The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
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List of the most influential people in Communications,
#3101
Heinz Holliger
#66034
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Heinz Robert Holliger is a Swiss virtuoso oboist, composer and conductor. Celebrated for his versatility and technique, Holliger is among the most prominent oboists of his generation. His repertoire includes Baroque and Classical pieces, but he has regularly engaged in lesser known pieces of Romantic music, as well as his own compositions. He often performed contemporary works with his wife, the harpist Ursula Holliger; composers such as Berio, Carter, Henze, Krenek, Lutosławski, Martin, Penderecki, Stockhausen and Yun have written works for him. Holliger is a noted composer himself, writing ...
Go to Profile#3102
Nancy Wilson
#47938
Overall Influence
1937 - 2018 (81 years)
Nancy Sue Wilson was an American singer whose career spanned over five decades, from the mid-1950s until her retirement in the early 2010s. She was especially notable for her single " How Glad I Am" and her version of the standard "Guess Who I Saw Today". Wilson recorded more than 70 albums and won three Grammy Awards for her work. During her performing career, Wilson was labeled a singer of blues, jazz, R&B, pop, and soul; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer". The title she preferred, however, was "song stylist". She received many nicknames including "Sweet Nancy", "The Bab...
Go to Profile#3103
Laura Claridge
#52607
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Laura Claridge is an American author known primarily for her biographies of major 20th century figures, forcing re-examination of popular icons including Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka, Emily Post and Norman Rockwell. Claridge was a tenured English professor at the United States Naval Academy until 1997. She received an award from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and her 2008 biography of Emily Post received the J Anthony Lukas Award, administered by Harvard University's Neiman Foundation for Journalism and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She has writ...
Go to Profile#3104
John Serry Sr.
#69509
Overall Influence
1915 - 2003 (88 years)
John Serry Sr. was an American concert accordionist, arranger, composer, organist, and educator. He performed on the CBS Radio and Television networks and contributed to Voice of America's cultural diplomacy initiatives during the Golden Age of Radio. He also concertized on the accordion as a member of several orchestras and jazz ensembles for nearly forty years between the 1930s and 1960s.
Go to Profile#3105
Michel Petrucciani
#79613
Overall Influence
1962 - 1999 (37 years)
Michel Petrucciani was a French jazz pianist. From birth he had osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic disease that causes brittle bones and, in his case, short stature. He became one of the most accomplished jazz pianists of his generation despite his health condition and relatively short life.
Go to Profile#3106
Noah Diffenbaugh
#90994
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Noah S. Diffenbaugh is an American climate scientist at Stanford University, where he is the Kara J Foundation Professor of Earth System Science and Kimmelman Family Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, and an affiliate at the Precourt Institute for Energy. From 2015-2018, he served as editor-in-chief of the peer-review journal Geophysical Research Letters . He is known for his research on the climate system, including the effects of global warming on extreme weather and climate events such as the 2011-2017 California drought.
Go to Profile#3107
Nick Ingman
#49517
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Nicholas Ingman is an English arranger, composer and conductor in the commercial music field. His collaborators include Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Björk, and the British X-factor. Born and educated in London, Ingman moved to the US at the age of seventeen to study at the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory, both in Boston. After returning to London, he took a postgraduate course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His first job was as assistant arranger with record producer Norrie Paramor. While there, here worked with Cliff Richard, the Shadows, Sacha Distel and many more.
Go to Profile#3108
Ron Robin
#19179
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Ron Theodore Robin is an Israeli scholar whose research focuses on the interface between culture and foreign policy in the United States. He is a senior faculty member at the University of Haifa, as well as a professor emeritus at New York University . Currently Robin serves as the 11th president of the University of Haifa.
Go to Profile#3109
John Dankworth
#68269
Overall Influence
1927 - 2010 (83 years)
Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE , also known as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist, clarinettist and writer of film scores. With his wife, jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine, he was a music educator and also her music director.
Go to Profile#3110
James Masterton
#45596
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
James Masterton is a British music critic and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worked on air as a presenter at the Bradford independent local radio station the Pulse.
Go to Profile#3111
Frank Lloyd
#83651
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Frank Lloyd FRAM is an English virtuoso horn player and teacher, Professor of Horn at the in Essen, Germany and formerly professor of horn at both the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trinity College of Music in London.
