University Of Toronto Notable Alumni

Stana Katic is a Canadian-American actress known for playing Kate Beckett on the crime-comedy-drama TV series Castle. Apart from acting in films and TV series, Katic also works toward protecting the environment; in 2010, she established the Alternative Travel Project, which encourages people to abandon personal vehicles for a day to reduce the impact of personal vehicles on the environment.

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian poet and novelist. Her works encompass themes, such as religion and myth, climate change, and gender and identity. An award-winning writer, many of Atwood's works have been made into films and television series; her work, The Handmaid's Tale, has had several adaptations. Perhaps, Margaret Atwood's most important contribution is her invention of the LongPen device.

Victor Garber is a Canadian singer and actor best known for his work in theatre, television, and film. Over the years, Garber has received nominations for several prestigious awards, such as Primetime Emmy Awards and Tony Awards. His work in critically acclaimed movies like Titanic, Argo, and Milk was also appreciated with Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.

Stephen Harper is a Canadian politician and economist. From 2006 to 2015, Harper served as the prime minister of Canada. In 2019, he was made the Companion of the Order of Canada for his service to the nation and for his illustrious career in politics.

Frederick Banting was a Canadian medical scientist and physician. In 1923, Banting and Scottish biochemist John James Rickard Macleod received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of insulin and its therapeutic potential. Aged 32 at that time, Banting remains the youngest Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine. He was knighted by King George V in 1934.

David Cronenberg is a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter. He is considered a pioneer in what is known as the body horror genre. His films have earned numerous awards, and he has both earned critical acclaim and sparked controversy due to the nature of his work. He often collaborates with fellow actor Viggo Mortensen. 

Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker Naomi Klein is known for her criticism of corporate globalization and capitalism. She became internationally known following the release of her alter-globalization book No Logo. She often appears on global and national lists of top influential thinkers and is the recipient of the 2016 Sydney Peace Prize. She is a prominent environmentalist as well.

A successful model and entrepreneur, Maye Musk is also a trained dietician, having a master's degree in dietetics and another in nutritional science. Born in Canada, but raised and married in South Africa, she later returned to her birth country, where she continued modeling, appearing on covers of numerous journals, concurrently running a business as a dietitian, giving presentations worldwide.     

Lorne Michaels is a Canadian-American television producer, comedian, and screenwriter. He is credited with creating and producing one of the most popular American TV sketch comedy and variety shows, Saturday Night Live. With 91 nominations for Primetime Emmy Awards under his belt, Lorne Michaels holds the record for having the most nominations by an individual in the award show's history.

Michael Ondaatje is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, writer, and filmmaker. Born in Sri Lanka, he eventually migrated to Canada. He studied at Bishop's University and embarked on a teaching career. His literary works include poems, novels, and essays. He is the recipient of multiple prestigious awards, including the Giller Prize and the Booker Prize. 

Best known as the band leader in Late Night with David Letterman and the Late Show with David Letterman, Paul Shaffer is a Grammy Award-winning Canadian multi-instrumentalist and singer. He co-wrote the 1980s’ hit It's Raining Men sung by the Weather Girls and later revived by Geri Halliwell.

Enrico Colantoni is a Canadian actor and director best known for his role in the sitcom Just Shoot Me! He received his training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Yale School of Drama. He began his career as an actor in the 1980s and appeared in a string of successful TV series. He is also a director. 

Canadian neurologist, educator, scientist, astronaut and photographer Roberta Bondar CC OOnt FRCPC FRSC is noted as the first female astronaut and the first neurologist of Canada to travel into space. She flew as part of the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-42 and performed over forty experiments in Spacelab. She later served as head of an international team of researchers at NASA.

Lyse Doucet is a Canadian journalist who works with the popular broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). She is BBC's current Chief International correspondent. One of the most respected and decorated Canadian journalists of all time Lyse Doucet has received several prestigious awards, such as the Royal Television Society Award, Peabody Award, David Bloom Award, and a Silver Sony Award. 

David Sutcliffe is a Canadian-American former actor best known for portraying the role of Christopher Hayden in the popular TV series Gilmore Girls. Also known for his philanthropic efforts, David Sutcliffe helped raise money for programs concerning children's mental health in 2013. He also participated in the World Poker Tour to benefit the Hollygrove House charity.

Canadian-American sociologist, social-psychologist and writer Erving Goffman, regarded as the most influential American sociologist of the 20th century by some, is best-known for his study of symbolic interaction and development of his dramaturgical analysis. His book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life was the first that treated face-to-face interaction as a subject of sociological study.

Though a qualified lawyer, Paul Martin never practiced law. He focused on business instead and purchased the domestic-freight carrier Canada Steamship Lines. He later joined the Liberal Party and also served as the prime minister of Canada. He has also received awards such as the Companion of the Order of Canada.

Peter Munk was a Hungarian-Canadian investor, businessman, and philanthropist. He is credited with founding numerous high-profile business ventures, such as Clairtone Sound Corporation Limited, Barrick Gold Corporation, and TrizecHahn Corporation. He also helped found the Peter and Melanie Munk Charitable Foundation which has given away over $300 million to various non-profit organizations that aim at improving the lives of Canadians.

Michael Wincott is a Canadian actor best known for his deep, raspy voice. Thanks to his voice, Wincott is often cast to play villainous roles. Among his best-known roles are Guy of Gisborne in the 1991 American action adventure film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Top Dollar in the 1994 superhero film The Crow.

American-Canadian developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth is best remembered for her contributions in developing the attachment theory. She devised the Strange situation procedure during the 1970s to observe early emotional connect and relationship between a caregiver and child. She was ranked as the 97th most cited psychologist of the 20th century in a 2002 survey of Review of General Psychology.

Best known for his iconic war poems such as In Flanders Fields, Canadian poet John McCrae was also an army physician. He was the first Canadian to serve as a consulting surgeon for the British Army and had earned the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Canadian Army.

Canadian thoracic surgeon Norman Bethune served as an army physician for the Canadian Army during World War I. He revolutionized medical science by introducing the concept of mobile blood-transfusion. A Communist Party of Canada member, he later served the Chinese army against Japan, becoming a revered name in China.

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is a Canadian TV host and actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Appa in the television adaptation of Ins Choi's play Kim's Convenience. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee's performance in the series earned him four Canadian Screen Awards under the Best Actor in a Comedy Series category.

Gerald Vincent Bull was a Canadian artillery expert, known for designing Project Babylon supergun for the Government of Iraq. His idea was to do away with the conventional rockets by firing satellites into orbit from a 156m-long barrel embedded inside a hill. However, his assassination within two years of the start of the project put an end to it.  

Considered one of the most important literary theorists of the century, Herman Northrop Fry gained international fame with his first book, Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake and later with Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Prolific writer and respected educator, he went on to write many more, concurrently championing Canadian literature and identity, receiving several honors for his contributions.

Princeton alumnus Brian Kernighan had a 30-year stint at the Bell Laboratories before returning to his alma mater as a professor. The Canadian computer scientist has played a major role in the development of Unix and has also co-authored the first book on the C programming language.