List of University of Michigan arts alumni

Art, architecture, and design

Architecture and civil engineering

• James Baird, civil engineer; directed the construction of the Flatiron Building, Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Memorial Amphitheater, and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
• John W. F. Bennett, civil engineer; supervised the construction of the Algonquin Hotel in New York and the Ritz and Waldorf Hotels in London
• Charles Correa, architect
• John Dinkeloo, civil engineer; partner of 1982 Pritzker Prize laureate Kevin Roche in the firm Roche-Dinkeloo
• Alden B. Dow, architect; son of Herbert Henry Dow and Grace A. Dow
• Dan Dworsky, architect who designed the University's Crisler Arena and the Federal Reserve Bank in Los Angeles; member of varsity football starting team at Michigan, 1945–1948; played professionally for the Los Angeles Dons in 1949; member of Jewish Sports Hall of Fame; all-time 50-year Rose Bowl team
• Francis E. Griffin, architect in Detroit
• Maynard Lyndon, architect
• Malcolm McCullough, U of M architecture professor and author
• Charles Willard Moore, designer of Lurie Tower on Michigan's North Campus; winner of the AIA Gold Medal in 1991
• Howard Sims, architect in Detroit

Academics

• Raymond Ward Bissell, art historian, professor of Art History Emeritus at the University of Michigan
• Jonathan M. Bloom, scholar of Islamic art, Norma Jean Calderwood University Professor of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College
• Richard Keyes, professor emeritus at Long Beach City College, after a 30-year career there teaching life drawing and painting
• Ralph Rapson, head of architecture at the University of Minnesota for many years; one of the world's oldest and most prolific practicing architects at his death at age 93
• Marilyn Stokstad, art historian, Judith Harris Murphy Distinguished Professor of Art History Emeritus at the University of Kansas

Designers

• John DeLorean, GM Group vice president; designer of the DeLorean
• Tony Fadell, designer, inventor, "father of the Apple iPod"

Fine artists

• Benny Alba, painter, graduated in psychology
• Alice R. Ballard, ceramicist
• Bill Barrett, sculptor and painter
• Mike Kelley, gross-out artist in L.A., in the style of Paul McCarthy
• Tristan Meinecke, painter, writer, architect
• Robert Nickle, visual artist, known primarily for his "street scrap" collage work; studied architecture and design at Michigan; worked and taught at the Art Institute of Chicago
• Michele Oka Doner, visual artist and writer; Stamps School of Art & Design: BFA, 1966; MFA, 1968, Alumna in Residence, 1990, Hon. Dr. Fine Arts, 2016
• Jason Polan, artist and illustrator; Stamps School of Art & Design: BFA, 2004
• Bernard "Tony" Rosenthal, abstract sculptor
• Alison Ruttan, interdisciplinary artist and educator at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
• Eric Staller, mixed media visual artist
• Cosmo Whyte, Jamaican-born American sculptor, painter, installation artist
• Matthew Wong, painter
• Alisa Yang, interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker

Others

• Jesse Frohman, photographer
• Kathryn Osebold Galbraith, writer of children's books
• Charles L. Kuhn, director of the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University
• Warren M. Robbins, art collector whose collection led to the formation of the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution
• William A. Starrett, builder of the Empire State Building
• Harold P. Stern, director of the Freer Gallery of Art
• Martha Tedeschi, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard Art Museums
• Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat famous for assisting Hungarian Jews in late World War II; namesake of the Wallenberg Fellowship and Taubman College's Wallenberg Studio
• Judd Winick, cartoonist, screenwriter, author

Arts and entertainment

Dance

• Nina Davuluri, first Indian American Miss America ; first to perform a Bollywood dance on that pageant's stage
• Janet Lilly, principal dancer for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
• Sharmila Mukerjee, Odissi dancer and choreographer, a disciple of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra
• Kapila Vatsyayan, a leading scholar of Indian classical dance, art, architecture, and art history