Go to Profile#3112
Sarah Jones
#42807
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Sarah Jones is an English musician based in London, best known for her work as a session and touring drummer. She is a founding member of NYPC, and has also served as a touring drummer for musicians such as Aynsley Lister, Harry Styles, Bat for Lashes, post-punk revival band Bloc Party, and synthpop band Hot Chip. Additionally, she has released several solo singles under the moniker Pillow Person. In 2020, she played drums on the new Puscifer album, titled Existential Reckoning.
Go to Profile#3113
Richard Hawley
#53894
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Richard Willis Hawley is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. After his first band Treebound Story broke up, Hawley found success as a member of Britpop band Longpigs in the 1990s. After that group broke up in 2000, he joined the band Pulp, led by his friend Jarvis Cocker, for a short time. As a solo musician, Hawley has released eight studio albums. He has been nominated for a Mercury prize twice and once for a Brit Award. He has collaborated with Lisa Marie Presley, Shakespears Sister, Arctic Monkeys, Manic Street Preachers, Elbow, Duane Eddy and Paul Weller.
Go to Profile#3114
George Strait
#13396
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
George Harvey Strait Sr. is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and music producer. Strait is credited for pioneering the neotraditional country style in the 1980s, famed for his authentic cowboy image and roots-oriented sound at a time when the Nashville music industry was dominated by country pop crossover acts. Given his influence on the genre, Strait has been named the "King of Country Music" by writers and music critics. Strait currently holds the record for most number one songs on all charts by an artist, in any genre of music."
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Ruth A. Berman
#73311
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Ruth Berman is an Israeli linguist, Professor Emerita, Tel Aviv University, where she held the chair in “Language across the Lifespan.” Berman's research deals with the morphology, syntax, and lexicon of Modern Hebrew, first language acquisition in cross-linguistic perspective, later language development, and development of narrative and text construction abilities from early childhood across adolescence and adulthood.
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Juan Antonio Bardem
#66074
Overall Influence
1922 - 2002 (80 years)
Juan Antonio Bardem Muñoz was a Spanish film director and screenwriter, born in Madrid. He was a member of the Communist Party. Bardem was best known for Muerte de un ciclista which won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, and El puente which won the Golden Prize at the 10th Moscow International Film Festival.
Go to Profile#3117
John Farrar
#46440
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
John Clifford Farrar is an Australian music producer, songwriter, arranger, singer, and guitarist. As a musician, Farrar is a former member of several rock and roll groups including The Mustangs , The Strangers , Marvin, Welch & Farrar , and The Shadows . In 1980, he released a solo eponymous album. As a songwriter and producer, he worked with Olivia Newton-John from 1971 to 1989. He wrote her U.S. number-one hit singles: "Have You Never Been Mellow" , "You're the One That I Want" , "Hopelessly Devoted to You" , and "Magic" . He also produced the majority of her recorded material during that ...
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Mathis Wackernagel
#7420
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Mathis Wackernagel is a Swiss-born sustainability advocate. He is President of Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability think tank with offices in Oakland, California, and Geneva, Switzerland. The think-tank is a non-profit that focuses on developing and promoting metrics for sustainability.
Go to Profile#3119
Dave Grusin
#42844
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Robert David Grusin is an American composer, arranger, producer, jazz pianist, and band leader. He has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy Award and 10 Grammy Awards. He is also a frequent collaborator with director Sydney Pollack, scoring many of his films like Three Days of the Condor , Absence of Malice , Tootsie , The Firm , and Random Hearts . In 1978, Grusin founded GRP Records with Larry Rosen, and was an early pioneer of digital recording.
Go to Profile#3120
Goldie
#43404
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Clifford Joseph Price MBE , better known as Goldie, is an English music producer and DJ. Initially gaining exposure for his work as a graffiti artist, Goldie became well known for his pioneering role as a musician in the 1990s UK jungle, drum and bass and breakbeat hardcore scenes. He released a variety of singles under the pseudonym Rufige Kru and co-founded the label Metalheadz. He later released several albums under his own name, including the 1995 album Timeless, which entered the UK charts at number 7.
Go to Profile#3121
Alan Deyermond
#43763
Overall Influence
1932 - 2009 (77 years)
Alan Deyermond FBA was a British professor of medieval Spanish literature and Hispanist. His obituary called him "the English-speaking world's leading scholar of medieval Hispanic literature". He spent his academic career associated with one University of London college, Westfield College .
