Bruins are everywhere. Carol Burnett, Jack Black, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ’69, countless others — their UCLA ties have been cataloged, celebrated, dissected ad infinitum. But every so often, you scroll through a random IMDB cast list or Wikipedia entry when, before your unexpecting eyes, there appears … a Bruin.
Whether they earned their Ph.D.s, took a few extension courses or were lured from campus by a career-defining opportunity, there are a lot of Bruins you had no idea traversed Janss Steps. Here are 26 whose stories are worth pocketing for conversation at your next dinner party.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former prime minister of Pakistan
Abbasi is a jack of all trades: licensed pilot, electrical engineer and, oh, a former prime minister of Pakistan. He completed his bachelor of science in electrical engineering in 1978 and has applied his Bruin-earned STEM skills in wide-ranging roles in his native country: Besides having served as prime minister, Abbasi has also been Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Minister for Commerce, and chairperson of Pakistan International Airlines.
Patricia Bath, inventor of the Laserphaco Probe used in cataract surgery
Bath, who completed her residency at the Stein Eye Institute, taught at UCLA from 1974 until her retirement in 1993. Her innovations as an ophthalmologist have pioneered nearly all modern cataract treatments today. But it’s her work as a humanitarian — such as supplying newborns with free eye care and providing cataract surgeries abroad — that really reflects those True Bruin Values.
Jeremy Brandt ’94, the “Capital One Guy”
What’s in your wallet? (Is it a BruinCard?) You may not know his name, but you definitely know Brandt’s voice and that signature tagline. Beyond his prolific role as the “Capital One Guy” of a million ads, Brandt leads a double life as an active commercial pilot and First Officer for United Airlines. Random trivia: Brandt was a member of the 1993 NCAA championship UCLA volleyball team.
Bernard Briskin ’49, co-founder of Gelson’s markets
If you’re a Gelson's shopper, remember that a Bruin helped put that (pricey) food on the table. In 1978, Briskin became owner of the upscale grocery market founded in 1951. A sort of warm-up to Erewhon (also co-owned by a Bruin), Gelson’s now boasts 27 locations across Southern California. Call it “Bruin-to-table.”
Nicolas Cage, actor
Brooding and intense, Cage has played over 120 distinct film and television roles, from his breakout 1982 role in Fast Times at Ridgemont High to his upcoming role as the famed football coach in the biopic Madden. He’s lesser known for his 1982 performance in the role of Bruin at UCLA. Cage’s father, August Coppola, and his uncle, legendary director Francis Ford Coppola M.F.A. ’67, were both Bruins. Cage left the School of Theater, Film and Television early for Fast Times, never formally finishing his degree.
Marcia Clark ’74, prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson trial
If you remember a certain white Bronco, you definitely remember Marcia Clark, the lead prosecutor in the 1995 “trial of the century” of O.J. Simpson. As the Simpson trial took over televisions and watercooler chatter around the nation, Clark gained a celebrity status she never could have foreseen. People would approach her on the sidewalk and say, “God, I loved your show.”
Johnnie Cochran ’59, defense attorney for O.J. Simpson
Speaking of O.J., turns out there was a Bruin on the other side of the courtroom, too: the fiery Cochran, whose “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” remains one of the defining quotes from the trial. (Cochran also inspired the memorable character of Jackie Chiles on Seinfeld.) While Clark and Cochran overlapped in the courthouse, they didn’t in Westwood (Cochran graduated in 1959, Clark in 1974); one can’t help but wonder what debates they could have had in a law class.
Glenn Cowan ’76, 1967 U.S. Open Table Tennis Junior Under-17 champion
In 1972, Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit the People’s Republic of China after 23 years of no diplomatic ties between the two nations. What you probably didn’t know is that there was a Bruin table tennis champion behind it. Before coming to UCLA in 1970, teenager Cowan dominated the international ping-pong circuit, winning the 1967 U.S. Open Junior Under-17 championship. At the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Japan, he missed the American bus and ended up hitching a ride with Chinese player Zhuang Zedong. Their resulting friendship fomented a political thaw between the PRC and the U.S. that the press dubbed “ping-pong diplomacy,” laying the groundwork for Nixon’s historic visit a year later.
Dr. Demento, radio DJ who discovered “Weird Al” Yankovic
Yankovic, the king of pop parody, didn’t just come out of nowhere: He was tapped for greatness by a Bruin. Famous for his top hat and eccentric on-air persona, Dr. Demento (real name: Barry Hansen) introduced the world to “Weird Al” Yankovic after the teenager handed the radio host a homemade cassette tape of his original parodies. Demento knew music: He’d earned a master’s degree in ethnomusicology at UCLA in 1967.
