Barack Obama, Natalie Portman, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and more: Famous Harvard graduates you might not expect

“Mr President, if you want to insult me, come back and insult me to my face.”

Those were the fighting words of US Senator Ted Cruz in response to verbal jabs made by ex-President Barack Obama during the 2016 presidential election.

Although these two politicians seem to be polar opposites in ideology and personality, they actually share one thing in common — both are famous graduates from Harvard University.

This prestigious university is no stranger to shaping world leaders, changemakers, and just cream-of-the-crop people in general.

Established in 1636, the oldest Ivy League institution is often considered the best university in the US and at least among the top five in the world. Besides its exceptional form of education taught by professors who are mostly scholars or Nobel Prize laureates, the university also offers world-renowned faculties, state-of-the-art resources, and various extracurricular activities – all the things that you want when studying at a university.

As a result, Harvard has produced hundreds of geniuses who made the world a better place in their own ways.

With more than 400,000 alumni worldwide, graduates have gone on to found disruptive companies, invent new technologies, set world records, and impact the lives of billions of people around the world.

Infamous graduates from Harvard University

Unfortunately, the Harvard alumni list contains some rotten eggs that the university is not particularly proud of.

One infamous example is Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber.

The now-deceased terrorist mailed or hand-delivered a series of increasingly sophisticated homemade bombs over the course of 17 years, killing three Americans and injuring many. His bombing spree started in 1978 after Kaczynski earned a Harvard bachelor’s degree in mathematics just 16 years prior.

Another infamous graduate was Reverend Cotton Mather, a New England Puritan minister associated with the Salem witch trials; some even say he was a leader of the witch hunt.

Mather obtained his bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1678. Although claiming to be a man of science (he studied genetics and promoted smallpox inoculation), he also believed in witches. It was his “expert” testimony about witches that led directly to the executions in the Salem witch trials.

Joe Gould, also known as Professor Seagull, is another infamous figure from Harvard. The eccentric writer, who claimed to be the author of the longest book ever written, “An Oral History of the Contemporary World,” attended the prestigious university before being kicked out due to his odd behaviour, bordering on mental illness.

While these are some rare cases of notorious graduates that the university hopes to sweep under the rug, there are many others that people can look up and refer to as examples.

Here, we list famous graduates from Harvard. Some beloved, some controversial, and some names you do not expect.

Famous graduates from Harvard University

1. Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro is an American lawyer, columnist, and author. He has written columns for “Creators Syndicate,” “Newsweek,” “Ami Magazine,” and served as an editor for “The Daily Wire,” which he co-founded in 2015. Shapiro is also a renowned conservative political pundit and host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” a daily political podcast and live radio show. 

He attended Harvard Law School and graduated in 2007 with a Juris Doctor, an American professional degree for individuals to practice law.

2. Caroline Wozniacki

The former world no. 1 tennis champion enrolled at the Harvard Business School in 2019 to learn how to build a second career outside of sports.

We are unsure if this is preparation for her retirement in 2020, but during her time there, she attended a semester-long Crossover Into Business programme that pairs MBA student mentors with professional athletes to develop their business acumen.

3. Chris Nowinski

Chris Nowinski, or Chris Harvard to wrestling fans, is a 2000 Harvard bachelor’s graduate in sociology who was famous for being in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from 2002-2003.

Capitalising on his status as an alumnus of Harvard University, the former wrestler is now a co-founder and CEO of Concussion Legacy Foundation, a global charity addressing brain injuries in military personnel, athletes, and all affected by concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). 

4. Colin Jost

Colin Kelly Jost is an award-winning writer, performer, and author best known for his work on “Saturday Night Live” He is also known as a co-host of the “Weekend Update” alongside Michael Che. Jost will be joining NBCUniversal’s coverage of the 2024 Olympics surfing event.

Jost graduated from Havard in 2004 with a BA in History and Literature.

5. Conan O’Brien

Conan O’Brien is one of the famous graduates from Harvard who found fame on late-night television. He hosted the well-known “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” and “Conan.” Before his hosting career, he was a writer for “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons.”