Go to Profile#3122
Amy Aronson
#51383
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Amy Beth Aronson is a Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Fordham University. Education Aronson gained her Ph.D. in 1996 from Columbia University. Career Aronson specializes in media history, with a focus on American magazines and periodical literature. Within that frame, her primary research interest is gender, including both femininity and masculinity studies. A scholar-practitioner, she has published both scholarly and journalistic work on issues of gender, diversity, journalism history and American culture. She has worked as the editor of several magazines, including Working Wom...
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Nancy Snow
#46435
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Nancy Snow is an American professor emeritus of communications at California State University, Fullerton and scholar of propaganda and public diplomacy. She has authored, edited or co-edited fifteen books, including Propaganda, Inc.: Selling America's Culture to the World, an overview of American cultural policy that includes a foreword by Herbert Schiller and introduction by Michael Parenti; and Information War: American Propaganda, Free Speech and Opinion Control since 9-11.
Go to Profile#3124
Alvera Mickelsen
#47578
Overall Influence
1919 - 2016 (97 years)
Alvera Mickelsen was an American academic, author, and women's equality activist. Mickelsen, an evangelical Christian, spent her professional life advocating "that being a feminist is a Christian responsibility," despite resistance from some sectors. She published numerous books and scholarly articles on the topic of women's equality within Christianity. Alvera Mickelsen joined her colleagues to co-found Christians for Biblical Equality in the late 1980s, a non-profit organization of churches and individuals which advocates for the equality of women within the church, as well as in their homes and society.
Go to Profile#3125
Herbert Ross
#47910
Overall Influence
1927 - 2001 (74 years)
Herbert David Ross was an American actor, choreographer, director and producer who worked predominantly in theater and film. He was nominated for two Academy Awards and a Tony Award. He is known for directing musical and comedies such as Goodbye, Mr. Chips , The Owl and the Pussycat , Play It Again, Sam , The Sunshine Boys, Funny Lady , The Goodbye Girl , California Suite , and Pennies From Heaven . His later films include Footloose , and Steel Magnolias . For the drama The Turning Point he received two Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director and received the Golden Glo...
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Irwin Allen
#40999
Overall Influence
1916 - 1991 (75 years)
Irwin Allen was an American film and television producer and director, known for his work in science fiction, then later as the "Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genre. His most successful productions were The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno . He also created and produced the popular 1960s science-fiction television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants.
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Jean Françaix
#78959
Overall Influence
1912 - 1997 (85 years)
Jean René Désiré Françaix was a French neoclassical composer, pianist, and orchestrator, known for his prolific output and vibrant style. Life Françaix's natural gifts were encouraged from an early age by his family. His father, Director of the Conservatoire of Le Mans, was a musicologist, composer, and pianist, and his mother was a teacher of singing. Jean Françaix studied at the Conservatoire of Le Mans and then at the Paris Conservatory, and was only six when he took up composing, with a style heavily influenced by Ravel. Françaix's first publication, in 1922, caught the attention of a com...
Go to Profile#3128
David Odden
#77801
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
David Arnold Odden is professor emeritus of Linguistics at the Ohio State University. His contributions to linguistics have been in the area of phonology and language description, most notably African tone and the description of Bantu languages. In addition, his work on the obligatory contour principle has been instrumental to an understanding of that phenomenon. He is the former editor of Studies in African Linguistics and a current editorial board member of Natural Language and Linguistic Theories.
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Gidon Kremer
#49308
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Gidon Kremer is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica. Life and career Gidon Kremer was born in Riga. His father was Jewish and had survived the Holocaust. His mother had German-Swedish origins. His grandfather was a well-known musicologist and violinist in Riga. The boy began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving instruction from his father and his grandfather, who were both professional violinists. He went on to study at the Riga School of Music, where his teacher was mainly Voldemar Sturestep . From 1965, Kremer studied with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory.
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Jeff Todd Titon
#27667
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Jeff Todd Titon is a professor emeritus of music at Brown University. He holds the B.A. from Amherst College; and the M.A. and the Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He taught American literature, folklore, and ethnomusicology in the departments of English and Music at Tufts University , where he co-founded the American Studies program and also the M.A. program in Ethnomusicology. He taught at Brown University where he was director of the Ph.D. program in Ethnomusicology. He held visiting professorships at Amherst College, Carleton College, Berea College, East Tennessee State University, and Indiana University's Folklore Institute.
