List of people from Berkeley, California

This is a list of notable people that were born in, or who have lived in, Berkeley, California. Located in the San Francisco Bay area and near Oakland, it includes people who attended Berkeley High School, but not people that attended University of California, Berkeley unless they achieved notoriety while in attendance, and were also residents of the city at the time.

Academia

Wasiullah Khan – founder of East-West University
Margaret Singer – clinical psychologist, professor at UC Berkeley
Alfred Tarski – mathematician, logician, professor at UC Berkeley
Chang-Lin Tien – 8th chancellor of University of California, Berkeley (1990–1997), first Asian American and Chinese American to head a major United States university
Blake R. Van Leer – US Army officer, civil rights advocate, and president of Georgia Institute of Technology
Sean Williams – professor of ethnomusicology

Actors

Ben Affleck – actor, Academy Award-winning screenwriter and director; born in Berkeley^[1]
Robert Culp – actor, screenwriter, voice actor, and director; attended Berkeley High School^[2]^[3]
Augusta Dabney – actress; born and raised in Berkeley^[4]
Daveed Diggs – actor, screenwriter, film producer, rapper, singer, songwriter; attended Berkeley High School
Stanley Farrar – actor; born and raised in Berkeley; attended UC Berkeley^[5]^[6]
Chloe Fineman – actress, Saturday Night Live comedian
Whoopi Goldberg – Academy Award-winning actress and television personality; lived in Berkeley for many years^[7]
Karen Grassle – actress
Nina Hartley – pornographic actress
Rita Moreno – actress, dancer; Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award winner
Jamieson Price – voice actor
Nicole Richie – socialite, reality television personality, fashion designer
Rebecca Romijn – model, actress
Andy Samberg – actor, Saturday Night Live comedian, member of Lonely Island, attended Berkeley High School^[1]^[8]
Jorma Taccone – actor and director, member of Lonely Island, attended Berkeley High School^[8]
Chris Tashima – actor and filmmaker
Sasha Velour – drag queen
Wavy Gravy – professional clown, actor, activist, Hog Farm founder
Daniel Wu – Hong Kong actor

Chefs, cookbook authors

Andy Baraghani – chef, cookbook author, recipe developer and former food editor
Paul Bertolli – chef, cookbook writer, food entrepreneur^[9]
Narsai David – chef, author, radio and television personality
Ken Hom – chef, author and television-show presenter
Mollie Katzen – cookbook author
Jack LaLanne – health and fitness enthusiast
Samin Nosrat – chef, food writer, Netflix series host
Alice Waters – restaurateur, chef, and activist, originally from Chatham Borough, New Jersey

Crime

Patty Hearst – newspaper heiress and kidnap victim
Daniel Andreas San Diego – domestic terrorist

Visual artists and designers

Mai Kitazawa Arbegast – landscape architect^[10]
Elmer Bischoff – painter
Justina Blakeney – designer and author
Helen Breger – printmaker, draftsperson, sculptor, watercolorist, and professor^[11]
Christopher Brown – painter, printmaker, and professor^[12]
Alan Chin – artist
Daniel Clowes – cartoonist
Robert Crumb – cartoonist
Jay DeFeo – painter
Richard Diebenkorn – painter
Lillian Wolock Elliott – fiber artist, textile designer
David Lance Goines – artist, calligrapher, typographer, printer, author
Sidney Gordin – painter, sculptor, professor
Michael Heizer – earth artist, sculptor
Hans Hofmann – painter, teacher
Joseph Holmes – landscape photographer
Ynez Johnston – painter, sculptor, printmaker; born in Berkeley^[13]
William Keith – landscape artist
Peter Rutledge Koch – letterpress printer, artists book publisher, typographer, designer
Ronnie Landfield – painter
Dorothea Lange – photographer
Sylvia Lark – Seneca painter, printmaker
Roger Montgomery – urban designer, architect, Dean University of California, Berkeley
Peter Reginato – sculptor
Zahara Schatz – sculptor, artist
Nancy Selvin – sculptor
Jeremy Shafer – origami artist
Izzy Sher – sculptor
Adrian Tomine – cartoonist
Ella Wall Van Leer – artist, architect and women's rights activist
Peter Voulkos – ceramist, sculptor

