Alumni

Whether they are in front of the camera or behind it, on stage or in the wings, UT alumni have been entertaining the world for decades as actors, writers, choreographers, producers, directors, and documentarians. Read all about our Vols who honed their skills in the classroom and on our theatre stages and find out where you can see their work in action.

General Robert Neyland’s game maxims helped former football player Austin “Shifty” Shofner (’37) and several others escape a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.

In an ever-changing landscape of news and technology, Amanda Wills (’08) has found her calling.

In 1992, X-Men: The Animated Series took the world by storm, and three UT alumni were the creative forces behind its success.

Two simple words tweeted by alumnus Patrick Wells on behalf of MoonPie vaulted the classic brand into internet superstardom.

General Mike Holmes, named commander of the US Air Force’s Air Combat Command in March, first came to UT as a student when he was only five years old—but not as the youngest freshman ever.

A building lies in ruins, its smoky shell all that remains. As firefighters turn their attention from battling the blaze to figuring out what caused it, their first call goes out to . . . an electrical engineer? It might seem an odd place to start, but when that engineer is UT’s David Icove, it makes perfect sense.

From his first encounter with William Bass, P. Willey (’82) knew he wanted to become an anthropologist. You might even say his future was ordained.

A skeleton found in an abandoned house haunted Jennifer Love (’99 & 01) for months. As the forensic anthropologist for Shelby County, Tennessee, it was her job to piece together clues from those bones to figure out who this person was and return the remains to their family.

David Hunt (’83 & ’89) remembers visiting the Dickson Mounds State Museum, not far from his home in Washington, Illinois, as early as age six and being fascinated by the skeletons that had been excavated—some of them with arrow points still in them.