Charles Elwyn Du Bois, inventor of the “desert modernist” midcentury architecture of Palm Springs
Oh, Palm Springs: the bright colors, clean lines, dramatic roofs, glass walls. You can thank architect Du Bois for much of the city’s distinctive (and copied) rococo style, a look he cultivated while studying at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. Du Bois championed post-and-beam construction, which, besides being as simple as it sounds, made possible the distinctive A-frame “Swiss Miss” architectural style blending shade and sun, indoors and outdoors. Nearly a century later, its midcentury style still defines the California desert aesthetic.
Robert Englund, “Freddy Krueger” in A Nightmare on Elm Street
Yes, the Robert Englund who played Freddy Krueger and haunted your childhood bedroom, school nights and sleepovers studied acting at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Playing a supernatural psycho killer was actually a new venture for Englund, who had typically played “nice guy” roles before being cast as the knife-gloved Freddy for the first movie. In eight consecutive films, he terrorized generations of slumber parties through the 2000s. Fun fact: It was Englund who advocated for Freddy’s signature fedora.
Anna Lee Fisher ’71, M.D. ’76, M.S. ’87, the first mom astronaut to fly in space
Fisher is a triple Bruin who stepped onto the global stage alongside Sally Ride in 1978; both were in that year’s NASA astronaut class, the first to include women. In 1984, Fisher made her big ascent into Earth’s orbit as the first mother ever in space, bringing a cassette tape recording of her 14-month-old daughter saying “I luh, I luh” (I love you) as her personal item. One might think she felt fully accomplished on her return to Earth, but no: She earned the last of her three UCLA degrees (a quick master's of science in chemistry) in 1987. Never doubt how many hats a mother wears — especially when one of them is an astronaut’s helmet.
Lou Henry Hoover, First Lady of the United States, 1929–33
To date, Hoover is the only White House occupant to have ever attended UCLA. Well, sort of: When she began her undergraduate studies in the 1890s, UCLA was then called the Los Angeles Normal School; it was a teachers’ college in its infancy and was still categorized as the southern branch of the California State Normal School (now San José State University). Hoover was in one of the very first classes of teacher hopefuls at the Normal School, filling her time with studies in politics and plant and animal specimens. Even if she didn’t eight-clap, cheer at the Rose Bowl or attend UCLA by its name, she was an (early) Bruin all the same.
Sandy Hudson J.D. ’22, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Canada
From a Facebook thread, Hudson took a movement international. Black Lives Matter was founded in July 2013, with the first chapter established in Los Angeles; just one year later, Hudson saw Toronto’s need for its own chapter, making BLM a global movement that now boasts 40 chapters. Hudson later took a sabbatical to earn her juris doctorate at UCLA Law; she continues to serve North American communities on both legal and social justice planes.
John Ireland ’85, sportscaster
When the Lakers are playing and you’re stuck in traffic, KSPN-AM is there for you with the play-by-play. And describing each pick-and-roll, alley-oop and crossover is John Ireland, the Southern California native who has built his life around Southern California sports. But before he went “pro” with the Lakers, Ireland worked as an amateur radio personality on campus, as sports director for UCLA Radio and a color analyst on Bruin basketball, football, baseball and volleyball. He now co-hosts the popular Southern California sports radio talk show Mason & Ireland with Steve Mason on ESPN L.A. 710.
Travis Kalanick, co-founder of Uber
The controversial co-founder and former CEO of the ride-hailing, delivery and logistics app was a UCLA computer engineering student before he left Westwood in 1998 to launch his first startup with several fellow Bruins. Kalanick severed ties with Uber in 2019, but the serial entrepreneur keeps busy as current CEO of CloudKitchens, which operates commercial kitchens optimized for delivery, takeout and food production. Then, in April, the bad-boy billionaire launched his newest venture: a food, transportation and mining artificial intelligence company called Atoms. Despite not finishing his UCLA degree, the Granada Hills High graduate returned to campus in 2015 to offer advice to budding Bruin entrepreneurs who packed Royce Hall.
Christopher Knight, “Peter” on The Brady Bunch
Here’s the story of a Bruin named Brady: Knight landed the role of Peter Brady at just 10 years old. But after playing ball in the house, imitating Humphrey Bogart and busting Marcia’s nose, Knight pursued a trajectory of his own. He enrolled at UCLA in 1976 and rushed the Sigma Chi fraternity, only to ultimately leave acting and Westwood behind. Though he’s since made a name for himself as a honcho in the computer and home furniture industries, Knight remains a Bruin (and a Brady) at heart. Now that’s swell.
