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This is a list of notable people from Santa Cruz County, California. It includes people who were born/raised in, lived in, or spent portions of their lives in Santa Cruz, or for whom Santa Cruz is a significant part of their identity, as well as music groups founded in Santa Cruz. This list is in alphabetical order.

Notable people from Santa Cruz, California

Academia

• Gerald M. Ackerman, art historian and professor
• Donna Haraway, feminist and professor
• David Haussler, computer scientist and professor
• David A. Huffman, computer scientist and professor
• Kevin Karplus, bioinformatician and professor

Activists

• Bettina Aptheker, political activist, radical feminist, professor and author
• Susie Bright, feminist writer, sexuality expert
• Rory Calhoun, actor
• Honey Lee Cottrell, lesbian and feminist activist, photographer and filmmaker, died in Santa Cruz ^[1]
• Angela Davis, political activist, scholar, and writer
• Dorothy Granada, nurse, humanitarian, and peace and social justice activist who resided in Santa Cruz and who won the International Pfeffer Peace Award in 1997 ^{[2] [3]}
• bell hooks, PhD from UCSC
• John Hoyt, actor
• Elissa Knight, actress
• Frank Lima (aka The Great Morgani), street performer, accordionist
• Camryn Manheim, actor

Actors and film production

• ZaSu Pitts, actress
• Ruth Righi, actress, singer
• Adam Scott, actor
• Grant Show, actor
• Lex van den Berghe, Survivor contestant

Artists and designers

• Cam Archer, filmmaker and photographer
• Bathsheba Grossman, sculptor
• Scott Kurtz, cartoonist
• Frans Lanting, wildlife photographer
• Edmund McMillen, video game designer
• Ed Penniman, artist
• Jim Phillips, illustrator, surf and skateboard art
• Suzanne Scheuer, artist, New Deal-era murals

Crime

• Edmund Kemper, serial killer
• Herbert Mullin, serial killer

Entrepreneurs

• Elihu Anthony, businessman during the Gold Rush-era and a founding father of the city of Santa Cruz
• John Battendieri, businessman, founder Santa Cruz Organic ^[4]
• James H. Clark, entrepreneur and computer scientist
• Julia Hartz, co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite ^[5]
• Reed Hastings, founder of Netflix
• Philippe Kahn, creator of the camera-phone / cellphone-camera and mathematician
• Jack O'Neill, credited with developing first surfing wet suits ^[6]
• Lorenzo "Larry" Ponza, inventor of the modern baseball pitching machine
• Fred Swanton, creator of what is now the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Musicians

• Giovanni Amighetti, contemporary music composer (honorary citizen)
• Bob Brozman, guitarist and ethnomusicologist
• Cornelius Bumpus, saxophonist for bands Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan
• David Cope, composer
• Decrepit Birth, death metal band
• Sasha Dobson, jazz singer
• James Durbin, singer and guitarist; American Idol finalist
• Entheos, technical death metal band
• Remy and Pascal Le Boeuf, twin jazz musicians
• Tom Lehrer, musician and satirist
• Bob Lowery, blues singer and guitarist
• David Lowery, guitarist, Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker ^[7]
• Chris Rene, musician, singer-songwriter
• Derek Sherinian, keyboardist for Alice Cooper, the band KISS, and the band Dream Theater
• Skip Spence, musician, singer-songwriter. Co-founder of Moby Grape.
• Ted Templeman, drummer for Harpers Bizarre
• Them Are Us Too, music duo which formed while both members (Cash Askew and Kennedy Ashlyn Wenning) were students at UC Santa Cruz
• Gertrude Auld Thomas, opera singer and composer
• Oliver Tree, musician
• Lu Watters, jazz trumpeter, founder of Yerba Buena Jazz Band
• Scott Weiland, vocalist for bands Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver
• Joy Williams, musician
• George Winston, pianist

Music bands

• Arsonists Get All The Girls (experimental deathcore)
• A Band of Orcs (death metal)
• Bassnectar (electronic/dubstep)
• Blackbird Raum (acoustic punk)
• Bl'ast (punk)
• Brain Drill (technical death metal)
• The Call (rock)
• Camper Van Beethoven (alternative)
• The Chop Tops (rockabilly)
• Comets on Fire (psychedelic/noise/rock)
• Craig's Brother (punk)
• Decrepit Birth (death metal)
• Deth Specula (first live music concert broadcast over the Internet)
• The Devil Makes Three (folk/punk)
• Dirty Penny (Hard Rock/Glam Metal)
• The Ducks (rock)
• Estradasphere (experimental)
• The Expendables (reggae)
• Good Riddance (punk)
• The Holy Sisters of the Gaga Dada (pop rock)
• Minnesota (dubstep/EDM)
• Nuclear Whales Saxophone Orchestra
• Slow Gherkin (ska/punk)
• Sound Tribe Sector 9 (electronic/psychedelic rock)
• Spot 1019 (country blues punk rock)
• Swingin' Utters (punk)
• Harpers Bizarre ( pop)
• World Entertainment War (tribal funk)

