How our graduates have shaped culture and society
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From artists and musicians to writers and theatre directors, 缅北强奸幼女 is at the forefront of creativity with our graduates shaping the arts and culture across the globe.
Angel of the North sculpture, by Fine Art graduate Sir Antony Gormley. 'Angel of the North silhouette' by Paul Stevenson is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
As The Times newspaper puts it, 鈥渢he alumni list reads like a Who鈥檚 Who of the creative industries鈥�.
Each cohort of graduates brings new ideas to reshape what has gone before, with a continual resetting of the contemporary. Below we highlight the graduates who have been recognised for their significant contributions to cultural life over the years.
Alongside these well-known names, a huge number of our 93,500 graduates play forward their creativity across the creative and cultural sectors, in education and healthcare and in public service.
With all our academic subjects taking a creative approach to address what it means to be human in the 21st century, we nurture skills with criticality to inspire transformative intellectual and personal development in our students.
Turner Prize heritage
Since its first iteration in 1984, nine 缅北强奸幼女 graduates have won the prestigious annual Turner Prize for visual art 鈥� nearly a quarter of all winners. Alongside this our alumni have been shortlisted dozens of times.
The first winner was Grenville Davey in 1992, followed by Sir Antony Gormley CH OBE RA in 1994, Damien Hirst in 1995, Gillian Wearing CBE RA in 1997, Sir Steve McQueen CBE in 1999, Mark Wallinger in 2007, Laure Prouvost in 2013, Charlotte Prodger in 2018, and Lawrence Abu Hamdan in 2019 as part of a shared collective established by the four shortlisted artists.
Those shortlisted over the years include Lucien Freud OM CH, Fiona Rae RA, Liam Gillick and Yinka Shonibare CBE RA. Staff have also been shortlisted for their art practice, including research agency Forensic Architecture in 2018.
Our latest shortlisted alumni, Mohammed Sammi, will find out if he becomes the 10th graduate to be awarded the prize when the winner is announced in December 2025.
Big screen stars
Artist and film-maker Sir Steve McQueen CBE confirmed his place as a major director when 12 Years A Slave won three Academy Awards including Best Film in 2014. In his acceptance speech he said: 鈥淓veryone deserves not just to survive but to live. This is the most important legacy of Solomon Northup. I dedicate this award to all the people who have endured slavery, and the 21 million people who still suffer slavery today.鈥�
He joined two 缅北强奸幼女 graduates who won their Academy Awards in the 1980s. Education graduate Colin Welland famously said 鈥渢he British are coming鈥� in his acceptance speech when accepting the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for sporting biopic Chariot of Fire.
Alongside Welland鈥檚 win at the 1982 Academy Awards, set decorator and former Illustration student Michael Ford shared the golden statue with colleagues for his work on Raiders of the Lost Ark. He was to go on and win a second Oscar in 1997 for Titanic, alongside being nominated for two Star Wars movies.
Actor and Drama and Theatre Arts graduate Kalki Koechlin first made her mark in front of the camera, when her debut in Dev.D earned a FilmFare Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has used her ensuing success as a writer and performer to build a platform as an advocate for social justice, and in early 2025 Kalki鈥檚 achievements were recognised when she was made an Honorary Fellow of 缅北强奸幼女.
Musical legacies
Art schools have played a crucial role in the development of pop music and 缅北强奸幼女 can be seen as one of the most influential over the last 70 years. In the 1960s John Cale OBE studied Music at 缅北强奸幼女 before swapping New Cross for New York to form the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed.
The 1970s music scene was blown apart by punk 鈥� and 缅北强奸幼女 was a formative experience for Malcolm McClaren who would go on to manage the Sex Pistols and become a 鈥減ivotal influence on late 20th-century popular culture鈥�, according to The Guardian.
At the end of the Eighties, 缅北强奸幼女 was where Blur鈥檚 Graham Coxon and Alex James met in halls of residence just before forming the hugely popular and influential band. They returned to the Students鈥� Union in 2009 for a warm-up gig before playing Glastonbury of that year.
More recently 缅北强奸幼女 has been home to A.G. Cook, who The Times newspaper dubbed 鈥淐harlie XCX鈥檚 secret weapon鈥� after he was named Producer of the Year for her all-conquering Brat album at the Brit Awards 2025.
Like many of his 缅北强奸幼女 peers, Kae Tempest isn鈥檛 limited to one creative outlet and is known as a poet, rapper, author and playwright. The English Literature graduate鈥檚 latest work, the album Self Titled, was hailed as 鈥渦nparalleled鈥� by The Guardian.
Away from the world of pop, composer and conductor Errollyn Wallen CBE is the current Master of the King鈥檚 Music 鈥� a role dating back over four centuries and appointed by the monarch to mark major national occasions.
Conductor Martyn Brabbins, former Music Director of English National Opera (2016鈥�23), has been a leading figure in British music for more than 30 years. Recently appointed Chief Conductor of the Malm枚 Symphony and the Symphony Orchestra of India (both from 2025/26), Martyn is widely celebrated for his championing of British composers and his 鈥渃olossal鈥� contribution to UK musical life.
