# List of people from Santa Cruz, California

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
* 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
* 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
* James H. Clark, entrepreneur and computer scientist
* Julia Hartz, co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite
* Reed Hastings, founder of Netflix
* Philippe Kahn, creator of the camera-phone, mathematician
* Jack O'Neill, credited with developing first surfing wet suits
* 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
* 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

### Bands

* Arsonists Get All The Girls (experimental deathcore)
* 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)
* Harpers Bizarre (pop)
* 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)
* 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, 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

### Scientists

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

### Sports

* Brendon Ayanbadejo, National Football League player and activist
* Obafemi Ayanbadejo, NFL player and older brother of Brendon
* Trent Dilfer, National Football League player, ESPN sportscaster
* 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
* Haley Jones, WNBA player
* Ernie Lombardi, Major League Baseball player
* Walmer Martinez, USL 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
* Reggie Stephens, professional football player for the New York Giants
* Ken Westerfield, disc sports (Frisbee) pioneer, competitor, promoter

### Other

* Matt Mahurin, film director and photographer
* Robert Hale Merriman, commander of the Lincoln Battalion during the Spanish Civil War
* 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

* 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
* 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
* Ethan Klein, Comedian and Podcast Host