Business leaders and entrepreneurs

Eric Allman – computer programmer, author of sendmail, co-founded the company Sendmail, Inc.
Anastasia Ashman – writer, producer, co-founder of the startup GlobalNiche.net
John Buckman – internet entrepreneur
Stephen G. Cecchetti – economist and economic advisor
Philo T. Farnsworth – all-electronic television inventor, founder of Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation
John Gage – one of the founders of Sun Microsystems
Candido Jacuzzi – inventor of submersible pump
Bill Joy – developer of BSD UNIX and co-founder of Sun Microsystems
Gordon Moore – co-founder of Intel
Robert Reffkin – CEO of Compass, Inc.
Eric Schmidt – ex-CEO of Google
Dave Winer – software developer and entrepreneur
Steve Wozniak – engineer and entrepreneur, Apple Inc. co-founder

Filmmakers

Craig Barron – filmmaker and visual effects supervisor
Harrod Blank – documentary filmmaker and son of Les Blank
Les Blank – documentary filmmaker
Aaron Cometbus – documentarian of the punk rock music world
Gregory Hoblit – film and television director
Scott Hamilton Kennedy – Oscar nominated documentary filmmaker
Lisa Onodera – film producer, Picture Bride, The Debut, Americanese
Michael Ritchie – film director
Akiva Schaffer – film director
Phil Tippett – Academy Award-winning special effects artist
Jay Ward – creator of animated television series Crusader Rabbit, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and George of the Jungle
Saul Zaentz – film and music producer

Journalists, news media

Lowell Bergman – television journalist, former producer of 60 Minutes
Ralph J. Gleason – music critic and columnist, founding editor of Rolling Stone magazine
Rosalie Ritz – courtroom artist, reporter
Galen Rowell – wilderness photographer, adventure photojournalist
Tabitha Soren – MTV News reporter
Charlie Winton – publisher

Musicians

John Coolidge Adams – composer and conductor of classical music and opera
Samuel Adams – composer of contemporary classical, electronic, electroacoustic
Billie Joe Armstrong – singer-songwriter, actor, guitarist, and lead singer of the Berkeley-based punk rock band Green Day
Tim Armstrong – member of punk rock bands Rancid, Transplants and Operation Ivy
Phyllida Ashley – pianist
Emit Bloch – songwriter, guitarist, journalist
Peter Buck – guitarist for R.E.M.
Emilio Castillo – musician
John Cipollina – guitarist, Quicksilver Messenger Service
Tre Cool – drummer of the band Green Day
Martha Davis – rock and new wave singer-songwriter
Mike Dirnt – bassist of Green Day
Rockmond Dunbar – actor
Adam Duritz – singer-songwriter, Counting Crows
John Fahey – guitarist
John Fogerty – musician of Creedence Clearwater Revival
Tom Fogerty – musician of Creedence Clearwater Revival
Gabriela Lena Frank – Grammy-winning composer, Grammy-nominated pianist
Rodney Franklin – jazz pianist
Matt Freeman – member of punk rock bands Rancid and Operation Ivy
Benny Green – jazz pianist
Davey Havok – singer for AFI
Charlie Hunter – jazz musician
David Immerglück – guitarist, Counting Crows
KSHMR – EDM producer and DJ
Stephen "Doc" Kupka – musician
Phil Lesh – Grateful Dead bassist
Lil B, born Brandon McCartney, also known as the BasedGod – rapper, record producer, author, activist and motivational speaker
Larry Livermore – writer, musician, founder of Lookout Records
Ed Masuga – singer, musician, and songwriter
Dylan Mattingly – composer
Country Joe McDonald – singer-songwriter, and activist
Dave Mello – drummer for ska punk band Operation Ivy
Jesse Michaels – ska punk singer-songwriter for Operation Ivy and Common Rider
Nick 13 – vocalist, guitarist
Joaquín Nin-Culmell – composer, concert pianist, UC professor (emeritis), brother of Anaïs Nin
The Pack – rap group
Gwydion Pendderwen – born Thomas deLong, Wiccan folk singer
Lenny Pickett – Saturday Night Live band leader, saxophone player
Joshua Redman – jazz saxophonist
Malvina Reynolds – singer, songwriter
Joe Satriani – heavy metal/hard rock guitarist and teacher
Akiva Schaffer – comedy writer, film director, and singer/songwriter of The Lonely Island, attended Berkeley High School^[8]
Charles Seeger – musician, UC musicologist, pacifist, and father of folk singer Pete Seeger
Tessa Seymour – cellist
Charles Shere – composer
Alex Skolnick – jazz and metal guitarist, writer
Asa Taccone – founder and lead singer of band Electric Guest
Grace Vamos – composer
Kyle Vincent – singer, songwriter, author