Writers and poets

• Ralph Abraham, mathematician
• Bettina Aptheker, feminist and author
• Ellen Bass, poet
• Peter S. Beagle, novelist
• Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, music writer and lecturer
• Rob Brezsny, astrologer, poet, writer, and musician
• Norman O. Brown, scholar, writer, and social philosopher
• Jonathan Franzen, novelist and essayist
• Laurie Garrett, American science journalist and author, UCSC graduate
• Steven Hassan, author, mental health expert and cult exit counselor
• Robert A. Heinlein, author of science fiction
• Dennis Holt, poet, linguist, and translator
• James D. Houston, novelist
• Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, novelist
• Laurie R. King, novelist
• Noah Levine, author and Buddhist teacher
• Morton Marcus, poet, teacher
• Lia Matera, mystery writer
• Josephine Clifford McCracken, writer
• James Alan McPherson, essayist
• Liza Monroy, novelist, memoirist, essayist, and educator.
• Adrienne Rich, poet, writer, feminist
• William James Royce, playwright/director, screenwriter, and novelist
• Robert Sward, poet
• Robert Anton Wilson, author, novelist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, and self-described agnostic mystic. ^[8]

Scientists

• Frank Drake, astrophysicist
• Sandra M. Faber, astrophysicist
• Alison Galloway, forensic anthropologist
• Jim Kent, bioinformatician
• Jerry Nelson, astronomer
• Ted Taylor, theoretical physicist with a focus on nuclear energy and disarmament advocate

Sports

• Walmer Martinez, USL player
• Brendon Ayanbadejo, National Football League player and activist
• Haley Jones, basketball player
• Obafemi Ayanbadejo, NFL player and older brother of Brendon
• Trent Dilfer, National Football League player, ESPN sportscaster
• Reggie Stephens, professional football player for the New York Giants
• Nate Doss, professional disc golfer and three-time PDGA World Champion
• Lynden Gooch, professional soccer player for Sunderland A.F.C.
• Glenallen Hill, Major League Baseball player
• Johnny Johnson, NFL player
• Ernie Lombardi, Major League Baseball player
• Casey McGehee, Major League Baseball player
• Jay Moriarity, surfer
• Stephen Quadros, MMA play-by-play broadcaster
• Luke Rockhold, mixed martial artist, former Strikeforce and UFC middleweight champion
• Chris Sharma, rock climber
• Ken Westerfield, disc sports ( Frisbee) pioneer, competitor, promoter

Other

• Matt Mahurin, film director and photographer
• Marisa Miller, Sports Illustrated and Victoria's Secret model
• Nikki Silva, Peabody Award-winning radio producer
• Lorette Wood, first female city councilwoman and first female Mayor of Santa Cruz

Attended University of California, Santa Cruz

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  "List of people from Santa Cruz, California" –  news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

• Richard Bandler, author
• Jello Biafra, vocalist for the Dead Kennedys
• Ken Corday, music composer
• Adragon De Mello, child prodigy
• Cary Fukunaga, Emmy Award-winning film director ^[9]
• Gus Hansen, professional poker player
• Victor Davis Hanson, historian
• Miranda July, filmmaker, author, performance artist
• David Lowery, vocalist for Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker
• Camryn Manheim, actor
• Kent Nagano, conductor
• Huey P. Newton, activist and leader of the Black Panthers
• Bradley Nowell, lead singer and guitarist for Sublime
• Marti Noxon, television and film writer
• Norman Packard, chaos theory physicist
• Joe Palca, National Public Radio science reporter
• Dana Priest, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
• Jason Roberts, author
• Rebecca Romijn, model and actor
• Maya Rudolph, actor
• Andy Samberg, writer and comedian
• Akiva Schaffer, Emmy Award-winning comedy writer
• Brenda Shaughnessy, poet
• Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan, astronaut
• Amy Tan, author
• Jesse Thorn, radio personality
• Rubén Valtierra, keyboardist for Weird Al Yankovic, producer, composer
• Ally Walker, actor
• Gillian Welch, musician
• Rich Wilkes, director and screenwriter
• Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube
• Ron Yerxa, film producer

See also

• List of people from Oakland, California
• List of people from San Francisco
• List of people from San Jose, California
• List of people from Palo Alto, California

References