Famous English Majors

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Famous English Majors

“It sounds so geeky, but I really do like studying and reading, and if I’m not working on Harry Potter, then my greatest relaxation is to sit with a book. That’s how I escape stress—in literature" – Emma Watson: BA English, Brown University

If you want proof of the vast range of careers available to English majors, here you go! Here is a list of 100 people who majored in English in college and then went on to become actors/actresses, business executives, film directors, journalists, musicians, TV show hosts, Supreme Court justices, and writers; others went on to careers in law, psychology, medicine, art, athletics, economics, and government.

  1. Douglas Adams, writer: BA English, St. John’s College, Cambridge
  2. Alan Alda, actor: BA English, Fordham University
  3. Ellen Alemany, former CEO of RBS Citizens Financial Group: BA English, University of Bridgeport
  4. Julia Alvarez, writer: BA English, Connecticut College
  5. Douglas Baird, former dean of University of Chicago Law School: BA English, Yale
  6. Dave Barry, humorist: BA English, Haverford College
  7. Joy Behar, comedian, talk show host: BA Sociology, Queens College; MA English Education, SUNY Stony Brook
  8. Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, writer and television producer: BA English, University of Missouri
  9. Carol Browner, former head of the EPA: BA English, University of Florida
  10. Joseph Campbell, mythologist: BA English and MA Medieval Literature, Columbia University
  11. Chevy Chase, actor: BA English, Bard College
  12. Tom Clancy, writer: BA English, Loyola College
  13. Mario Cuomo, former Governor of New York: BA English, St. John’s University
  14. Joan Cusack, actress: BA English, University of Wisconsin – Madison
  15. Chris Dodd, former US Senator: BA English, Providence University
  16. Maureen Dowd, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist: BA English, Catholic University of America
  17. David Duchovny, actor: BA English, Princeton; MA English, Yale
  18. Lena Dunham, actress: BA Creative Writing, Oberlin College
  19. Christopher Durang, playwright: BA English, Harvard University, MFA Playwriting, Yale School of Drama
  20. Michael Eisner, former CEO of Disney: BA English and Theater, Denison University
  21. Jodie Foster, actress: BA English, Yale
  22. James Franco, actor: BA English, UCLA; MFA Creative Writing, Columbia; currently PhD English, Yale
  23. Stephen Fry, actor and journalist: BA English, Cambridge
  24. A. Bartlett Giammati, former president of Yale and Commissioner of MLB: BA English, Yale
  25. Hugh Grant, actor: BA English, Oxford; PhD History of Art, Courtland Institute of Art
  26. James Hahn, former mayor of Los Angeles: BA English, Pepperdine University; JD Pepperdine School of Law
  27. Jon Hamm, actor: BA English, University of Missouri
  28. Alvin Hansen, economist: BA English, Yankton College
  29. Joseph Heller, writer: BA English, New York University; MA English, Columbia University
  30. David Henry Hwang, playwright: BA English, Stanford
  31. Chris Isaak, musician: BA English and Communications Arts, University of the Pacific
  32. Famke Janssen, actress: BA Creative Writing and Literature, Columbia University
  33. Ken Jennings, Jeopardy! record holder: BA English and Computer Science, Brigham Young University
  34. Tommy Lee Jones, actor: BA English, Harvard
  35. Andrea Jung, former CEO of Avon: BA English, Princeton
  36. Catherine Keener, actress: BA English and History, Wheaton College
  37. Garrison Keillor, radio show host: BA English, University of Minnesota
  38. Stephen King, writer: BA English, University of Maine
  39. Ezra Koenig, musician: BA English, Columbia University Mark Knopfler, musician: BA English, Leeds
  40. Kris Kristofferson, musician and actor: BA Creative Literature, Pomona College; studied literature at Oxford
  41. Jhumpa Lahiri, writer: BA English, Barnard College; MA English, MFA Creative Writing, MA Comparative Literature, PhD in Renaissance Studies, Boston University
  42. Ira Levin, writer: BA English, New York University
  43. Michael Lynne, CEO of New Line Cinema: BA English, Brooklyn College; JD Columbia University
  44. Thurgood Marshall, former Supreme Court justice: BA in American Literature and Philosophy, Lincoln University
  45. Rollo May, existential psychologist: BA English, Oberlin College; BD, Union Theological Seminary; PhD Clinical Psychology, Columbia University
  46. Judy McGrath, former CEO of MTV: BA English, Cedar Crest College