Directors, producers, and screenwriters

• Libby Appel, fourth artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
• Wyatt Bardouille, producer and director of Dominica: Charting a Future for Paradise
• William J. Bell, screenwriter and television producer, best known as the creator of the soap operas Another World, The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful
• Forman Brown, established Yale Puppeteers upon graduating; opened a puppet theatre in Los Angeles in the 1920s which attracted celebrity attention and support from Greta Garbo, Marie Dressler, Douglas Fairbanks, and Albert Einstein
• David Callaham, screenwriter of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
• Hal Cooper, TV producer and director for Maude, Dick Van Dyke Show, Mayberry RFD, That Girl, I Dream of Jeannie, and Empty Nest
• Valentine Davies, screenwriter of Miracle on 34th Street
• Lillian Gallo, 1978 winner of a Crystal Award, established in 1977 to honor outstanding women who have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry
• Megan Ganz, comedy writer; former associate editor of The Onion
• Jon Glaser, writer, comedian
• Richard Glatzer, writer and director, Still Alice
• Jonathan Glickman, producer of Rush Hour; former president, Motion Picture Group of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Josh Greenfeld, author and screenwriter; known for screenplay for the 1974 film Harry and Tonto along with Paul Mazursky, which earned them an Academy Award nomination
• Jon Hein, creator of the Jump the Shark website
• Adam Herz, writer and producer of American Pie
• Max Hodge, TV writer for Wild, Wild West, Mission Impossible, Marcus Welby, and The Waltons
• Lawrence Kasdan, studied creative writing; won four Hopwood Awards; known for his work on The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Force Awakens
• Aviva Kempner, director and screenwriter
• Maryam Keshavarz, filmmaker
• Philip N. Krasne, producer of the later Charlie Chan films and the Cisco Kid series
• David Levien, co-wrote and co-directed The Knockaround Guys; co-wrote Rounders
• Jeff Marx, composer and lyricist of musicals; known for creating the Broadway musical Avenue Q with collaborator Robert Lopez; together, they wrote the show's 21 songs
• Robert McKee, creative writing instructor
• Marcia Milgrom Dodge, director, choreographer, playwright, educator; Tony Award nominee for RAGTIME revival, 2010
• David Newman, screenwriter for Superman, Superman II, Superman III, Bonnie & Clyde, What's Up Doc? and Still of the Night
• Leslie Newman, screenwriter for Superman, Superman II, Superman III
• Dudley Nichols, screenwriter for For Whom the Bell Tolls, Stagecoach, the Oscar-winning The Informer, and Bringing up Baby
• Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, songwriting duo and composing team; EGOT winners; known for their work in Dear Evan Hansen, La La Land, and The Greatest Showman
• Kerri Pomarolli, comedian
• John Rich, Emmy Award-winning producer for Maude, That Girl, Mayberry RFD, and MacGyver
• Norman Rosten, poet, playwright, novelist and Guggenheim award winner
• Davy Rothbart, author; filmmaker; contributor to This American Life; editor and publisher of Found Magazine
• Allen Rucker, writer and television producer
• Robert Shaye, founder and co-chairman of New Line Cinema; produced The Lord of the Rings trilogy
• Ron Sproat, creator of character Barnabas Collins in Dark Shadows
• Roger L. Stevens, stage producer for West Side Story, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Man for All Seasons, and Annie
• Christopher Yost, screenwriter for Thor: Ragnarok, Cowboy Bebop and ''The Mandalorian''

National Book Award

• Kevin Boyle, won the 2004 National Book Award for Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
• Howard Moss, won the National Book Award in 1972 for Selected Poems
• Frank O'Hara, shared the 1972 National Book Award for Poetry for The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara, the first of several collections
• Theodore Roethke, won the annual National Book Award for Poetry in 1959 for Words for the Wind, and posthumously in 1965 for The Far Field
• Keith Waldrop, won the National Book Award for Poetry for his 2009 collection Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy
• Jesmyn Ward, won the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction for her second novel Salvage the Bones and the 2017 National Book Award for Sing, Unburied, Sing; the only two-time female winner
• Gloria Whelan, won the annual National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2000 for the novel ''Homeless Bird''

National Medal of the Arts

• James Earl Jones, 1992 recipient
• Arthur Miller, 1993 recipient
• Jessye Norman, 2009 recipient
• Roger L. Stevens, 1988 recipient

