# List of University of Sussex alumni

This is a list of notable alumni of the University of Sussex.

## Politicians

* Peter Kyle, British Labour Politician and member of British Parliament
* Kemi Badenoch, Conservative Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden
* Marina Baker, Liberal Democrat politician in Lewes
* Enele Sopoaga, former Prime Minister of Tuvalu
* Tony Baldry, former Conservative Member of Parliament for Banbury
* Hilary Benn, Labour Member of Parliament for Leeds Central, former Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
* Lloyd Russell-Moyle, British Labour politician and Member of British Parlimaent
* Ben Bradshaw, Labour Member of Parliament for Exeter, former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
* Isatou Touray, Vice-president of The Republic of The Gambia
* Carlos Alvarado Quesada, president of Costa Rica
* Simon Busuttil, Maltese Member of the European Parliament
* David Lee Camp, U.S. member of the House of Representatives
* Bernard Coard, minister and deputy prime minister of Grenada
* Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka
* Rob Davies, minister of the Department of Trade and Industry of South Africa
* Bogolo Kenewendo, Economist and youngest-ever government minister of Botswana
* Michael Fabricant, Conservative Member of Parliament for Lichfield
* Andrew George, former Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives
* Philip Gould, Lord Gould, Life peer and adviser to the Labour Party
* Peter Hain, former Labour Member of Parliament for Neath and Secretary of State for Wales
* Sir Jonathan Faull, former British official in the European commission and current chair of European Public Affairs at Brunswick and Professor at King's College London
* David Hallam, former Labour Member of the European Parliament, author
* Musa Hitam, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia
* David Lepper, former Labour Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion
* Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa
* James McMurdock, Reform UK Member of Parliament for South Basildon and East Thurrock
* Festus Mogae, President of Botswana
* Caroline Nokes, Conservative Member of Parliament for Romsey and Southampton North
* Dan Norris, former Labour Member of Parliament for Wansdyke (1997–2010), Mayor of the West of England (2021–present), and Labour Member of Parliament for North East Somerset and Hanham (2024–present)
* Sherry Rehman, Senator, Pakistan (2015–present)
* Matt Rodda, Labour Member of Parliament for Reading East (2017–2024) and Reading Central (2024–present)
* George Saitoti, Kenyan politician
* Martin Salter, former Labour Member of Parliament for Reading West
* Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz, Tunku Temenggong of Kedah
* Guy Scott, President of Zambia
* Kamil Šaško, Health Minister of Slovakia
* Mateusz Szczurek, Finance Minister of Poland
* Euclid Tsakalotos, Greek finance minister, (2015–present)
* Geoffrey Van Orden, Conservative MEP for East of England 1999–2019, formerly Brigadier, British Army
* Ruwan Wijewardene, Sri Lankan politician and Member of Parliament
* Alan Woods, Trotskyist activist
* Mohammad Shtayyeh, Prime Minister of the State of Palestine
* Dame Froyla Tzalam GCMG, Governor-General of Belize (2021–present)

## Scientists

* Adrian Bird CBE FRS, Director of Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh
* Brenda Boardman MBE , policy development related to fuel poverty
* Amir Caldeira, Brazilian quantum physicist
* David Clary FRS, President, Magdalen College, Oxford
* Dave Cliff, computer scientist
* Peter Coles, astrophysicist
* Ian H. S. Cullimore, computer scientist
* Anthony R. Dickinson FRS, neuroscientist
* Lesley Fallowfield, cancer psychologist
* Philip Ingham FRS, developmental biologist
* Francesca M. Kerton, chemistry professor
* Adam Kilgarriff, corpus linguist, lexicographer and the co-author of the Sketch Engine corpus management system
* Sir Peter Knight FRS, Principal of the Faculty of Natural Sciences Imperial College London
* Georgina Mace CBE FRS, Director, NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London
* Elizabeth F. Churchill, Director of User experience at Google and Vice President-elect of the Association for Computing Machinery
* Dimitri Nanopoulos, quantum physicist
* Becky Parker, physicist and physics teacher
* Armando J. L. Pombeiro, Portuguese chemical engineer
* Rohan Pethiyagoda, taxonomist
* Anil Seth, neuroscientist
* Nalin de Silva, theoretical physicist, philosopher, professor
* Mark Steedman, cognitive scientist
* Tim Sumner, experimental physicist
* Benjamin J Whitaker, chemist

## Academics

* Abdalla Uba Adamu, professor, media scholar
* Daniele Archibugi, economic and political theorist
* Shamshad Akhtar, development economist, diplomat, former governor of State Bank of Pakistan
* Maria Balshaw, director of the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester and Manchester Art Gallery
* Alan Carter, philosopher
* Cheung Kam Ching, philosopher
* Norman Davies, historian
* Kay Firth-Butterfield, professor and author
* Gabriella Gibson, British medical entomologist and professor
* Paul Gilroy, professor and cultural critic
* A. C. Grayling, philosopher
* Paul Hirst, professor
* Mary James, educator
* Calestous Juma, professor
* Reetika Khera, economics professor
* Robert Hugh Layton, Emeritus Professor at Durham University
* István Mészáros, professor
* Paul Morris, educationalist
* Timothy O'Shea, vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh
* Nick Rees-Roberts, professor
* Reza Shah-Kazemi, author
* Guy Standing, development economist
* Tim Sumner, professor
* Lucy Worsley, historian and curator
* Ayman Zohry, expert on migration studies