  47. Thomas Merton, Trappist monk and writer: BA and MA English, Columbia University
  48. Empress Michiko, Empress consort of Japan: BA English, University of the Sacred Heart
  49. Arthur Miller, playwright: BA English, University of Michigan
  50. Andrea Mitchell, journalist: BA English, University of Pennsylvania
  51. Gretchen Morgenson, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist: BA English, St. Olaf College
  52. Joe Morgenstern, Pulitzer Prize winning Wall Street Journal film critic: BA English, Lehigh University
  53. Toni Morrison, writer: BA English, Howard University
  54. Megan Mullally, actress and singer: BA English Literature and Art History, Northwestern University
  55. Anne Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox: BA English and Journalism, Marymount College
  56. Christopher Nolan, director, screenwriter, and producer: BA English, University College London
  57. Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan’s speechwriter: BA English, Farleigh Dickinson University
  58. BJ Novak, actor and writer: BA English and Spanish, Harvard
  59. Joyce Carol Oates, writer: BA English, Syracuse; MA English University of Wisconsin - Madison
  60. Conan O’Brien, television talk show host: BA in English and History, Harvard
  61. Henry Paulson, former Treasury Secretary: BA English, Dartmouth
  62. Simon Pegg, actor: BA English Literature and Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon College
  63. Donald Regan, former Secretary of the Treasury and White House Chief of Staff: BA English, Harvard
  64. Sally Ride, physicist and astronaut: BA English and Physics, Stanford; MA and PhD in Physics, Stanford
  65. Joan Rivers, actress: BA English, Barnard College
  66. Richard Rodriguez, writer: BA English, Stanford; MA Philosophy, Columbia University
  67. Mitt Romney, CEO of Bain Capital and former US presidential candidate: BA English, Brigham Young
  68. Philip Roth, writer: BA English, Bucknell University; MA English, University of Chicago
  69. Patricia Rozema, film director: BA English, Calvin College
  70. Fred Savage, actor: BA English, Stanford
  71. Diane Sawyer, journalist: BA English, Wellesley College
  72. Herb Scannell, president of BBC America and former president of Nickelodeon,: BA English, Boston College
  73. Brian Schottenheimer, former NFL coach (Browns, Chiefs, Redskins, Chargers): BA English, University of Pittsburgh
  74. Martin Scorsese, director: BA English, New York University; MFA Film, NYU
  75. Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), writer: BA English, Dartmouth; PhD English, Oxford
  76. Eric Ken Shinseki, retired US Army general: MA English Literature, Duke University
  77. John Skipper, president of ESPN: BA English, UNC-Chapel Hill; MA English, Columbia
  78. Paul Simon, musician: BA English, Queens College
  79. BF Skinner, behavioral psychologist: BA English, Hamilton College; MA and PhD Psychology, Harvard
  80. Steven Spielberg, director: BA English, California State University, Long Beach
  81. Benjamin Spock, pediatrician: BA English and History, Yale
  82. John Paul Stevens, retired Supreme Court Justice: BA English, University of Chicago
  83. Sting, musician: BA English, Northern Counties College of Education
  84. Amy Tan, writer: BA English and Linguistics, San Jose State University
  85. Brandon Tartikoff, former president of NBC: BA English, Yale University
  86. Edwin Way Teale, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer: BA English, Earlham College
  87. Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court justice: BA English, Holy Cross College
  88. Helen Thomas, former White House correspondent: BA English, Wayne University
  89. Emma Thompson, actress: BA English, Newnham College, Cambridge
  90. Grant Tinker, former CEO of NBC: BA English, Dartmouth College
  91. John Updike, writer: BA English, Harvard University
  92. Harold Varmus, Nobel laureate in medicine: BA English, Amherst College; MA English, Harvard
  93. Barbara Walters, journalist: BA English, Sarah Lawrence College
  94. Emma Watson, actress: BA English, Brown University
  95. Sigourney Weaver, actress: BA English, Stanford University; MFA, Yale School of Drama
  96. Eudora Welty, writer: BA English, University of Wisconsin
  97. Pete Wilson, former US Senator and Governor of California: BA English, Yale
  98. Tom Wolfe, journalist and writer: BA English, Washington and Lee University
  99. Bob Woodward, journalist: BA English and History, Yale
  100. Renée Zellweger, actress: BA English, University of Texas at Austin