Emmy Award

• James A. Baffico, winner of 2 Emmy Awards
• Michael Bellavia, winner of an Emmy Award
• Reg E. Cathey, winner of an Emmy Award
• David Connell, winner of 5 Emmy Awards
• Darren Criss, winner of an Emmy Award: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie
• Ann B. Davis, winner of 2 Emmy Awards
• Paul Devlin, winner of 5 Emmy Awards
• Neal Gabler, winner of an Emmy Award
• Cathy Guisewite, winner of an Emmy Award
• Sanjay Gupta, winner of an Emmy Award
• Peter Hansen, winner of an Emmy Award
• Gary Hutzel, winner of 4 Emmy Awards
• James Earl Jones, winner of 8 Emmy Awards
• Mick Kaczorowski, winner of 3 Emmy Awards
• Christine Lahti, winner of 3 Emmy Awards
• Joseph LoDuca, winner of 2 Emmy Awards
• Margo Martindale, winner of 3 Emmy Awards
• Bob McGrath, received a lifetime achievement Emmy in 1990
• Ari Melber, journalist for NBC News and host of MSNBC's The Beat with Ari Melber
• Arthur Miller, winner of 2 Emmy Awards
• Marilyn Suzanne Miller, winner of 3 Emmy Awards
• Pasek and Paul, winners of an Emmy Award
• Gilda Radner, winner of 2 Emmy Awards
• John Rich, winner of 3 Emmy Awards
• Davy Rothbart, winner of an Emmy Award
• Kurt Sayenga, winner of an Emmy Award
• David Shuster, winner of an Emmy Award
• Curt Sobel, winner of an Emmy Award
• Mike Wallace, winner of 21 Emmy Awards
• Don Was, winner of an Emmy Award
• Beth Tanenhaus Winsten, winner of an Emmy Award

Golden Globe Award winners

• Darren Criss, actor, singer and songwriter; won in 2019
• Gary Gilbert, film producer and the founder and president of Gilbert Films
• James Earl Jones, actor; career has spanned more than 60 years
• Christine Lahti, actress, filmmaker, two-time Golden Globe winner
• Jeff Levy-Hinte, film producer; president of Antidote International Films
• Madonna, singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman
• Pasek and Paul, songwriting duo and composing team for musical theater, films, and television
• John Rich, film and television director

Grammy Award winners

• George Crumb, composer of avant-garde music; winner of a Grammy and a Pulitzer prize
• Chip Davis, founder and leader of Mannheim Steamroller
• John M. Eargle, Oscar and Grammy-winning audio engineer; musician
• David Effron, conductor and educator
• Gabriela Lena Frank, pianist and composer of contemporary classical music
• Joe Henry, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer; has released 13 studio albums and produced multiple recordings for other artists, including three Grammy Award-winning albums
• Bob James, multiple Grammy Award-winning jazz keyboardist, arranger, and record producer
• James Earl Jones, actor; career spanning more than 60 years; has won three Grammys
• Fred LaBour, better known by his stage name Too Slim; Grammy award-winning musician, best known for his work with the Western swing musical and comedy group Riders in the Sky
• Madonna, singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman; referred to as the "Queen of Pop" since the 1980s; seven-time Grammy award winner
• Jessye Norman, opera and concert singer; 4-time Grammy winner
• Pasek and Paul, songwriting duo and composing team; Grammy winner
• Gilda Radner, comedian, actress, and one of seven original cast members of SNL
• Christopher Rouse, composer
• Jennifer Laura Thompson, actress and singer
• Don Was, musician, record producer and record executive; winner of three Grammy awards

Tony Award winners

• Gavin James Creel, actor, singer, and songwriter; best known for his work in musical theatre; received a Tony Award for his performance as Cornelius Hackl in Hello, Dolly!
• Darren Criss, 2025 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his performance as Oliver in Maybe Happy Ending
• David Allen Grier, for A Soldier's Play
• Gregory Jbara, film, television and stage actor, and singer
• James Earl Jones, actor; career has spanned more than 60 years
• Celia Keenan-Bolger, actress, portrayed Scout Finch in the play To Kill a Mockingbird
• Michael L. Maguire, actor, best known for his role as Enjolras in the original Broadway production of the musical Les Misérables; this role won him a Tony Award in 1987
• Jeff Marx, composer and lyricist of musicals; winner of two Tony Awards
• Marian Ethel Mercer, actress and singer
• Arthur Miller, playwright, essayist, and figure in twentieth-century American theater
• Jack O'Brien, director, producer, writer, and lyricist; winner of three Tony Awards
• Paul Osborn, playwright and screenwriter best known for writing the screen adaptation of East of Eden; won 1980 Tony award for best Broadway revival for his play about four sisters, Morning's at Seven, which originally opened on Broadway in 1939
• Martin Pakledinaz, costume designer for stage and film; winner of two Tony Awards
• Pasek and Paul, known together as Pasek and Paul, songwriting duo and composing team for musical theater, films, and television
• Jeffrey Seller, Broadway producer; four-time Tony Award winner for Best Musical
• James D. Stern, film and Broadway producer; won a 2003 Tony Award for ''Hairspray''

