List of University of Sussex alumni

Last updated September 06, 2025

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

Politicians

Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa SthAfrica.ThaboMbeki.01.jpg — Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa

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 Parliament
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 ^[1]
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, Governor-General of Belize (2021–present)

Scientists

Adrian Bird, Director of Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh
Brenda Boardman, policy development related to fuel poverty
Amir Caldeira, Brazilian quantum physicist
David Clary, President, Magdalen College, Oxford
Dave Cliff, computer scientist
Peter Coles, astrophysicist
Ian H. S. Cullimore, computer scientist
Anthony R. Dickinson, neuroscientist
Lesley Fallowfield, cancer psychologist
Philip Ingham, 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, Principal of the Faculty of Natural Sciences Imperial College London
Georgina Mace, 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
Jeremy Morris, 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
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

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 ^[2]

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
Ibrahim “Ibz” Khan, bodybuilder and silver medalist in weightlifting at Junior Olympics
Ralf Rangnick, Former Interim Manager of Manchester United F.C., Head Coach of the Austria national football team ^[3]
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
Christina Beardsley, priest and advocate for transgender inclusion in the Church of England
Helen Cammock, artist
Jeremy Deller, artist
Michael Fuller, Chief Constable of Kent Police
Bruno Heller, screenwriter and actor
Fatou Jeng, Gambian climate activist
Naomie Kremer, artist
Claire Oboussier, artist
Micheál OʼConnell / Mocksim, artist
David Pecaut, American-born Canadian civic activist and consultant
Muhammad Abdur Rahman, Pakistani Judge
Abhay Xaxa (1983–2020), Indian scholar and human rights activist^[4]^[5]

References

↑ "CAMP, David Lee, (1953 - )". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
↑ UNESCO. "Tagore, Neruda and Césaire" . Retrieved 24 July 2021.
↑ "'He obviously saw football as a career option' - Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick's time in Sussex non-league". 29 November 2021.
↑ Alam, Mahtab (10 April 2020). "Remembering Abhay Xaxa, a Fiercely Unapologetic Adivasi Scholar-Activist". The Wire . Retrieved 8 June 2025. A native of the Jashpur district of northern Chhattisgarh, Xaxa had completed his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) after receiving his masters in social anthropology from the University of Sussex, UK.
↑ Sushmita (27 June 2020). "Remembering scholar and activist Abhay Xaxa, whose death is an irreparable loss to Adivasi movements". caravanmagazine . Retrieved 8 June 2025. Abhay Xaxa, a scholar and activist born in Chitkawine village of Jashpur district in northern Chhattisgarh, received a fellowship from the Ford Foundation, an American charitable organisation, to pursue a masters in social anthropology at University of Sussex in 2007.

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[1] "CAMP, David Lee, (1953 - )". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 14 October 2012.

[2] UNESCO. "Tagore, Neruda and Césaire" . Retrieved 24 July 2021.

[3] "'He obviously saw football as a career option' - Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick's time in Sussex non-league". 29 November 2021.

[4] Alam, Mahtab (10 April 2020). "Remembering Abhay Xaxa, a Fiercely Unapologetic Adivasi Scholar-Activist". The Wire . Retrieved 8 June 2025. A native of the Jashpur district of northern Chhattisgarh, Xaxa had completed his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) after receiving his masters in social anthropology from the University of Sussex, UK.

[5] Sushmita (27 June 2020). "Remembering scholar and activist Abhay Xaxa, whose death is an irreparable loss to Adivasi movements". caravanmagazine . Retrieved 8 June 2025. Abhay Xaxa, a scholar and activist born in Chitkawine village of Jashpur district in northern Chhattisgarh, received a fellowship from the Ford Foundation, an American charitable organisation, to pursue a masters in social anthropology at University of Sussex in 2007.

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v t e University of Sussex
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