NYC council member
- Costa Constantinides - nonprofit leader, former NYC council member, Queens College professor
- Joseph Crowley - former United States representative from New York's 7th congressional district (1999âÂÂ2019), former Queens County Democratic chairman
- Mark Danish - former member, Florida House of Representatives
- Adriano Espaillat - United States representative from New York's 13th congressional district, former member of the New York State Senate and New York State Assembly
- Rafael Espinal - executive director of Freelancers Union; former NYC council member
- Arthur J. Finkelstein - GOP political consultant
- Steven W. Fisher - former New York state justice, attorney in Wendy's massacre
- Marvin E. Frankel - litigator, judge, legal scholar, and human rights activist
- Helen W. Gillmor - U.S. federal judge
- Deborah J. Glick - NY state assemblywoman
- Mark M. Goldblatt - political commentator
- Andrew Goodman - civil rights worker, murdered in Mississippi at the age of 20 during Freedom Summer of 1964, while still a student
- Dan Halloran - former NYC council member, Theodist
- Julia Harrison - NYC council member
- Alan Hevesi - former New York state comptroller, former New York state assemblyman, former Queens College professor
- Andrew Hevesi - New YorksState assemblyman
- Dov Hikind - former New York state assemblyman
- Blaise Ingoglia - Florida state assembly
- Dennis G. Jacobs - chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- Jeffrey D. Klein - former New York state senator
- Alan P. Krasnoff - former Chesapeake, Virginia mayor
- Rory I. Lancman - former NYC council member and former New York state assemblyman
- Nathan Leventhal - former NYC deputy mayor, former president, Lincoln Center
- Helen Marshall - former Queens borough president
- Nettie Mayersohn - former member of New York State Assembly
- Joseph McGoldrick (1901âÂÂ1978) - former NYC comptroller and NY state residential rent control commissioner, lawyer, and professor at Queens College
- Hiram Monserrate - former New York state senator
- Diane Patrick (B.A. 1972) - labor lawyer and former First Lady of Massachusetts (2007âÂÂ2015)
- Jose Peralta - former New York state assemblyman and New York state senator
- Sylvia Pressler - former judge
- Mario Savio (B.A. 1963) - leader of the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s; during an era of de jure segregation and violence against Civil Rights activists, he registered African Americans living in Mississippi to vote
- Ronald Spadafora - former FDNY chief and supervisor of September 11 rescue and recovery efforts
- Toby Ann Stavisky - New York state senator
- James Vacca - former NYC council member and Queens College professor
- Jeffrey White - former North California district judge
Humanities
- David A. Adler - author
- Yitzchok Adlerstein - rabbi, writer
- Mel Alexenberg - science artist and art educator
- Toni Cade Bambara - author, activist
- Nino Lo Bello - journalist
- Michael Berenbaum - scholar, writer, rabbi
- Ann Birstein - memoirist, Fulbright Scholar
- Erika Bourguignon - anthropologist
- Robert Boyers - literary essayist, cultural critic and memoirist
- Alex Caldiero - poet, scholar of humanities
- Vévé Amasasa Clark - scholar of African American Studies
- Marylyn Dintenfass - painter
- Alan Dugan - poet
- Yael Eckstein - religious activist
- Marc Estrin - political writer
- Jeff Faux - founder of Economic Policy Institute
- Bella Feldman - sculpting innovator
- Marie Ferrarella - romance writer
- Juan Flores - scholar of Latino Studies
- Ellen G. Friedman - author, women's studies
- Ruth Gay - writer about Jewish life
- Jeff Gomez - writer and transmedia producer
- Martin Gottlieb - editor at New York Times
- Robert Hessen - economist, historian
- Cynthia Holz - correspondent and author
- Johanna Hurwitz - children's author
- Jane Irish - ceramicist
- Susan Isaacs - author, essayist, screenwriter
- Bernard Kalb - journalist, media critic, author
- Marvin Kalb - journalist
- Nasser Khalili - scholar, philanthropist
- Bernard Krisher - journalist
- Corky Lee - journalistic photographer
- Judith Lorber - sociologist
- Felipe Luciano - journalist
- Irving Malin - literary critic
- Nellie Y. McKay - scholar and co-editor of Norton Anthology of African-American Literature
- Samuel Menashe - poet, biochemist, veteran
- Bruce Bueno de Mesquita - political scientist
- Cristina Jiménez Moreta (B.A. 2007) - Ecuadoran immigration activist who co-founded United We Dream
- Joan Nestle - author
- Richard Ofshe - sociologist
- Jim Osman - sculptor
- Claude V. Palisca - professor of music history
- Herbert S Parmet - distinguished historian and political author
- Irene Peslikis - feminist artist
- Mark Podwal - artist and physician
- Shana Poplack - linguistics
- Lina Puerta - artist
- Dorothy Rabinowitz - awarded 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
- Colleen Randall - abstract painter
- Marcia Resnick - photographer
- Robert Rosenblum - art historian, curator, writer
- John Rowan - Vietnam veteran
- Arlene Rush - artist and sculptor
- Lloyd Schwartz - Pulitzer Prize winner in Journalism
- Joel Shatzky (1943âÂÂ2020) - writer and literary professor
- Lowery Stokes Sims - former curator at Museum of Arts and Design
- Marilyn Singer - children's author
- Arnold Skemer - novelist and publisher
- Elliot Sperling - expert on Tibet
- Linda Stein - sculptor, feminist (interviewed in Borat)
- Amin Tarzi - Middle East Studies
- Rosalyn Terborg-Penn - historian
- Eric Wolf - anthropologist
Music
Science and technology
- Kenneth Appel - mathematician, proved four color theorem
- Boris Aronov - computer scientist (computational geometry)
- Inge Auerbacher - chemist, author, playwright, Holocaust survivor
- Steven J. Burakoff - cancer specialist; author of Therapeutic Immunology (2001) and Graft-Vs.-Host Disease: Immunology, Pathophysiology, and Treatment (1990)
- Anne Carter - technology economist
- Arturo Casadevall - molecular microbiologist
- Marie Maynard Daly - biochemist, first African-American woman to earn a Phd in chemistry
- Celso-Ramón GarcÃÂa - obstetrician and gynecologist
- Edgar Gilbert - coding theorist
- David Gries - computer scientist
- Mohammad Salman Hamdani - biochemist, cited in the Patriot Act for heroism on 9/11
- Michael Hecht - researcher
- Ira B. Lamster - periodontist and professor of health management
- Richard Laub - paleontologist
- Jerry Lawson - electronic engineer
- Stanley Milgram - psychologist
- Robert Moog - inventor of the Moog synthesizer
- Howard Moskowitz - market researcher and psychophysicist
- Elizabeth F. Neufeld - geneticist
- Nicholas Rescher - philosopher
- Bernard Salick - entrepreneur, researcher, nephrologist
- Elissa Shevinsky - entrepreneur, information security researcher, feminist
- Russell Targ - physicist
- Alexander L. Wolf - computer scientist, president of Association for Computing Machinery
- Aaron D. Wyner - information theorist noted for his contributions in coding theory
- Bruce M. Zagelbaum - physician and researcher in sports ophthalmology
Sports
Notable faculty
Famous faculty at Queens College have included:
References