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Gwen Ifill
#54906
Overall Influence
1955 - 2016 (61 years)
Gwendolyn L. Ifill was an American journalist, television newscaster, and author. In 1999, she became the first African-American woman to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs program with Washington Week in Review. She was the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and co-managing editor, with Judy Woodruff, of the PBS NewsHour, both of which air on PBS. Ifill was a political analyst and moderated the 2004 and 2008 vice-presidential debates. She authored the best-selling book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.
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Miklós Rózsa
#51504
Overall Influence
1907 - 1995 (88 years)
Miklós Rózsa was a Hungarian-American composer trained in Germany and active in France , the United Kingdom , and the United States , with extensive sojourns in Italy from 1953 onward. Best known for his nearly one hundred film scores, he nevertheless maintained a steadfast allegiance to absolute concert music throughout what he called his "double life".
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Bruno Osimo
#84779
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Bruno Osimo is an Italian fiction writer, translator, and translation studies scholar. A disciple of Peeter Torop's, professor of Translation Studies at the Civica Scuola Interpreti e Traduttori «Altiero Spinelli», translator from Russian and English to Italian, he has developed Charles Sanders Peirce's, Lev Vygotsky's, and Roman Jakobson's theories. He has published three novels, Dizionario affettivo della lingua ebraica, Bar Atlantic and Disperato erotico fox. He has edited the Italian edition of works by Alexander Lyudskanov, Anton Popovič, Peeter Torop, Juri Lotman, Roman Jakobson. He is ...
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Joshua Benton
#55843
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Joshua Benton is an American journalist and writer. He is director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, which he founded in 2008. Before moving to Harvard, Benton was an investigative reporter and columnist for The Dallas Morning News and a staff writer for The Toledo Blade. He won numerous national awards for his reporting, most notably on education. He wrote a series of stories on cheating on Texas' state test, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, which led to state reforms and the permanent closure of the Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District.
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Jimmy Giuffre
#62442
Overall Influence
1921 - 2008 (87 years)
James Peter Giuffre was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He is known for developing forms of jazz which allowed for free interplay between the musicians, anticipating forms of free improvisation.
Go to Profile#3136
Stanisław Urbańczyk
#41657
Overall Influence
1909 - 2001 (92 years)
Stanisław Urbańczyk was a Polish linguist and academic, a professor at the universities of Toruń, Poznań and Kraków. He was the head of the Institute of the Polish Language at the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1973–79.
Go to Profile#3137
Meredith Monk
#50285
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Meredith Jane Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. From the 1960s onwards, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records. In 1991, Monk composed Atlas, an opera, commissioned and produced by the Houston Opera and the American Music Theater Festival. Her music has been used in films by the Coen Brothers and Jean-Luc Godard . Trip hop musician DJ Shadow sampled Monk's "Dolmen Music" on the song "Midnight in a Perfect World". In 2015, she was awarded the National Med...
Go to Profile#3138
Bobby Bare
#45701
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Robert Joseph Bare Sr. is an American country singer and songwriter, best known for the songs "Marie Laveau", "Detroit City" and "500 Miles Away from Home". He is the father of Bobby Bare Jr., also a musician.
Go to Profile#3139
Doc Pomus
#56009
Overall Influence
1925 - 1991 (66 years)
Jerome Solon Felder , known professionally as Doc Pomus, was an American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the co-writer of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 1992, the Songwriters Hall of Fame , and the Blues Hall of Fame .
Go to Profile#3140
Matt Hughes
#57809
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Matthew Hughes is a Canadian author who writes science fiction under the name Matthew Hughes, crime fiction as Matt Hughes and media tie-ins as Hugh Matthews. Prior to his work in fiction, he was a freelance speechwriter. Hughes has written over twenty novels and he is also a prolific author of short fiction whose work has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's Science Fiction, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Lightspeed, Postscripts, Interzone and original anthologies edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. In 2020 he was inducted into the Canadian SF ...