O’Brien graduated magna cum laude with a BA in History and Literature in 1985.

6. Damien Chazelle

Award-winning American filmmaker Damien Sayre Chazelle first debuted with his film “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench” but found his breakthrough with “Whiplash,” “The Last Exorcism Part II,” and “La La Land.” The musical famously earned Chazelle the title of youngest director to win a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.

Chazelle, who graduated in 2007, is one of the few famous graduates from Harvard to have a BA in filmmaking from the Visual and Environmental Studies Department.

7. Empress Masako

How cool would it be to be classmates with the future empress of Japan? Empress Masako, born Masako Owada, has lived abroad for most of her life. She’s fluent in French, English, and Japanese and has also won a Goethe Society award for her German poetry.

While Empress Masako’s younger aspirations were meant for a future as a veterinarian, she ended up graduating with a BA magna cum laude in Economics in 1985, which doesn’t seem too bad of a trade-off. 

8. George W. Bush

George Walker Bush was an American oil businessman before serving as the 43rd president of the US. His presidency saw the delivery of major tax cuts in the US, American forces being sent into Afghanistan to break up the Taliban, and the more controversial invasion of Iraq.

Bush graduated from in 1975 with a Master’s in Business Administration, making him the only US president to have earned an MBA and one of the most famous graduates from Harvard.

9. J. Robert Oppenheimer

Robert Oppenheimer worked as an American theoretical physicist and science administrator before making his mark in the world of science by producing the world’s first atomic bomb alongside Army Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves. The US military later associated him with communists despite his efforts to resolve the moral problems that arose from scientific discovery.

Oppenheimer graduated with a degree in Chemistry in 1925. 

10. Jeremy Lin

You would not have guessed that NBA player Jeremy Lin would make the list of famous graduates from Harvard.

During his time at Harvard, he was a three-time all-conference player. When he graduated, he went on to sign with the Golden State Warriors without being drafted. Later in his career, he made his breakthrough with the New York Knicks. Not only is Lin the first American of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA, but he is the first Asian American player to win an NBA championship, having done so with the Toronto Raptors in 2019.

Lin graduated in 2010 with a BS in Economics while maintaining a 3.1 GPA.

11. Nadine Lee

Despite not finding a forever partner during her time in the South Korean reality show “Single’s Inferno 2,” Nadine Lee found fame and love from fans worldwide, with over 1.5 million Instagram followers rooting for her future.

Beyond that, Lee is also known for being accepted into Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. She chose Harvard, and the rest is history — Lee graduated in 2023 with a BA in Neuroscience and a secondary in Computer Science.

12. Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor of New York City and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., has transformed the world of finance, business, and government, making him a global leader and one of the most famous graduates from Harvard. In 2024, President Biden awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honour.

Bloomberg graduated with an MBA in 1966.

13. Princess Sonam Dechen Wangchuck

Princess Sonam Dechen Wangchuck is a princess of Bhutan and, being a royal, is one of the most famous Harvard graduates. She has worked for the Royal High Court of Bhutan and later for the Judiciary of the Kingdom of Bhutan as President of the Bhutan National Legal Institute.

Princess Sonam graduated from Harvard in 2007 with a Master’s in Law.

14. Tom Morello

Tom Morello found a love for music and politics while in high school. He pursued his studies at Harvard, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies in 1986.

A few years later, he met Zack de la Rocha and the two founded Rage Against the Machine, which would go on to become one of the most popular and influential metal acts of the 1990s.

An honourable mention

15. Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has made a mark in US politics and law. Up until her passing in 2020, she served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the US. Ginsburg dedicated her career to securing women’s rights and fighting for access to reproductive healthcare, pregnancy benefits, and equal pay.

Ginsburg started law school at Harvard, where she was one of nine females in a 500-person class. Not only that, she also served as the first female member of the Harvard Law Review.

During her final year of schooling at Harvard, Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School to be closer to her husband, who had just recovered from cancer, graduated from Harvard, and moved to New York City to accept a position at a law firm there. Ginsurg followed and ended up serving on Columbia’s Law Review, as well as graduating first in her class in 1959.