List of people from Santa Cruz, California

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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.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

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, basketball 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

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Find sources: "List of people from Santa Cruz, California" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Main article: List of University of California, Santa Cruz people