Graphic arts

• Lloyd Dangle, cartoonist
• Beth Lo, artist
• Dwayne McDuffie, cartoonist and fantasy author
• Sid Meier, video game designer of over 60 titles, including the Civilization series, Pirates!, and Railroad Tycoon; co-founder of MicroProse and Firaxis Games
• Al Milgrom, comic book writer, penciller, inker and editor, primarily for Marvel Comics; known for ten-year run as editor of Marvel Fanfare; long involvement as writer, penciler, and inker on Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man; four-year tenure as West Coast Avengers penciller; and long stint as the inker of X-Factor
• Jim Ottaviani, author of several comic books about the history of science; Two-Fisted Science: Stories About Scientists features biographical stories about Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Niels Bohr, and Richard Feynman
• Jason Rubin, video game director; comic book creator; Internet company founder; known for the Crash Bandicoot series of games
• Sam Viviano, art director and cover illustrator for MAD magazine

Music

Music: composers

• Clarice Assad, her master's thesis concerto was recorded by Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg
• Evan Chambers, composer, traditional Irish fiddler, and Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan
• Stephen Chatman, composer
• Pius Cheung, marimbist and composer
• Robert Cogan, music theorist, composer, teacher
• Ellis, Mildred Katharine, pianist, music educator, composer, and musicologist
• Feist, Far East Movement and Natalia Kills; has co-written songs for Lady Gaga, t.A.T.u., Flipsyde, Tokio Hotel, Ai, Alexandra Burke and Colby O'Donis
• Gabriela Lena Frank, composer, Guggenheim award winner
• Alexander Frey, conductor, pianist, organist, harpsichordist, composer
• Jay Gorney, composer, songwriter of "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?"
• Robert James, two-time Grammy Award-winning smooth jazz keyboardist, arranger and producer
• Laura Karpman, composer for film, television, video games, theater, and the concert hall; winner of 5 Emmy Awards
• Andrew Lippa, lyricist and composer
• David T. Little, composer and drummer known for orchestral and operatic works
• Normand Lockwood, composer; studied composition at U-M 1921–1924; winner of a Guggenheim award
• George W. Meyer, Tin Pan Alley songwriter; Guggenheim award winner
• Roger Reynolds, composer, Pulitzer Prize for Music, Professor Emeritus at University of California San Diego
• Frank Ticheli, Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California
• Thomas Tyra, composer, arranger, bandmaster, and music educator
• Aleksandra Vrebalov, Serbian composer
• Julia Wolfe, composer

Music: groups

• The Arbors, 1960s pop group
• Ella Riot, band formed by Michigan undergraduates who coined "DanceThink" music
• George Frayne, founder of music group Commander Cody
• Nomo, band formed at U-M
• Tally Hall, band named after a shopping plaza in Michigan
• Vulfpeck, funk band founded in 2011 at the university's Duderstadt Center

Music: instrumentalists

• Don Blum, drummer in the band The Von Bondies
• Aaron Dworkin, violinist and music educator
• Laurence Kaptain, symphonic cimbalom artist
• Fred LaBour, musician; instrumental in the spread of the "Paul is Dead" urban legend
• Randy Napoleon, jazz guitarist
• Barbara Nissman ; concert pianist known for her interpretations of the music of Ginastera and Prokofiev

Music: educators and musicologists

• Judith Becker, ethnomusicologist
• Chalkdust, born Hollis Urban Lester Liverpool, calypsonian from Trinidad and Tobago; ethnomusicologist at the University of the Virgin Islands
• James Kibbie, concert organist, recording artist, Professor of Organ at U-M
• Timothy McAllister, Grammy award-winning classical saxophonist; member of PRISM Quartet; current Professor of Saxophone at U-M
• Daniel Bernard Roumain, composer and performer, the self-styled "Dred Violinist"
• Norma Wendelburg, composer, pianist and academic teacher

