Northeast Ohio colleges have a long legacy of successful grads. There’s also a few people who have dropped out and gone on to become world-famous and wildly successful – not that we encourage anyone to bank on that, but it’s happened. Here are just a few of the famous alumni from our colleges that you may have heard of.

By Jason Meek

Halle Berry – Cuyahoga Community College The Hollywood actress is a Cleveland native who briefly pursued a broadcast journalism degree from Tri-C before dropping out to pursue her acting and modeling career. (Photo via Flickr CC, Lynze)
Michael Keaton – Kent State University Last year’s Academy Award winner for best actor, as well as the best actor to portray Batman, had a rough start to his acting career. He dropped out of Kent State after two years and struggled for a few years – including some work as an assistant on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood – before getting his first hit with Mr. Mom. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
The Black Keys – University of Akron Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney were childhood friends who attended the University of Akron together before dropping out. In 2001, they joined up as rock duo The Black Keys. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Connie Schultz – Kent State University In 2005, Schultz won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for her columns in the Plain Dealer. She had already been a Pulitzer finalist in 2003 for feature writing. Before all that acclaim, she was a journalism student at Kent State and graduated in 1979. (Photo via Helder Mira, flickr)
William Goldman – Oberlin College The author of The Princess Bride was an Oberlin grad? Inconceivable! Goldman’s other well-known works include the screenplays for Buth Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, and Misery. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Craig Newmark – Case Western Reserve University Yes, THE Craig – the one with the list. You’ll find all kinds of people on Craigslist, but Newmark himself is a dedicated philanthropist and a supporter of using technology to give a voice to the voiceless. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Frank G. Jackson – Cleveland State University Current Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson attended Cuyahoga Community College after serving in the U.S. Army. He later went to law school at Cleveland State. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Wayne Dawson – Kent State University Dawson is the co-anchor for Fox 8 News in the Morning, Cleveland’s most popular morning show. Before that, he was an anchor and reporter at WNIR radio in Kent. (Photo via Facebook)
John de Lancie – Kent State University Kent State grad John de Lancie was involved in the drama program in college and went on to portray one of Star Trek’s more bizarre recurring antagonists, Q, in several different generations of the series. More recently, he’s appeared in Breaking Bad and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. (Photo via John de Lancie)
Joe and Anthony Russo – Case Western Reserve University The Russo brothers are known as the executive producers and directors of Community, but their actual college experience was at Case. Their first film, Pieces, was started while they were still students. They came back to Cleveland to film some of the scenes in Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Tom Batiuk – Kent State University Batiuk is known as the author behind Funky Winkerbean and Crankshaft, newspaper comic strips that have frequently tackled some dramatic storylines and serious issues over the years. In 2012, he created a mural in his trademark style for a lounge in the Kent State Student Center. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Yvette Nicole Brown – University of Akron Brown graduated from the University of Akron in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication. Her role as Shirley Bennett in Community is her most prominent credit on a growing list of TV and film appearances. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Tim Russert – John Carroll University The longest-serving moderator on NBC’s Meet the Press studied at John Carroll University and later at CSU’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. John Carroll’s Department of Communication and Theatre Arts are now named in his honor. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
David Sedaris – Kent State University Humorist and essayist David Sedaris briefly attended and dropped out of Kent State in 1997. He won the 2001 Thurber Prize for his book, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and in 2004 his book Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim was at the top of the New York Times Bestseller List. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Ray Wise – Kent State University Prolific TV and film actor Ray Wise is an Akron native and attended Kent State. He’s best known as Leland Palmer on Twin Peaks. He’s been in several other sci-fi roles, including parts in RoboCop and Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Paul Buchheit – Case Western Reserve University You might not know Paul Buchheit’s name, but lots of people use his creation every day. As one of Google’s earliest employees, he was the lead developer of Gmail, and also suggested Google’s famous motto, “Don’t Be Evil.” (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
James Lawson – Baldwin-Wallace College Lawson began his work in the civil rights movement while still a freshman at Baldwin-Wallace. He went on to become a leader of nonviolent protests inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. Martin Luther King, Jr. personally asked Lawson to help in the protests down south, telling him, “We don’t have anyone like you.” (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
James Burrows – Oberlin College You’ve probably seen Oberlin grad James Burrows’ work on TV at some point. He’s the co-creator of Cheers, and has also directed episodes of Frasier, Friends, The Big Bang Theory, and Two and a Half Men, among others. (Photo via IMDB)
George Norris – Baldwin-Wallace College Historic alumnus George Norris graduated back in the 19th century when it was still known as Baldwin University. Norris is known as the author of the Twentieth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. If it’s been a while since you took a Government course, that’s the one that sets the beginning and end dates for Presidential terms, and details the procedure for who takes office if the President dies. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Alison Bechdel – Oberlin College Cartoonist Alison Bechdel is the creator of the long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, which offered commentary on LGBT issues from 1983 to 2008. If her last name sounds familiar, maybe it’s because of the Bechdel Test – a three-part system for identifying gender bias that was introduced in her strip. To pass, a work of fiction must have 1) at least two women who 2) talk to each other about 3) something other than a man. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Tom Frieden – Oberlin College A graduate of Oberlin in 1982, Frieden worked to creat awareness for tuberculosis control. Since 2009 he’s served as the director for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Frieden was also active in the response to the Ebola outbreak – remember when that happened? (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Drew Carey – Kent State University Carey showed the nation that Cleveland rocks with his sitcom, The Drew Carey Show, and now hosts Whose Line Is It Anyway. He’s a Cleveland native and managed to get himself expelled not once, but twice, from Kent State for poor academic performance. (Photo via IMDB)

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