Notable Alumni

Peter Ackerman
Class of 1988
Hollywood screenwriter for the animated film Ice Age

Tunde Adebimpe
Class of 1993
Actor, director, and lead singer of the alternative rock band "TV on the Radio"

Jerome "Jay" Apt
Class of 1967
NASA astronaut with four shuttle missions and two spacewalks

Jon Beckerman
Class of 1987
Producer, writer and creator of the television series "Ed" and "The Knights of Prosperity"

Christian Borle
Class of 1991
Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominated Broadway actor for roles in Spamalot and Legally Blonde

Courtney Hershey Bress
Class of 1992
Colorado Symphony Orchestra principal harpist

Deidre Byrne
Class of 1985
Oceanographer

Gary Chang
Class of 1971
Hollywood film composer and musician

Chris Frantz
Class of 1970
Drummer for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band "Talking Heads"

Childs Frick
Class of 1901
Invertebrate paleontologist and son of Pittsburgh industrialist Henry Clay Frick

Bart Griffith
Class of 1966
Professor of Surgery and Chief, Cardiac Surgery and Cardiothoracic Transplantation at the
University of Maryland Medical Center

David Guy
Class of 1966
Author of the semi-autobiographical, Shady Side Academy-inspired novel Football Dreams, Second Brother and more

Kerry Hannon
Class of 1978
Women and Finance writer for USA Today

Henry Hillman
Class of 1937
Businessman and philanthropist

Edgar J. Kaufmann
Class of 1903
American department store magnate (Kaufmann's) and philanthropist; In 1935, Kaufmann commissioned famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to build his much-celebrated summer home, Fallingwater, in the Laurel Highlands outside of Pittsburgh.

Carl Kurlander
Class of 1978
Hollywood screenwriter of the film St. Elmo's Fire and the television program Saved By The Bell

Paul Martha
Class of 1960
NFL player - Pittsburgh Steelers 1964-69, Denver Broncos 1969-71; NFL executive, vice president and general counsel of the San Francisco 49ers 1978-1983; consensus All-American, University of Pittsburgh 1963.

David McCullough
Class of 1951
Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian. Wrote 1776, John Adams and Truman.

Thornton Oakley
Class of 1897
Turn-of-the-20th-century artist, illustrator and travel writer, most notably for Harper's and Scribner's magazines

David Aiken Reed
Class of 1896
United States senator from Pennsylvania

Mark Rosenthal
Class of 1969
Former President and CEO of MTV Networks

Tom Vilsack
Class of 1968
Former governor of Iowa, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture for the Obama administration

Christian K. Wedemeyer
Class of 1986
Professor of the history of religions and elected official of the Illinois Green Party

Owen Young
Class of 1982
Boston Symphony Orchestra cellist

Jonathan Zittrain
Class of 1987
Co-founder the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and professor of Internet governance and regulation, Oxford University