Go to Profile#3141
Spike Stent
#27731
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Mark "Spike" Stent is an English record producer and mixing engineer who has worked with many international artists including Madonna, Marshmello, U2, Beyoncé, Björk, Depeche Mode, Echo & the Bunnymen, Grimes, Ed Sheeran, Beth Orton, Harry Styles, Frank Ocean, Selena Gomez, All Saints, Spice Girls, Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Mansun, Maroon 5, Muse, Lily Allen, Gwen Stefani, Moby, No Doubt, Lenka, Usher, Kaiser Chiefs, Linkin Park, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Oasis, Keane, Massive Attack, Bastille, Diana Vickers and Take That.
Go to Profile#3142
Alexander Baillie
#56675
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Alexander Baillie is an English cellist, recognised internationally as one of the finest of his generation. He is currently professor of cello at the Bremen Hochschule and previously taught at Birmingham Conservatoire, as well as at various summer schools in the UK and Europe. He is one of the main cello professors at the Cadenza Summer School, and also runs an annual cello summer course in Bryanston.
Go to Profile#3143
Henning Rübsam
#28365
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Henning Rübsam is a choreographer and dancer based in New York City. He is the artistic director of SENSEDANCE, a faculty member of The Juilliard School and Fordham University, and a visiting guest professor at Texas Academy of Ballet . He is the dance curator for Arts at Work and a resident choreographer for Hartford City Ballet.
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Emily Chang
#27206
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Emily Hsiu-Ching Chang is an American journalist, executive producer, and author. Chang was the anchor and executive producer of Bloomberg Technology, a daily TV show focused on global technology, and Studio 1.0, where she regularly speaks to top executives, investors, and entrepreneurs. Chang is the author of Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley, which alleges sexism and gender inequality in the tech industry.
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Nino Manfredi
#61996
Overall Influence
1921 - 2004 (83 years)
Saturnino "Nino" Manfredi was an Italian actor, voice actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, comedian, singer, author, radio personality and television presenter. He was one of the most prominent Italian actors in the commedia all'italiana genre. During his career he won several awards, including six David di Donatello awards, six Nastro d'Argento awards and the Prix de la première oeuvre at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival for Between Miracles. Typically playing losers, marginalised, working-class characters yet "in possession of their dignity, morality, and underlying optimism", he was re...
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Margarita D'Amico
#80169
Overall Influence
1938 - 2017 (79 years)
Margarita D'Amico was a Venezuelan journalist, researcher, and professor who made a substantial impact on art criticism and cultural journalism in Venezuela. Career D'Amico graduated with a Bachelor in Journalism and Arts from the Central University of Venezuela in 1961 and with a postgraduate in Audiovisual Information in the University of Paris in 1964. She became a professor at the Social of Communication Faculty of the UCV.
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Ruggero Deodato
#49296
Overall Influence
1939 - 2022 (83 years)
Ruggero Deodato was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. His career spanned a wide-range of genres including peplum, comedy, drama, poliziottesco, and science fiction, yet he is perhaps best known for directing violent and gory horror films with strong elements of realism. His most notable film is Cannibal Holocaust, considered one of the most controversial and brutal in the history of cinema, which was seized, banned or heavily censored in many countries, and which contained special effects so realistic that they led to Deodato being arrested on suspicion of murder. It is also cited as a precursor of found footage films such as The Blair Witch Project and The Last Broadcast.
Go to Profile#3148
Douglas (tim) Hall
#97075
Overall Influence
#3149
S. Anand
#13088
Overall Influence
S. Anand is an Indian author, publisher and journalist. He, along with D. Ravikumar, founded the publishing house Navayana in 2003, which is "India’s first and only publishing house to focus on the issue of caste from an anticaste perspective." Navayana won the British Council-London Book Fair International Young Publisher of the Year award in 2007. In Pali, the word "navayana" means "new vehicle". B. R. Ambedkar used the word in 1956 to describe the branch of Buddhism that wouldn't be mired in the Hinayana-Mahayana divide, but would help dalits gain equality in India.
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Alex Gibney
#29785
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Philip Alexander Gibney is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2010, Esquire magazine said Gibney "is becoming the most important documentarian of our time." Gibney's works as director include The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief , We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God , Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room ; Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer , Casino Jack and the United States of Money, and Taxi to the Dark Side , focusing on a taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured and killed at Bagram Air Force Base in 2002.
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