Politicians, activists, political figures and civil servants

Jerry Brown – former mayor of Oakland and governor of California 2011–2019; previously served 1975–1983
Eldridge Cleaver – political activist, an early leader of the Black Panther Party
Rosebud Denovo – People's Park activist, killed by police
Ann Fagan Ginger – human rights advocate
Kamala Harris – vice president of the US
David Horowitz – 1960s radical turned conservative activist
Wayne Hsiung – animal rights activist and co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere
Andrew Martinez – social activist
Gus Newport – mayor
Mariko Peters – Dutch politician and lawyer
Robert Reich – politician, political commentator, academic, and writer
Friend Richardson – governor of California, 1923–1926
Fred Ross, Jr. – labor organizer, 1947–2022
Jerry Rubin – social activist, Yippie
Mario Savio – 1960s Free Speech Movement icon
Bobby Seale – co-founder of the Black Panther Party
Cindy Sheehan – anti-war activist
Ella Lillian Wall Van Leer – artist and architect, women's rights activist
August Vollmer – police chief, "the father of modern policing"
O. W. Wilson – Berkeley police officer, nationally recognized authority on policing
Clement C. Young – Progressive governor of California, 1927–1931

Scientists, researchers

Bruce Bolt – seismologist
David Brower – environmentalist; founder of environmental organizations, including Friends of the Earth (1969) and Earth Island Institute (1982)
Owen Chamberlain – particle physicist, UC Berkeley
Hans Albert Einstein – UC professor of hydraulic engineering (1947-73), son of physicist Albert Einstein
Sally Floyd – computer scientist researcher
David E. Garfin – biophysicist
Albert Ghiorso – nuclear physicist, discoverer of twelve elements, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Daniel Kahneman – economist and psychologist researcher
Ernest Orlando Lawrence – nuclear physicist
Timothy Leary – LSD researcher and promoter
Margaret Melhase – co-discoverer of caesium-137
Marion Nestle – nutrition scientist
Robert Oppenheimer – theoretical physicist and head of the Manhattan Project
Glenn T. Seaborg – chemist, professor UC Berkeley
Paul Schuster Taylor – agricultural economist
Edward Teller – nuclear physicist, developer of thermonuclear weapons

Sports

C. J. Anderson – NFL player
Jayne Appel – WNBA player for the San Antonio Stars
Jeff Borowiak – tennis player
Chick Hafey – baseball Hall of Famer
Julie Heldman (born 1945) – tennis player
Eddie House – NBA player
Helen Jacobs (1908–1997) – tennis player
Brad Lackey – professional motocross racer
Marshawn Lynch – National Football League player
Billy Martin – baseball player and manager
Bob Melvin (born 1961) – Major League Baseball player and manager
Julian Merryweather – MLB pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays
Walter Murray – gridiron football player
Sam Nahem (1915–2004) – Major League Baseball pitcher
Kyra Nichols – ballet dancer and teacher, former New York City Ballet principal dancer
Terrell Roberts – NFL player
Jeff Stevens – Major League Baseball pitcher^[14]
Amani Toomer – wide receiver for the New York Giants
Helen Wills – tennis champion
Rami Zur – Olympic sprint canoer