Music: producers

• Joe Henry, singer, songwriter, music producer
• Martin Kierszenbaum, head of A&R at Interscope Records; president of Interscope's subsidiary imprint Cherrytree Records; songwriter; producer; A&R for Lady Gaga, Sting, Keane, Tokio Hotel
• Felix Pappalardi, musician, record producer
• Richard Perry, record producer
• David Shayman, aka Disco D, helped pioneer Detroit booty music and later named it "ghettotech"; producer of hip-hop, R&B, and dancehall tracks
• Sam Valenti IV, founded independent record label Ghostly International in 1999
• David Was, musician and producer, Was (Not Was); music critic and commentator
• Don Was, record producer; Blue Note Records president and musician, Was (Not Was)
• Jack Yellen, lyricist and screenwriter; two of his most recognized songs are "Happy Days Are Here Again" and "Ain't She Sweet"; ASCAP board of directors ; Songwriters Hall of Fame 1972

Music: vocalists

• Becky Baeling Lythgoe, singer, actress, producer
• Chris Bathgate, indie folk singer-songwriter and musician in the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti folk music scene in Michigan
• Janai Brugger, operatic soprano
• Michelle Chamuel, singer, songwriter, producer
• Muriel Costa-Greenspon, mezzo-soprano who performed with the New York City Opera for thirty years; a daughter of deaf parents
• David Daniels, countertenor
• Joe Dassin, French singer
• Michael Fabiano, operatic tenor
• Elizabeth Fischer Monastero, operatic mezzo-soprano, voice teacher
• Theo Katzman, singer, songwriter, producer
• Holden Madagame, transgender opera singer tenor
• Madonna, born Madonna Ciccone, singer and actress
• Niagara, musician; painter; lead vocalist of the punk rock bands Destroy All Monsters and Dark Carnival
• Sean Panikkar, opera singer; member of the classical crossover group Forte Tenors
• Nicholas Phan, tenor, performer of oratorio and opera
• Iggy Pop, born James Osterberg, Jr., rock star
• Ashley Putnam, opera and concert singer
• Antwaun Stanley, singer, songwriter
• Christopher Temporelli, operatic bass and concert singer, radio host, TV personality, personal development coach, speaker, and author
• Vienna Teng, born Cynthia Yih Shih, Taiwanese American pianist and singer-songwriter; albums include Waking Hour, Warm Strangers, Dreaming Through The Noise, and Inland Territory ; live album, The Moment Always Vanishing, on which she is double-billed with her percussionist, Alex Wong
• Dick Valentine, singer of Electric Six
• Sachal Vasandani, jazz vocalist

Academy Award nominees and winners

• John Briley, won Academy Award For Best Original Screenplay, Gandhi
• Valentine Davies, Miracle on 34th Street earned him an Academy Award for Best Story in 1947
• Charles Crawford Davis, won 1948 Oscar for his invention of the Davis Drive System, a system for merging sound with pictures and driving the film through movie cameras and projectors
• Michael Dunn, nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 1966 for Ship of Fools
• John M. Eargle, Oscar and Grammy-winning audio engineer; musician
• Michael Epstein, also winner of two George Foster Peabody Awards, an Emmy, and a Writers Guild Award
• Gary Gilbert, The Kids Are All Right ; producer; founder and president of Gilbert Films
• James Earl Jones, actor; the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies; winner of two Tony Awards and an honorary Oscar
• Laura Karpman, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score for American Fiction
• Lawrence Edward "Larry" Kasdan, The Big Chill, Grand Canyon, The Accidental Tourist ; Grand Canyon won the Golden Bear at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival
• Christine Lahti, actress; winner of the Academy Award, an Emmy, and two Golden Globe awards
• Kurt Luedtke, Out of Africa
• Arthur Miller, nominated for The Crucible; the play was adapted for film twice, by Jean-Paul Sartre as the 1957 film Les Sorcières de Salem and by Miller himself as the 1996 film The Crucible; his adaptation earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay based on Previously Produced Material, his only nomination
• John Nelson, Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects for Gladiator and Blade Runner 2049
• Dudley Nichols, nominated for Best Screenplay for The Long Voyage Home in 1941, for Best Original Screenplay for Air Force in 1944, and for Best Story and Screenplay for The Tin Star in 1958; he won Best Screenplay for The Informer in 1936, but initially refused the honor due to an ongoing writers' strike
• Pasek and Paul, EGOT winning songwriting duo and composing team for musical theater, films, and television; Best Musical Theater Album for ''Dear Evan Hansen''

Talent management

• George Finkel, TV sports producer for NBC Sports 1971–1990; won three Emmy awards
• Dan Glickman, president and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc.

