University of Colorado: A Legacy of Notable Alumni

The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), a public research university, has been a cornerstone of education and innovation since its founding in 1876. As the flagship university of the University of Colorado system, CU Boulder has fostered a diverse community of students who have gone on to make significant contributions across various fields. With over 56,000 alumni since 1965 from UCCS alone, the university takes pride in the numerous success stories of its graduates. This article explores some of the most notable alumni who have left their mark on the world.

Arts and Entertainment

CU Boulder has a rich history of nurturing creative talent, with many alumni achieving prominence in the arts and entertainment industries.

Robert Redford

Though he never graduated, legendary American actor and filmmaker Robert Redford enrolled at CU in the 1950s and spent a year and a half in Boulder. While a student at CU, he worked at The Sink restaurant and spent what turned out to be too much time drinking with his fraternity brothers, which ended up getting him kicked out of school. Despite getting the boot from Boulder, Redford managed to make a pretty good living for himself, including one Academy Award and several nominations, and he even earned an honorary degree from CU in 1988.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone

Trey Parker and Matt Stone met as students at the University of Colorado in the late 1980s while taking a film class together. Sharing a love of irreverent comedy, they went on to co-create the popular animated sitcom "South Park" in 1997. South Park is still on-air and despite being controversial at times, has amassed commercial and critical success. Before South Park was a global phenomenon, Trey Parker was a CU Boulder film student creating short animations that pushed boundaries. The other half of the South Park duo, Matt Stone studied math and film at CU Boulder. Together with Parker, he’s won multiple Emmys, a Peabody Award, and even a Tony Award for The Book of Mormon.

Glenn Miller

Alton Glenn Miller was an iconic American jazz musician from Iowa. He entered school at CU in 1923, but after failing several classes ended up dropping out to pursue his musical career. Miller was aboard an aircraft that disappeared while crossing the English Channel in 1944, and he was never seen again. The Glenn Miller Ballroom in the University Memorial Center on CU's campus is named in his honor. Though he didn’t graduate, Glenn Miller spent time at CU Boulder before becoming one of the most famous big band leaders in history.

Judy Collins

Judith Marjorie Collins is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning nearly seven decades. An Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records (which has included folk music, country, show tunes, pop music, rock and roll and standards), for her social activism, and for the clarity of her voice. Her discography consists of 36 studio albums, nine live albums, numerous compilation albums, four holiday albums, and 21 singles.

Jonah Hill

Jonah Hill is an American actor. The accolades he has received include nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.

Christopher Meloni

Christopher Peter Meloni is an American actor. He is known for portraying NYPD Detective Elliot Stabler on the NBC legal drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999-2011, 2021-present) and its spin-off Organized Crime (2021-present), for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. He also played Chris Keller on the HBO prison drama Oz (1998-2003), and starred in and executive produced the Syfy series Happy! (2017-2019).

Angus T. Jones

Angus Turner Jones is an American actor. After making his film debut in Simpatico (1999), he followed with a starring role in See Spot Run (2001) and supporting roles in The Rookie (2002) and Bringing Down the House (2003).

Carey Lowell

Carey Lowell is an American actress and former model, best known as New York Assistant DA Jamie Ross in Law & Order (1996-2001, 2022) and as Bond girl Pam Bouvier in the James Bond movie Licence to Kill (1989).

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Dalton Trumbo

James Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including Roman Holiday (1953), Exodus, Spartacus (both 1960), and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). One of the Hollywood Ten, he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during the committee's investigation of alleged Communist influences in the motion picture industry.

Ross Marquand

Roscoe Wayne Marquand is an American actor. He has played Aaron on the television series The Walking Dead (2015-2022), Red Skull and Ultron in various projects connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and voices numerous characters in the animated television series Invincible (2021-present).

Erinn Hayes

Erinn Hayes is an American actress and comedian. She is known for her role as Dr. Lola Spratt on the sitcom Childrens Hospital (2008-2016), which she later reprised in its spin-off series Medical Police (2020). For her role, Hayes received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series in 2016.