Marilyn McCoo ’65, singer with the 5th Dimension
The velvet voice behind “Wedding Bell Blues” and “Let the Sunshine In,” among other memorable tracks, first enrolled at UCLA in 1961, the year the Ackerman Student Union opened and John Wooden led the Bruins to their first-ever NCAA Final Four appearance. McCoo — later known for hosting the 1980s syndicated music variety show Solid Gold — and her bandmates formed their group shortly after her graduation from UCLA with a degree in business administration. The group originally called themselves the Versatiles before changing their name to the (much superior) 5th Dimension in 1966.
Marilyn Monroe, actress and icon
At the height of her career in 1951, Monroe returned to school via UCLA Extension, taking night classes in literature and art history. Monroe would eventually return for good to Westwood — her grave is located in the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park cemetery on Glendon Avenue, just blocks from the village and the Hammer Museum at UCLA.
Pink, singer
You can, uh, “raise your glass” in UCLA’s viticulture and oenology classes, something the pop singer who scored a 2010 number-one hit with that phrase certainly knows: She took Extension courses to learn the ins and outs of winemaking, taking the knowledge gained with her when she went on to found her Two Wolves Wine vineyard in Santa Barbara.
Jil Sander, fashion designer
She may be dubbed the “Queen of Less,” but minimalist fashion designer Jil Sander has always sought more. She’s also the mind behind the cleanest and sleekest fashion trends for brands like Prada, Uniqlo and her own self-named Jil Sander Fashion House. The German designer enrolled at the Krefeld School of Textiles in western Germany then came abroad to study at UCLA in 1963, just five years before founding her fashion dynasty. The godmother of German minimalism, she inspired Raf Simons' tenure at Dior and Calvin Klein; Phoebe Philo’s work at Céline; Daniel Lee’s transformation of Bottega Veneta and Burberry; and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s creation of The Row.
That lone strip of elements at the bottom of the periodic table is all thanks to Seaborg, who, besides discovering plutonium and other elements of the “actinide” series, fundamentally shaped American nuclear policy. So significant was his work that, in 1987, UCLA’s chemistry and biochemistry department established the Glenn T. Seaborg Medal to honor individuals for significant contributions to both fields. To the surprise of almost no one, they named Seaborg himself the inaugural winner of the now-prestigious award. His work in chemistry and education also led to his becoming the second chancellor at UC Berkeley, likely trying to fix up the place to UCLA’s standards. However, he did unfortunately name one of his 10 discovered transuranium elements “Berkelium.”
Ben Shapiro ’04, political commentator
Punchy and polemical, Shapiro was born with a passion for media and political analysis. After graduating from high school early at age 16, he brought his rapid-fire attitude and precocious academic talents to UCLA. Shapiro studied political science (in case that wasn’t obvious) and curated his now-famous media skills as a writer for the Daily Bruin. His right-wing flame-throwing act started early: You can still find his archived work on the Bruin website, foreshadowing the pugilistic political style that made him a talking-head celebrity.
Sydney Sweeney, actress
Don’t let the bombshell looks fool you: Sweeney is seriously a nerd. The valedictorian of her high school class, she “loved school” and always knew she wanted to attend college while pursuing an acting career. Her path at UCLA Extension was never about acting or drama: She took courses in business and law. Which no doubt came in handy when it was time to read those $20 million contracts.
Paul Terasaki ’50, M.A. ’52, Ph.D. ’56, pioneer in organ transplants
Triple Bruin Paul Terasaki knows your type: No, he can’t guess your zodiac sign or what your celebrity crush says about you, but he can figure out what organ donors and recipients work best together and make transplants successful. His microcytotoxicity test, developed in 1964, has become the international standard for tissue typing and has led to millions of successful organ transplants worldwide. Though Terasaki, who taught at UCLA, retired in 1999, he’s still very much a part of campus: The Terasaki Life Sciences Building houses slews of labs, classrooms and research facilities.
Billie Tsien M.A. ’77, architect of the Obama Presidential Center
It’s the newest presidential museum, library and educational project on the national scene: Chicago’s Barack Obama Presidential Center. The just-opened facility is already making a splash, in large part to the dramatic building design of UCLA Architecture and Urban Design alumna Billie Tsien. She’s known for her optimistic take on architectural craft, creating spaces that integrate poetry, individual reflection and community gathering. Her much-lauded structures give a sense of calmness to bustling cities and campuses.
Read UCLA Magazine’s current Summer 2026 issue.