Theatre, film, and television

• Stanley Bahorek, actor
• Britt Baron, actress
• Rick Bayless, chef who specializes in modern interpretations of traditional Mexican cuisine; known for PBS series Mexico: One Plate at a Time
• Michael Bellavia, Emmy Award-winning president of Animax Entertainment
• Selma Blair, actress, known for Cruel Intentions and Legally Blonde
• Zachary Booth, actor
• Sophina Brown, actor, Numb3rs
• David Burtka, actor; chef; entertainment news correspondent for E! News
• Bruno Campos, Brazilian-born actor, Nip/Tuck
• Jessica Cauffiel, actress
• Esther K. Chae, actress
• Darren Criss, actor; singer-songwriter; cast member of Glee; member of StarKid Productions
• Ann B. Davis, two-time Emmy award winner, played the secretary in The Bob Cummings Show and Alice Nelson on The Brady Bunch
• Donald Alan "Don" Diamond, radio, film, and television actor; known for his comic portrayal as Crazy Cat on the 1960s television sitcom F Troop
• Erin Dilly, actress; Truly Scrumptious in the 2005 musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award
• Michael Dunn, aka Gary Neil Miller, actor, known for his recurring role as mad scientist Dr. Miguelito Loveless in the 1960s TV series The Wild Wild West
• Barrett Foa, actor, known for portraying Eric Beale on NCIS: Los Angeles
• Hunter Foster, Tony Award-nominated actor
• Stephen Fung Tak-Lun, Hong Kong-based actor, singer, model, writer and film director
• Alexander Gemignani, actor, tenor
• David Alan Grier, actor, comedian
• Erika Henningsen, Broadway actress, known for originating the role of Cady Heron in Mean Girls and the voice of Charlie Morningstar in Hazbin Hotel on Amazon Prime Video
• Avery Hopwood, one of the most successful playwrights of the Jazz Age
• Ruth Hussey, actress
• Stephanie Izard, chef; winner of the fourth season of Top Chef, Bravo's cooking competition show
• Gregory Jbara, Tony award-winning actor
• Tusshar Kapoor, actor in Indian cinema
• Andrew Keenan-Bolger, known for the role of Crutchy in Disney's Newsies, as well as for his video blog, "Andrew's Blog"
• Celia Keenan-Bolger, Broadway actress who originated the role of Olive Ostrovsky in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; Éponine in the revival of Les Misérables
• Nancy Kovack, film and TV actress; attended U-M at age 15 and graduated by 19; appeared on Star Trek and Bewitched; in 1969 she was nominated for an Emmy for an appearance on Mannix
• Ethan Laidlaw, actor
• Mark Lenard, actor, including several Star Trek movies
• Matt Letscher, film and TV actor; The Mask of Zorro
• Lucy Liu, actress, known for Ally McBeal, Elementary and for the movie versions of Charlie's Angels
• Taylor Louderman, Broadway actress, known for originating roles Campbell in Bring It On: The Musical and Regina George in Mean Girls the Musical
• Strother Martin, actor, member of the diving team
• Margo Martindale, film, stage and television actress; Emmy Award winner
• Bob McGrath, actor, singer, and writer; "Bob" from PBS' Sesame Street
• Mark Metcalf, actor in television and film
• Andy Mientus, actor, singer, writer
• Eric Millegan, Bones
• Emily Morse, sex therapist, author, and media personality
• Sydney Morton, played a recurring character in Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It
• Taylor Nichols, actor
• Michael O'Brien, writer Saturday Night Live 2009–2015, cast member 2013–14
• Beverley Owen, known for having played Marilyn Munster
• Eren Ozker, puppeteer and Muppet performer
• Ashley Park, Broadway actress known for her work in The King and I and for originating the role of Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls
• Rob Paulsen, actor
• David Paymer, character actor, Carpool, Get Shorty
• Jean Peters, actress
• Gilda Radner, actress and comedian, known for her work on Saturday Night Live for which she won an Emmy in 1978
• Blake Roman, actor, Erwin "Chopin" Bootz in Harmony
• Ted Raimi, actor, seaQuest DSV and Xena: Warrior Princess
• William Russ, actor; the father on Boy Meets World
• Ellen Sandweiss, B-movie actress; has performed in musical theatre as a dancer and pop singer, and in a one-woman show of Jewish music
• Martha Scott, actress, Our Town, The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur
• Miriam Shor, film, stage, and television actress
• Douglas Sills, actor
• Randy and Jason Sklar, professionally known as the Sklar Brothers, identical twin comedians
• StarKid Productions, the cast and creators of YouTube sensation, A Very Potter Musical
• Jennifer Laura Thompson, Tony Award-nominated actress, played Glinda in the Broadway musical Wicked
• Carlos Valdes, actor and musician, The Flash
• Kapila Vatsyayan, Indian arts scholar; founder and director of Indira Kalakendra
• Mike Weinberg, actor, Life as a House, Home Alone 4
• James Wolk, actor, Front of the Class, ''The Crazy Ones''