Writers, poets

Richard Bozulich – journalist, author, publisher, go expert
Marion Zimmer Bradley – author
Lenni Brenner – author, lecturer
Ernest Callenbach – environmentalist, author of Ecotopia
Fritjof Capra – author of The Tao of Physics
Michael Chabon – Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Sheldon Warren Cheney – author and art critic
Frank Chin – author
Philip K. Dick – author
Robert Duncan – poet
Dave Eggers – writer
C.S. Forester – author, Horatio Hornblower series and The African Queen
Allen Ginsberg – poet
June Jordan – poet, novelist, journalist, activist
Ursula K. Le Guin – Hugo Award winning-author
Wendy Lesser – arts journal editor and critic
Michael Lewis – author
Joanna Macy – writer, translator of Rainer Maria Rilke
Czesław Miłosz – poet, Nobel Prize winner in literature
Markos Moulitsas – blogger, author
Frank Norris – author of The Octopus
Michael Parenti – political analyst, author, lecturer, professor
Michael Pollan – author
Rebecca N. Porter - educator, author, journalist
Ruth Reichl – food critic, author
Betty Reid Soskin – cofounder of Reid's Records, oldest National Park ranger, author
George R. Stewart – author of Earth Abides and Storm
Julia Vinograd – poet

Other

A. Scott Crossfield – naval officer and test pilot
Daniel Ellsberg – military analyst, publisher of Pentagon Papers
Walter A. Gordon – first African American to receive a JD from UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall, star athlete, Berkeley police officer, attorney, governor of U.S. Virgin Islands, judge
Glenn Hauser – DXer and radio host
Stanley Hiller – helicopter pioneer
Ishi – last of the Yahi
Pauline Kael – film critic
Josh Kornbluth – monologist and talk show host
Clarence H. McNeil – U.S. Army major general^[15]
Adm. Chester Nimitz – Supreme Allied Commander, Pacific Theater, World War II
Sam Shankland – chess grandmaster
Chris Strachwitz – founder of Arhoolie Records
Laura Tyson – economist and former chair of the Council of Economic Advisors
Blake Wayne Van Leer, commander and captain in the U.S. Navy; led SeaBee program; led the nuclear research and power unit at McMurdo Station during Operation Deep Freeze
Thornton Wilder – playwright, Our Town
John S. Winn, U.S. Army brigadier general^[16]
Charles Woodruff – U.S. Army brigadier general^[17]
Janet Yellen – chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve

