Laureation Address: Alan Cumming
Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws
Laureation by Bishop Wardlaw Professor Kathryn Rudy, School of Art History and St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies
Wednesday 3 July 2025 – afternoon ceremony
Vice-Chancellor, it is my privilege to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Alan Cumming.
Trailblazer, creative polymath, renaissance man, maverick, master of reinvention, beyond eclectic: Alan Cumming is all of these and more.
His most recent adventures include winning two Emmys for hosting and producing the US Traitors, being named Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre here in Scotland, playing the lead in Brian Cox’s directorial film debut Glenrothan, recording a single with Gaelic rapper Griogair Labhruidh, writing a book with his longtime collaborator Forbes Masson to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the creation of their cabaret alter-egos Victor and Barry, shooting a film in French, all the while touring with NPR’s Ari Shapiro in their cabaret Och and Oy! as well as his solo show Uncut.
He is the author of seven books including a New York Times bestselling memoir, performs in concert regularly in halls around the world and co-owns his own, eponymous cabaret boîte Club Cumming in New York City’s East Village, a home for ‘all ages, all genders, all colours, all sexualities, where kindness is all and anything could happen!’ Perhaps not surprisingly, Time Magazine named him one of the three most fun people in show business (the others were Cher and Stanley Tucci!)
Thirty years ago, his Hamlet stormed the West End, and he was hailed as ‘an actor knocking at the door of greatness’. A quarter of a century ago he was a sensation as Cabaret’s Master of Ceremonies in a production that forever changed the Broadway landscape. A decade ago, his visceral, virtually one-man Macbeth was a stunning, transatlantic coup de théâtre.
His screen work ranges from art house to blockbuster, cult to mainstream, but his performances are always indelible, if not immortal: Mr Floop in Spy Kids, Eli in The Good Wife, Nightcrawler in X2: X Men United, Sebastian in The High Life, ‘O’ in Sex and the City, Boris in Goldeneye, King James in Doctor Who, Sandy Frink in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Mayor Menlove in Schmigadoon and himself on Broad City.
The list of his collaborators over the years includes Liza Minnelli, Jeremy O Harris, Jackie Chan, the Smurfs, David Bowie, The Simpsons, Robert Wilson, Stanley Kubrick, Jay Z, Bianca Del Rio, the Spice Girls, George Lucas, Terence Blanchard, KT Tunstall and, not forgetting, Dora the Explorer, Arthur and Elmo.
He had a photo exhibition named Alan Cumming Snaps! and an award-winning fragrance named Cumming. He has played Dionysus, the Devil, God and the Pope, and was shot as Pan by Herb Ritts for Vanity Fair. He recently played a 70-year-old woman. He has been a Lee Jeans model and on a stamp. He is a Tony and Olivier award-winning theatre actor. He hosted the Tonys and was nominated for an Emmy for doing so.
The New York Observer called him a ‘frolicky pansexual sex symbol for the new millennium’. And at St Andrews, we will now be able to call him our honorary graduate!
Vice-Chancellor, in recognition of his incredible service to the arts, in all its forms, I invite you to confer the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, on Alan Cumming.