Writers of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction

• Daniel Aaron, author of many articles and books, including Men of Good Hope: A Story of American Progressives, The Unwritten War: Writers of the Civil War and, with Richard Hofstadter and William Miller, The Structure of American History
• Megan Abbott, author of crime fiction and of a non-fiction analysis of hardboiled crime fiction; Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award in 2008 for Queenpin
• Saladin Ahmed, Arab-American science fiction and fantasy writer and poet
• Uwem Akpan, Nigerian author; Jesuit priest; won Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book and the PEN/Beyond Margins Award for Say You're One of Them
• Jennifer Allison, author of mystery novels and the Gilda Joyce children's series
• Olive San Louie Anderson, author of An American Girl, and Her Four Years in a Boys' College
• Max Apple, author of The Oranging of America, Zip: A Novel of the Left and the Right, Three Stories, Free Agents, The Propheteers: A Novel, and Roommates: My Grandfather's Story
• Robert Arthur, Jr., writer, novelist, editor; created "The Three Investigators" mystery series for young readers and worked on the anthology TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• Robert Asprin, science fiction and fantasy author
• Brit Bennett, author of The Mothers
• Sven Birkerts, essayist and author of The Gutenberg Elegies; son of emeritus faculty member Gunnar Birkerts
• Martha Arnold Boughton, poet, biographer, song music and lyrics
• Kevin Boyle, author; professor of history; his 2004 book, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, won the National Book Award
• Philip Breitmeyer, wrote Lightning Ridge! Further Adventures of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• John Malcolm Brinnin, Canadian-born American poet and literary critic
• Michael Byers, writer
• Juliet Winters Carpenter, translator of Japanese, author
• Rose Woodallen Chapman, lecturer, author and editor
• Meg Waite Clayton, The Language of Light was a finalist for Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize; The Wednesday Sisters became a national bestseller and a book club favorite
• Richard Cohen, Hopwood Award-winning novelist
• James Oliver "Jim" Curwood, action-adventure writer and conservationist
• Jose Y. Dalisay Jr., Filipino writer
• Underwood Dudley, known for his popular writing about crank mathematics
• Elizabeth Ehrlich, wrote Miriam's Kitchen
• Neal Gabler, author of An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, Winchell: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of Celebrity, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality , and Walt Disney: Triumph of the American Imagination
• Mary Gaitskill, author of Bad Behavior, Two Girls, Fat and Thin, Because They Wanted To, Veronica
• Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr., wrote Cheaper by the Dozen
• Connie Glaser, author, speaker, and columnist on the topics of women's leadership and communications
• Josh Greenfeld, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, author of A Child Called Noah trilogy
• Judith Guest, wrote Ordinary People, later turned into an Academy Award-winning film
• Cathy Guisewite, author, creator of Cathy comic strip
• Aaron Hamburger, writer; his short story collection The View from Stalin's Head was awarded the Rome Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy in Rome; his novel Faith for Beginners was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award
• Gabrielle Hamilton, owner and manager of Prune restaurant in Manhattan; author of Blood Bones and Butter; recipient of the James Beard award for best chef
• Steve Hamilton, wrote Blood is the Sky, an Alex McKnight mystery; his 1999 novel A Cold Day in Paradise won an Edgar Award; his 2010 novel The Lock Artist won an Edgar for Best Novel; one of only five authors to win the award twice
• Robert Hayden, Professor of Poetry 1969–1980
• Raelynn Hillhouse, author of spy novels; national security expert; blogger ; political scientist
• Matthew Hittinger, author of the poetry collection Skin Shift, and the chapbook Pear Slip ; winner of the Spire Press 2006 Chapbook Award
• James Avery Hopwood, playwright, established the U-M Hopwood Awards; one of the premier playwrights of the jazz age; at one time had four plays running simultaneously on Broadway