References

^ ^a ^b Knobel, Lance (July 12, 2010). "Move over Andy Samberg, Ben Affleck is Berkeley boy". Berkeleyside. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
^ Blankstein, Andrew (March 24, 2010). "Actor Robert Culp dies after falling at his Hollywood home". Los Angeles Times.
^ Grimes, William (March 25, 2010). "Robert Culp, Star in 'I Spy,' Dies at 79". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
^ "Dabney, Augusta 1918–". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
^ "Rites for Actor Farrar". The Berkeley Gazette. April 9, 1974. p. 3. Retrieved September 22, 2024.
^ University of California, Berkeley (1928). Register of the University of California 1928-29, Volume 2, Part XVII. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 189.
^ "Whoopi Goldberg selling her Berkeley home for $1.275M". Berkeleyside. June 22, 2015. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c Dinkelspiel, Frances (January 9, 2019). "Andy Samberg gives his Berkeley mother a gift: the truth about her birth parents". Berkeleyside. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
^ Berne, Amanda (September 28, 2005). "Paul Bertolli leaves Oliveto". SFGATE. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
^ "Mai K. Arbegast." Contra Costa Times. April 15, 2012: n. pag. Legacy.com. Accessed February 27, 2015.[1]
^ Zinko, Carolyne (October 26, 2013). "Bay Area artist, teacher Helen Breger dies". SFGate.
^ Landauer, Susan; Gerdts, William H.; Trenton, Patricia (November 10, 2003). The Not-So-Still Life: A Century of California Painting and Sculpture. University of California Press. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-520-23938-8.
^ "Ynez Johnston's Lively and Evocative Compositions". Broad Strokes: The National Museum of Women in the Arts' Blog. August 2, 2011. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
^ "Jeff Stevens Stats". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
^ Davis, Henry Blaine Jr. (1998). Generals in Khaki. Raleigh, NC: Pentland Press. pp. 264–265. ISBN 1571970886. OCLC 40298151 – via Google Books.
^ E.M.L. (June 10, 1940). "Obituary, John Sheridan Winn". Seventy-first Annual Report of the Association of the Graduates of the United States Military Academy. Newburgh, New York: Moore Printing Company. p. 165 – via West Point Digital Library.
^ "Recent Deaths: Charles A. Woodruff". The Weekly Caledonian. St. Johnsbury, VT. August 25, 1920. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.

[BSide-1] Knobel, Lance (July 12, 2010). "Move over Andy Samberg, Ben Affleck is Berkeley boy". Berkeleyside. Retrieved July 31, 2021.

[2] Blankstein, Andrew (March 24, 2010). "Actor Robert Culp dies after falling at his Hollywood home". Los Angeles Times.

[3] Grimes, William (March 25, 2010). "Robert Culp, Star in 'I Spy,' Dies at 79". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 31, 2021.

[4] "Dabney, Augusta 1918–". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved July 31, 2021.

[5] "Rites for Actor Farrar". The Berkeley Gazette. April 9, 1974. p. 3. Retrieved September 22, 2024.

[6] University of California, Berkeley (1928). Register of the University of California 1928-29, Volume 2, Part XVII. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 189.

[7] "Whoopi Goldberg selling her Berkeley home for $1.275M". Berkeleyside. June 22, 2015. Retrieved July 31, 2021.

[BSide2-8] Dinkelspiel, Frances (January 9, 2019). "Andy Samberg gives his Berkeley mother a gift: the truth about her birth parents". Berkeleyside. Retrieved July 31, 2021.

[9] Berne, Amanda (September 28, 2005). "Paul Bertolli leaves Oliveto". SFGATE. Retrieved July 31, 2021.

[obit-10] "Mai K. Arbegast." Contra Costa Times. April 15, 2012: n. pag. Legacy.com. Accessed February 27, 2015.[1]

[ZinkoCarolyne-11] Zinko, Carolyne (October 26, 2013). "Bay Area artist, teacher Helen Breger dies". SFGate.

[12] Landauer, Susan; Gerdts, William H.; Trenton, Patricia (November 10, 2003). The Not-So-Still Life: A Century of California Painting and Sculpture. University of California Press. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-520-23938-8.

[13] "Ynez Johnston's Lively and Evocative Compositions". Broad Strokes: The National Museum of Women in the Arts' Blog. August 2, 2011. Retrieved December 30, 2017.

[14] "Jeff Stevens Stats". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved November 26, 2012.

[auto-15] Davis, Henry Blaine Jr. (1998). Generals in Khaki. Raleigh, NC: Pentland Press. pp. 264–265. ISBN 1571970886. OCLC 40298151 – via Google Books.

[16] E.M.L. (June 10, 1940). "Obituary, John Sheridan Winn". Seventy-first Annual Report of the Association of the Graduates of the United States Military Academy. Newburgh, New York: Moore Printing Company. p. 165 – via West Point Digital Library.

[Caledonian-17] "Recent Deaths: Charles A. Woodruff". The Weekly Caledonian. St. Johnsbury, VT. August 25, 1920. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.

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