Sheryl Lee

Sheryl Lee is an American film, stage, and television actress. After studying acting in college, Lee relocated to Seattle, Washington to work in theater, where she was cast by David Lynch as Laura Palmer and Maddy Ferguson on the 1990 television series Twin Peaks and in the 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. After completing Twin Peaks, she returned to theater, appearing in the title role of Salome on Broadway opposite Al Pacino.

Larry Linville

Lawrence Lavon Linville was an American actor known for his portrayal of the surgeon Major Frank Burns on the television series MAS*H.

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Brendan Schaub

Brendan Peter Schaub is an American podcast host, former professional mixed martial artist, and stand-up comedian. He is the host of The Fighter and the Kid podcast, the Below the Belt with Brendan Schaub podcast, and co-host of the Golden Hour podcast, along with fellow comedians Chris D'Elia and Erik Griffin. After signing with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 2009 to compete on The Ultimate Fighter, he fought for the company until 2014. He officially retired from mixed martial arts (MMA) in 2015. Since 2015, Schaub has been performing stand-up comedy, initially as a duo act with comedian Bryan Callen, but more recently as a solo comedian. Schaub released his debut comedy special titled You'd Be Surprised in 2019 followed by his second special, The Gringo Papi in 2022.

Joey Diaz

José Antonio Díaz, also known as Joey "CoCo" Diaz, is a Cuban-American stand-up comedian, actor, podcaster, and author. After pursuing stand-up comedy full time in 1991 in the Colorado and Seattle areas, Diaz relocated to Los Angeles in 1995, where he began acting, securing various film and television roles, including in My Name Is Earl, Everybody Hates Chris, The Longest Yard, Spider-Man 2, Grudge Match, and The Many Saints of Newark.

Science and Technology

CU Boulder has also produced numerous alumni who have made significant contributions to the fields of science and technology.

Steve Wozniak

Stephen Gary Wozniak, also known by his nickname Woz, is an American technology entrepreneur, electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Computer with his early business partner Steve Jobs. Through his work at Apple in the 1970s and 1980s, he is widely recognized as one of the most prominent pioneers of the personal computer revolution.

Kalpana Chawla

Kalpana Chawla was an Indian American astronaut and aerospace engineer who was the first woman of Indian origin to fly to space. Chawla expressed an interest in aerospace engineering from an early age and took engineering classes at Dayal Singh College and Punjab Engineering College in India. She then traveled to the United States, where she earned her MSc and PhD, becoming a naturalized United States citizen in the early 1990s. Chawla, an aerospace engineer and CU Boulder graduate, became the first Indian-born woman in space.

Jack Swigert

John Leonard Swigert Jr. was an American NASA astronaut, test pilot, mechanical engineer, aerospace engineer, United States Air Force pilot, and politician. In April 1970, as command module pilot of Apollo 13, he became one of 24 astronauts who flew to the Moon. Ironically, due to the "slingshot" route around the Moon they chose to safely return to Earth, the Apollo 13 astronauts flew farther away from Earth than any other astronauts before or since, though they had to abort the Moon landing.

Scott Carpenter

One of NASA’s original Mercury Seven astronauts, Carpenter orbited Earth in 1962 aboard Aurora 7.

Eric Cornell

In 2001, CU Boulder physics professor and alum Eric Cornell won the Nobel Prize in Physics for producing a new state of matter-Bose-Einstein condensate.

Athletics

CU Boulder has a strong athletic tradition, and many of its alumni have gone on to achieve success in professional sports.

Chauncey Billups

Chauncey Ray Billups is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After playing college basketball with the Colorado Buffaloes, he was selected third overall in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. Billups spent the majority of his 17-year basketball career playing for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he won the NBA Finals MVP in 2004 after helping the Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals. He was given the nickname "Mr. Big Shot" for making late-game shots with Detroit. A five-time NBA All-Star, a three-time All-NBA selection and two-time NBA All-Defensive selection, Billups also played for the Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, and Los Angeles Clippers during his NBA career. Known as “Mr. Big Shot” during his NBA career, Billups was a CU basketball star before becoming a five-time NBA All-Star and current coach of the Portland Trail Blazers.