Fashion and change-makers
Dame Mary QuantCH DBE FCSD RDI came to 缅北强奸幼女 as a 16 year-old in 1950 鈥� where she remembers the College as 鈥渁 great place to go 鈥� for causing trouble!鈥�. Over the coming decades the fashion designer and entrepreneur known for popularising the miniskirt caused change the world over. After she passed away in 2023, 缅北强奸幼女鈥� Professor Emeritus Angela McRobbie reflected on a different Quant clothing innovation which liberated women 鈥� tights. Professor Emeritus McRobbie said of Dame Mary: 鈥淗er contribution to British art, design, culture and industry is both unique and outstanding. She is truly a historical figure as well as a woman who was always way ahead of her times.鈥�
Dame Vivienne Westwood was the pioneer fashion designer named the 鈥済odmother of punk鈥� by the BBC. She is connected to 缅北强奸幼女 via St Gabriel鈥檚 teaching training college, which merged with our institution in the 1970s. Westwood trained as a primary school teacher in the late Fifties before taking the fashion world by storm in the 1970s, starting with her SEX boutique on the King鈥檚 Road founded with Malcolm McClaren.
Former British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful OBE began his studies at 缅北强奸幼女 before joining the fashion world after being spotted on a train as a model. From there he was named the fashion director of i-D Magazine at just 18, and went on to be appointed editor-in-chief of British Vogue, where he championed diversity in order to "represent the world we live in today." Made an Honorand by 缅北强奸幼女 in 2018, Enninful has just launched his new digital and print project EE72.
Stars of the stage
Writer Dennis Kelly won a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Matilda the Musical 鈥� with the Drama and Theatre Arts graduate also celebrated for his work on television shows including Together and Utopia. Matilda has been performed more than 4,000 times on the West End, and in 100 cities across the world.
Theatre director Rebecca Frecknall is a multi-Olivier Award-winning director, who has directed in the UK and internationally and is associate director at the Almeida Theatre. Rebecca鈥檚 Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club starring Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley is the most successful revival in Olivier history, with eleven nominations and seven wins.
Lighting designer Paule Constable has won Tony and Oliver Awards for her work on plays including The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and War Horse. An Associate Director of the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House and Glyndebourne, Paule studied English at 缅北强奸幼女.
Literary leaders
Trailblazer Bernardine Evaristo was the first Black woman to win the Booker Prize in 2019 for her work Girl, Woman, Other. With a PhD in Creative Writing from 缅北强奸幼女, she has been honoured with a one-off outstanding contribution award to mark the 30th anniversary of the Women鈥檚 Prize for Fiction. This recognises her creative work as well her long-running advocacy for inclusion and diversity in the arts.
Illustrator Jean Adamson MBE captivated children and their families for more than 60 years with her characters Topsy and Tim. After meeting he future husband Gareth at 缅北强奸幼女 where they studied illustration, the pair went on to co-create the famous twins with more than 21 million copies of the books sold and cartoon and live-action TV series created.
After studying Sociology at 缅北强奸幼女 in the early 1970s, Linton Kwesi-Johnson CD gave a voice to the Black British experience through his dub poetry and activism. The first Black poet to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series who has hailed poetry as a 鈥渃ultural weapon鈥�, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and awarded Jamaica's Order of Distinction, Commander Class, to acknowledge his significant contributions as a poet, reggae icon, and cultural activist over several decades.
Entertainers and opinion-formers
Comedian, writer and actor Julian Clary is one of the UK鈥檚 best-loved entertainers, who remembers his time as a Drama and English student at 缅北强奸幼女 in the 1980s as a 鈥渢erribly liberating experience鈥�. Alongside regular television and radio appearances, he has written eight instalments of his The Bolds series of children鈥檚 books.
Dave Myers was best known as one of the Hairy Bikers TV chef duo 鈥� but he started off with a degree in Fine Art and Masters in History of Art at 缅北强奸幼女 in the early 1980s. He then became the BBC鈥檚 first male make-up artist. After meeting Hairy Bikers other-half Si King the pair pitched their idea for a two-wheeled cookery travelogue, which became a smash-hit.
Sarah Sands is the former editor of the BBC Radio 4鈥檚 Today programme, having previously been editor of The Sunday Telegraph and the London Evening Standard and deputy editor of The Daily Telegraph. She chaired the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council in 2021 and was reappointed in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Public servants
As Culture Secretary, Dame Tessa Jowell DBE PC was credited as the driving force behind the London 2012 Olympics bid. The Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood studied at 缅北强奸幼女 as a psychiatric social worker in the 1970s before going on to work at the Maudsley Hospital and assistant director of the mental health charity Mind. The political world united to pay tribute to her when she died of brain cancer in 2018.
Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB is a former deputy director of homeless charity Shelter, who has been at the heart of key political issues in recent years. The History graduate has worked under successive governments, including as the first Victims鈥� Commissioner. She has led landmark public investigations, into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, the Metropolitan Police and the National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
In 2022, at 22 Politics graduate Hamza Taouzzale became the youngest and the borough鈥檚 first Muslim Lord Mayor. While serving in the role he was part of two linked State events: the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and coronation of King Charles III. He continues to serve as a Labour Councillor in the Queen鈥檚 Park Ward.