for musical theatre. The creators of A Very Potter Musical, known as StarKid Productions, also graduated from the University of Michigan. A member of Starkid, actor and singer Darren Criss, is a

 J. Robert Beyster who founded Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in 1969.[173] Several U-M graduates contributed greatly to the field of computer science, including Claude Shannon (who made major contributions to the mathematics of information theory),[174] and Turing Award winners Edgar Codd, Stephen Cook, and Frances E. Allen. Marjorie Lee Browne received her M.S. in 1939 and her doctoral degree in 1950, becoming the third African American woman to earn a PhD in mathematics.[175][176]
Notable writers who attended U-M include playwright Arthur Miller,[167] essayists Susan Orlean[167] and Sven Birkerts, journalists and editors Mike Wallace,[167] Jonathan Chait of The New Republic, Daniel Okrent,[167] and Sandra Steingraber, food critics Ruth Reichl and Gael Greene, novelists Brett Ellen Block, Elizabeth Kostova, Marge Piercy,[167] Brad Meltzer,[167] Betty Smith,[167] and Charles Major, screenwriter Judith Guest,[167] Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Theodore Roethke, National Book Award winners Keith Waldrop and Jesmyn Ward, composer/author/puppeteer Forman Brown, and Alireza Jafarzadeh (a Middle East analyst, author, and TV commentator).
In Hollywood, famous alumni include actors James Earl Jones,[167] David Alan Grier,[167] actresses Lucy Liu[167] and Selma Blair,[167] and filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan.[167] Many Broadway and musical theatre actors, including Gavin Creel,[167] Andrew Keenan-Bolger, and his sister Celia Keenan-Bolger attended U-M for musical theatre. The creators of A Very Potter Musical, known as StarKid Productions, also graduated from the University of Michigan. A member of Starkid, actor and singer Darren Criss, is a series regular on the television series Glee.
Musical graduates include operatic soprano Jessye Norman,[167] singer Joe Dassin, jazz guitarist Randy Napoleon, and Mannheim Steamroller founder Chip Davis.[167] Classical composer Frank Ticheli and Broadway composer Andrew Lippa attended. Pop Superstar Madonna[167] and rock legend Iggy Pop[167] attended but did not graduate.
Other U-M graduates include Donald Kohn (past Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System), Temel Kotil (president and CEO of Turkish Airlines), current Dean of Harvard Law School Martha Minow, assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian,[167] Weather Underground radical activist Bill Ayers,[177] activist Tom Hayden,[167] architect Charles Moore,[178] Rensis Likert (a sociologist who specialized in management styles and developed the Likert scale), the Swedish Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg,[179] and Benjamin D. Pritchard (the Civil War general who captured Jefferson Davis).[180] Neurosurgeon and CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta attended both college and medical school at U-M.[181] Clarence Darrow attended law school at U-M at a time when many lawyers did not receive any formal education.[167] Frank Murphy, who was mayor of Detroit, governor of Michigan, attorney general of the United States, and Supreme Court justice was also a graduate of the Law School.[167] Conservative pundit Ann Coulter is another U-M law school graduate (J.D. 1988).[167]
Vaughn R. Walker, a federal district judge in California who overturned the controversial California Proposition 8 in 2010 and ruled it unconstitutional, received his undergraduate degree from U-M in 1966.[182]
Some more notorious graduates of the University are 1910 convicted murderer (though perhaps wrongfully so)[183] Dr. Harvey Crippen,[167] late 19th-century American serial killer Herman Mudgett,[167] and "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski.[167]
U-M athletes have starred in Major League Baseball, the National Football League and National Basketball Association as well as other professional sports. Notable among recent players is Tom Brady of the New England Patriots.[167] Three players have won college football's