Dave Logan

Dave Logan has had a large presence in the Denver area since the 1970s when his success as a baseball player at Wheat Ridge High School earned him a selection from the Cincinnati Reds in the 1972 MLB Draft. He decided to pursue college athletics, however, and lettered in both basketball and football at CU. He was eventually selected in both the NBA and NFL drafts, becoming one of three athletes in history to be selected in the MLB, NBA and NFL drafts. Logan chose to continue his football career in the NFL as a wide receiver for both the Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos. After his retirement in 1984, he began his career as a broadcaster. Logan has been the play-by-play voice of the Broncos on KOA radio since 1997. He is also the head football coach at Cherry Creek High School, a 5A powerhouse in Colorado.

Leon Allen White

Leon Allen White, better known by his ring names Big Van Vader or simply Vader, was an American professional wrestler and professional football player. Throughout his career, he performed for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Catch Wrestling Association (CWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and Pro Wrestling Noah (NOAH) during the 1990s and 2000s. He is widely regarded as the greatest super-heavyweight professional wrestler of all time.

Eric Bieniemy

Eric M. Bieniemy Jr. is an American football coach and former running back who is currently the running backs coach for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Colorado Buffaloes and is their all-time leader in rushing yards (3,940) and touchdowns (42). Bieniemy was also named a unanimous All-American and finished third in Heisman Trophy voting during their 1990 national championship season.

Spencer Dinwiddie

Spencer Gray Dinwiddie is an American professional basketball player for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Colorado Buffaloes and earned first-team all-conference honors in the Pac-12 as a sophomore in 2013. He missed most of his junior year after injuring his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Dinwiddie recovered and was selected by the Detroit Pistons in the second round of the 2014 NBA draft. After two seasons with the Pistons, he joined the Brooklyn Nets in December 2016 and played with them until being traded to the Washington Wizards in 2021. In February 2022, Dinwiddie was traded to the Dallas Mavericks and in 2023, he was traded back to the Brooklyn Nets and was traded to the Toronto Raptors the following year in February 2024 before being immediately waived by Toronto. He signed with the Los Angeles Lakers for the remainder of the season in a be…

Politics and Public Service

CU Boulder alumni have also made significant contributions to the fields of politics and public service.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.

Lynne Cheney

Lynne Ann Cheney is an American author, scholar, and former talk show host. She served as the second lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009 when her husband was vice president.

Other Notable Alumni

In addition to the alumni mentioned above, there are many other notable graduates of CU Boulder who have made significant contributions to their respective fields.

Chris Fowler

Chris Fowler is a well-known sports broadcaster for ESPN, best known for his play-by-play work and coverage of college football. He was the host of the massively popular Saturday morning college football preview show College Gameday from 1990-2014 and has since joined ABC's Saturday Night Football, which has included calling the College Football National Championship game. Fowler is a Denver-area native and graduated from CU Boulder in 1985. Aside from college football, he has also covered the Winter X-Games, tennis, soccer and horse and auto racing. A CU journalism graduate, Fowler has become one of the most trusted voices in sports broadcasting.

Sheree J. Wilson

Sheree Julienne Wilson is an American actress, producer, businesswoman, and model. She is best known for her roles as April Stevens Ewing on the American primetime television series Dallas (1986-1991) and as Alex Cahill-Walker on the television series Walker, Texas Ranger (1993-2001).

Townes Van Zandt

John Townes Van Zandt was an American singer-songwriter. He wrote numerous songs, such as "Pancho and Lefty", "For the Sake of the Song", "If I Needed You", "Snake Mountain Blues", "Our Mother the Mountain", "Waitin' Round to Die", and "To Live Is to Fly". His musical style has often been described as melancholic and features rich, poetic lyrics. During his early years, Van Zandt was respected for his guitar playing and fingerpicking ability.

Music Buff Connect

At the CU Boulder College of Music, a community of engaged Music Buffs continues well beyond graduation. The Forever Buffs Network's Music Buff Connect serves as the digital home for the Music Buff alumni network. It facilitates connections, resource sharing, and professional development within the musical and non-musical industries. Alumni can celebrate successes, contribute updates, offer services, and share professional opportunities. This network encourages mentorship, hiring, teaching, support, and inspiration among Music Buffs.

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