## Writers and broadcasters

* Patrick Allen, award-winning author and teacher
* Becky Anderson, CNN International correspondent and presenter
* Desi Anwar, journalist, news presenter
* David Baboulene, travel writer and story theorist
* Mark Barrowcliffe, novelist
* Helen Boaden, former director of BBC Radio
* Tommy Boyd, broadcaster
* Edward Kamau Brathwaite, author
* Estelle Akofio-Sowah, businesswoman and Google country manager
* Shantanu Gupta, author and political analyst
* Peter Brimelow, journalist and author
* Emily Buchanan, BBC World Affairs correspondent
* Michael Buerk, BBC journalist and newsreader
* Richard Calder, novelist
* Duncan Campbell, investigative journalist, consultant, producer and forensic expert
* Lord Richard Cecil, journalist and adventurer (died 1978)
* Paul Evans, poet
* Simon Fanshawe, writer, broadcaster
* Darius Fisher, producer, director
* Connie Glynn, writer and YouTuber
* Philippa Gregory, novelist
* Charlotte Greig, novelist and musician
* Claudia Hammond, writer, broadcaster
* Patrick Hicks, novelist and poet
* Tobias Hill, novelist and poet
* Alan Jenkins, poet
* Gabriel Josipovici, renowned contemporary British author
* Merfyn Jones professor, historian, broadcaster; governor of the BBC; vice-chancellor of the University of Wales, Bangor
* Robin Lustig, broadcaster
* Marina Mahathir, leader in many non-governmental organizations
* Sarra Manning, writer
* Howard Marks, Welsh author, former teacher and drug smuggler
* Ian McEwan, novelist
* Kuchenga Shenjé, Author & Journalist
* Andrew Morton, journalist and writer
* Dermot Murnaghan, television presenter and journalist
* Clive Myrie, BBC News presenter and journalist
* Kim Newman, journalist and writer
* Chris Paling, novelist
* Ashley Pharoah, television writer
* Nigel Planer, actor, novelist, playwright
* Heydon Prowse, BAFTA award winner BBC journalist, activist, satirist and director
* Jolyon Rubinstein, BAFTA award winner actor, writer, producer and director
* Chris Ship, Deputy Political Editor of ITV News
* Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue
* Julia Somerville, broadcaster
* Zoe Strimpel, journalist, writer, historian
* Steve Coll, author and 1990 Pulitzer prize winner
* Shirley Thomas, professor, broadcaster
* Srđa Trifković, historian and journalist
* Janice Turner, writer for The Times
* Kabura Zakama, Nigerian poet

## Musicians and entertainers

* John Altman, award-winning film composer, music arranger, orchestrator, and conductor
* Tony Banks, keyboard player with Genesis
* Beardyman, beatboxer
* Frankie Boyle, comedian
* Daniel Catán, composer
* Graham Clark, jazz/rock violinist ex-Gong
* Mo Foster, session musician (bass guitar)
* Mark Hollis, lead singer of Talk Talk
* Marcus Hamblett, composer and musician
* Billy Idol, musician
* Jem, singer-songwriter
* Steve Knightley, singer-songwriter
* Cariad Lloyd, comedian and actress
* Ophelia Lovibond, actress
* Mura Masa, electronic music producer and multi-instrumentalist, studied English Literature
* Bob Mortimer, comedian
* Sara Pascoe, stand-up comedian and author
* Grant Serpell, former drummer with Sailor and Affinity
* Cristian Vogel, electronic musician
* Jessie Ware, singer-songwriter
* Josephine Wiggs, bassist with The Breeders
* Louis Russell, Tall Man

## Diplomats

* Rebeca Grynspan, former UN Under-Secretary-General and UN UNDP head and former vice president of Costa Rica
* Renée Jones-Bos, Dutch diplomat and ambassador to the United States
* Jamie Shea, Spokesman and Deputy Assistant Secretary General for External Relations of NATO
* Savenaca Siwatibau, Fijian academic leader, civil service administrator
* Roberto Valent, United Nations diplomat
* Jesoni Vitusagavulu, Fijian diplomat and ambassador to the United States
* Jawhar Sircar, Indian public administrator and former CEO of Prasar Bharati

## Sports

* Rosalie Birch, England Test cricketer, part of Ashes winning team 2005
* Brendan Foster, former distance runner, founder of the Great North Run, and currently a BBC athletics commentator
* Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala, mountaineer and first Sri Lankan and fourth women in the world to reach the peak of Mount Everest
* Ralf Rangnick, Former Interim Manager of Manchester United F.C., Head Coach of the Austria national football team
* Virginia Wade, Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Champion, 1977

## Business

* Jeremy Coller, CEO of Coller Capital, a British private equity firm
* Liam Hackett, activist, founder and CEO Ditch the Label
* Maikanti Baru, engineer, former chief, Nigeria's state oil firm; Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
* Harriet Lamb, CEO of International Alert
* Nancy Okail, Executive Director, Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy; expert on human rights
* Raj Rajaratnam, hedge fund CEO, Galleon Group; convicted of insider trading
* Simon Segars, CEO of ARM Holdings plc, electronic engineer
* Sir Keith Skeoch, chief executive (CEO) of Standard Life
* Noel Tata, industrialist
* Zhang Xin, entrepreneur and CEO of SOHO China

## Others

* Michael Attenborough, director
* Linda Bellos, adviser
* Michael Fuller, Chief Constable of Kent Police
* Bruno Heller, screenwriter and actor
* Fatou Jeng, Gambian climate activist
* Naomie Kremer, artist
* Claire Oboussier, artist
* David Pecaut, American-born Canadian civic activist and consultant