Acclaimed alumni

IU churns out successful alumni in all disciplines. Check out these juggernauts who got their starts at IU.

Kevin Kline — Acclaimed actor Kevin Kline has been a major figure in cinema and theater for decades, and his illustrious career began at IU.Born in St. Louis, Kline got his bachelor’s degree from IU in 1970 and then continued his studies at the Juilliard School. In 1972, Kline joined a New York City-based acting company and toured the United States to perform works of Shakespeare. Kline has won Tony awards for his theatrical performances, including in musicals “On The Twentieth Century” and “Pirates of Penzance”. His first film was the drama, “Sophie’s Choice.”Kline has starred in a number of Shakespeare plays, including Hamlet” and “King Lear” In 1988, Kline won an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role in “A Fish Called Wanda.” He also won a Screen Actors Guild award for his performance in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” on HBO in 2008.

Jane Pauley — Indianapolis native Jane Pauley is a distinguished broadcast journalist with a career spanning several major American networks. She attended IU and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in political science in 1972. Pauley spent three years working for WISH-TV in Indianapolis and eventually became the anchor for the noon and evening newscasts. Pauley became the first woman to co-anchor a nightly news broadcast in Chicago and later replaced Barbara Walters as a co-anchor on the “Today” show. She co-anchored “Dateline NBC,” the “Today” show and is now the anchor of “CBS Sunday Morning”.

Tavis Smiley — Smiley is a notable radio and television talk show host. Smiley studied public affairs and worked for student government at IU. He started his career hosting a radio commentary show in 1991. Smiley was has been a political commentator on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show”, and had his own public radio show, “The Tavis Smiley Show”, on National Public Radio. He has hosted a show on PBS, worked as a special correspondent for ABC and CNN, written various books about black America and made documentary films. Time magazine named him one of America’s 50 Most Promising Young Leaders and 100 Most Influential People.

Mark Cuban — Cuban is a prominent entrepreneur and businessman, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and the co-founder of broadcast.com. Born in Pittsburgh, he attended IU and graduated from the Kelley School of Business in 1981. Cuban dabbled in several business ventures — he briefly owned a local bar, sold computer software and built a lucrative consulting firm. He achieved great success by creating a streaming website, broadcast.com, which he eventually sold to Yahoo! For $6 billion. Cuban is also a judge, or “shark,” on the television show “Shark Tank,” where aspiring entrepreneurs compete for investments from successful business people.

Suzanne Collins — Collins is the author of “The Hunger Games” trilogy, one of the most popular book series of the last decade. Collins was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She attended IU and studied theater and telecommunications, graduating in 1985. Collins did television writing for several children’s shows and published her first book in 2003. The book, “Gregor the Overlander” was the first in what became a New York Times bestselling series, “The Underland Chronicles.” Collins achieved even greater success with the publication of her book “The Hunger Games” in 2008. The series was later adapted into blockbuster films.