Goldsmiths College Notable Alumni
Discover the notable alumni of Goldsmiths College. The list includes people like Damien Hirst, Mary Quant, Dame Vivienne Westwood, Kalki Koechlin & Damon Albarn. This list of notable alumni is loosely sorted by popularity and has people from different domains of life, such as musicians, film & theater personalities, fashion, singers and miscellaneous etc.
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Birthdate: April 8, 1941
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Tintwistle
British fashion designer, Dame Vivienne Westwood, is credited for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. She attended a course on jewelry at the University of Westminster but left before graduating. She worked as a teacher for a while before turning to fashion designing. She eventually opened four boutiques in London.
2
Damon Albarn
(Guitarist, Singer, Musician, Composer, Songwriter)
Birthdate: March 23, 1968
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Whitechapel
Grammy-winning English singer Damon Albarn has previously been part of two major bands, Blur and Gorillaz, as their lead vocalist and primary songwriter. He has also performed as part of the supergroup The Good, the Bad & the Queen. His solo album Everyday Robots was nominated for a Mercury Award.
3
John Cale
(Welsh Musician, Composer and Founding Member of the American Rock Band 'The Velvet Underground')
Birthdate: March 9, 1942
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Garnant, Wales
Experimental musician John Cale is best known as the co-founder of the rock band The Velvet Underground. The son of a coal miner father, he later developed a love for music that earned him a scholarship to the University of London. Prescribed opiates for his bronchial issues, he later struggled with addiction.
Birthdate: February 11, 1934
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Blackheath, London, England
Height: 5'9" (175 cm)
5
Malcolm McLaren
(Singer, Screenwriter, Songwriter, Talent agent, Record producer, Talent manager)
Birthdate: January 22, 1946
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Stoke Newington
Died: April 8, 2010
Birthdate: June 7, 1965
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Bristol
Artist Damien Hirst first gained fame in the 1980s. A master of conceptual art, he creates everything from paintings and installations to sculptures and drawings, with topics ranging from mortality and beauty to rebirth and technology. One of his creations featured dead animals preserved in formaldehyde, while another featured rows of multicolored spots.
7
Graham Sutherland
(Painter, Artist)
Birthdate: August 24, 1903
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Streatham
Died: February 17, 1980
Birthdate: August 14, 1930
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Southwark, London, England, UK
Died: September 6, 2018
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
9
Julian Clary
(Comedian, Novelist, Actor)
Birthdate: May 25, 1959
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Surbiton
Height: 6'2" (188 cm)
10
John Illsley
(English Musician Bassist and Guitarist)
Birthdate: June 24, 1949
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Leicester, England
11
Linton Kwesi Johnson
(Poet)
Birthdate: August 24, 1952
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Chapelton, Jamaica
Linton Kwesi Johnson is a Jamaican-born British-based activist and dub poet. He is best known for his poetry that deals with the experiences of an African-Caribbean in Britain. Linton Kwesi Johnson was honored with the PEN Pinter Prize in July 2020.
Birthdate: April 24, 1931
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: West Norwood
13
Tena Stivicic
(Playwright)
Birthdate: September 5, 1977
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Zagreb, Yugoslavia
14
Colin Welland
(Actor, Screenwriter)
Birthdate: July 4, 1934
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Died: November 2, 2015
15
Liam Gillick
(sculptor, painter)
Birthdate: 1964 AD
Birthplace: Aylesbury
Birthdate: November 12, 1966
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
17
Gary Hume
(Painter, Sculptor)
Birthdate: May 9, 1962
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Tenterden
Gary Hume is an English artist best known for his association with Young British Artists. A popular artist, Gary Hume represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1999. In the exhibition, Hume showcased his famous Water series. In 1997, he was honored with Great Britain's prestigious Jerwood Painting Prize.
Birthdate: 1979 AD
Birthplace: Keighley, England
Birthdate: October 30, 1984
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Guildford, Surrey, England
Birthdate: 1965 AD
Birthplace: England
Although British sculptor Rebecca Warren is chiefly known for her works in clay, steel and bronze, she is equally at home with variety of other materials, creating collages and wall mounted vitrines with neon, wool, pompoms, paper, thread etc. Currently a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, she has been holding solo exhibitions across Europe and USA since 2003.
Birthdate: 1977 AD
Birthplace: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Ranked among the top 20 creative universities in the United Kingdom, Goldsmiths College offers 22 different degree programmes specializing in Arts and humanities subjects such as History of Art and Music. Situated in New Cross, south east London, the campus mesmerizes the crowd with its smell of gorgeous greenery. The university provides outstanding education to students from diversified cultures. The university has also placed itself among the top universities in the UK after the department of Media & Communications, Psychology, Anthropology Education, Sociology and History of London bagged the 1st, 3rd, 8th, 9th, and 4th rankings respectively, as per the Research Excellence Framework 2014. Katy B and James Blake, Alex James and Graham Coxon (Blur), Antony Gormley, Sam Taylor-Wood, Margaret Howell, and many more are a few famous alumni of the Goldsmiths College. Steve McQueen, nominated for Golden Globe Awards for his best role in The Sand Pebbles, Love with the Proper Stranger, Comedy in The Reivers studied at the Goldsmiths College. Linton Kwesi Johnson, the only black poet to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series earned a degree in sociology at Goldsmiths College, Samantha Sam, a film maker, photographer and visual artist came into limelight with her debut Nowhere Boy in 2009 also studied here. Continue scrolling to know more about the famous alumni of Goldsmiths College.