• James Hynes, novelist
• Randa Jarrar, Palestinian-American novelist, short story writer, and translator
• Ruth Ward Kahn, author, lecturer
• Laura Kasischke, author and Guggenheim award winner, In a Perfect World, Suspicious River, White Bird in a Blizzard, The Life Before Her Eyes, Boy Heaven, Be Mine, Feathered
• Jane Kenyon, poet and wife of former Michigan professor Donald Hall, U.S. Poet Laureate
• Elizabeth Kostova, writer; her first novel, The Historian, was published in 2005, and became a best-seller
• Kathryn Lasky, children's author and nonfiction writer
• Daniel Lyons, writer; senior editor at Forbes magazine; writer at Newsweek; editor of ReadWrite
• Ross Macdonald, wrote the Lew Archer mystery series
• Janet Malcolm, 1955, writer for The New Yorker; wrote In the Freud Archives
• Sebastian Matthews, poet and writer
• Thomas McGuane, novelist
• Richelle Mead, bestselling fantasy author
• Brad Meltzer, wrote The Zero Game, The Tenth Justice, Dead Even, The First Counsel, and The Millionaires; creator of TV series Jack and Bobby
• Walter Miller, classics scholar; first to translate the Iliad into English in the native dactylic hexameter
• Sara Moulton, author of Sara Moulton Cooks at Home, Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals, and Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners
• Nami Mun, Korean American novelist and short story writer
• Davi Napoleon, wrote Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater
• Heather Neff, novelist and professor
• Bich Minh Nguyen, novelist; American Book Award for Short Girls
• Frank O’Hara ; author of A City Winter and Other Poems, Oranges: 12 Pastorals, Second Avenue, Odes, Lunch Poems, Love Poems
• Patrick O'Keeffe, winner of the Hopwood Program's Chamberlain Award for Creative Writing for Above the Bar; instructor in U-M's Sweetland Writing Center; won the 2006 Story Prize for The Hill Road; won 2006 Whiting Writers Award
• Susan Olasky, author
• Susan Orlean, wrote The Orchid Thief, made into the movie Adaptation
• John Patric, wrote for National Geographic and Reader's Digest in the 1930s and 1940s
• Otto Penzler, editor of mystery fiction; proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City
• Marge Piercy, wrote Braided Lives and Fly Away Home; Hopwood Program award winner
• Elwood Reid, novelist and short story writer
• Kathryn Reiss, award-winning author of children's and young adult fiction
• Paisley Rekdal, poet
• Emma Winner Rogers, writer, speaker, suffragist
• Matthew Rohrer, poet and Hopwood Award winner
• Ari Roth, playwright and artistic director of Theater J
• Kristen Roupenian, author of You Know You Want This: "Cat Person" and Other Stories
• Preeta Samarasan, wrote Evening is the Whole Day
• Ruth L. Schwartz, poet
• Allen Seager, author, Amos Berry and A Frieze of Girls
• William Shawn, The New Yorker editor 1952–1987
• Porter Shreve, author; professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program at Purdue University
• John Sinclair, poet, one-time manager of the band MC5
• Hubert Skidmore, had written six novels by the time he was 30, including Hawk's Nest; married to Maritta Wolff
• Danez Smith, poet
• Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
• Iehiro Tokugawa, author, translator; heir of the main Tokugawa house
• Jia Tolentino, staff writer for The New Yorker and formerly deputy editor of Jezebel and contributing editor at The Hairpin
• Robert Traver, pen name of John D. Voelker, wrote Anatomy of a Murder
• David Treuer, writer
• Chris Van Allsburg, author and illustrator; best known for Jumanji and The Polar Express, both made into films
• Jesmyn Ward, author of Where the Line Bleeds, Salvage the Bones, Men We Reaped, and Sing, Unburied, Sing
• Edmund White, writer for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker
• Stewart Edward White, author
• Nancy Willard, 1982 Newbery Medal for A Visit to William Blake's Inn
• Maritta Wolff, author of Whistle Stop, called by Sinclair Lewis "the most important novel of the year;" also wrote About Lyddy Thomas, Back of Town, The Big Nickelodeon and Buttonwood
• Sarah Zettel, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery author

Other

• Annie Rauwerda, creator of Depths of Wikipedia social media accounts