List of former or dissident LDS
This is a list of well-known Mormon dissidents or other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who have either been excommunicated or have resigned from the church - as well as of individuals no longer self-identifying as LDS and those inactive individuals who are on record as not believing and/or not participating in the church. While the church doesn't regularly provide information about excommunication or resignation, those listed here have made such information public. In a very few cases, the list below may include former adherents of other Latter Day Saint movement denominations who have ceased identifying as Mormon, as well.
See: List of Latter-day Saints for current members of the LDS Church.
Former and inactive members
- Amy Adams, five-time Academy Award-nominated actress known for roles in Enchanted, Doubt, The Fighter
- Rocky Anderson, 33rd mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, 2000–2008
- Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister New Zealand, 2017-
- Heather Armstrong, blogger, dooce.com
- Hal Ashby, director of New Hollywood films such as Shampoo and Being There
- Tal Bachman, son of Randy Bachman and Canadian musician known for his 1999 hit song, "She's So High"
- Belladonna, American pornographic actress
- Steve Benson, cartoonist and grandson of LDS Church president Ezra Taft Benson
- Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter and producer, 2009 Oscar for Best Screenplay for Milk
- Wayne C. Booth, American literary critic and professor of English
- Gutzon Borglum, sculptor most noted for the heads of U.S. presidents on Mount Rushmore
- Paul D. Boyer, biochemist, Nobel Laureate
- Wilford Brimley, actor known for Cocoon, The Firm, Quaker Oats commercials, and Liberty Medical "diabeetus". meme
- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese
- Win Butler, frontman for the band Arcade Fire
- Frank J. Cannon, U.S. Senator from Utah
- Ed Catmull, animation pioneer and president of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation
- Johnny Cunningham, brother of Phil, and member of Silly Wizard
- Phil Cunningham, Scottish folk musician, member of Silly Wizard
- Cytherea, American pornographic actress who popularized female ejaculation
- Brian Keith Dalton, the creator, producer and main character of Mr Deity. He coined the term "Formon" for "former Mormon" in 1996.
- Jack Dempsey, world heavyweight boxing champion
- Eliza Dushku, actress known for roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Tru Calling, Dollhouse
- Richard Dutcher, independent filmmaker and actor known for films God's Army, God's Army 2: States of Grace, Brigham City
- George S. Eccles, CEO of First Security Bank and philanthropist
- Marriner Eccles, CEO of First Security Bank and Chairman of the Federal Reserve System
- Spencer S. Eccles, CEO of Mountain States Implement Company and senior executive of First Security Bank
- Willard L. Eccles, senior executive of First Security Bank
- Aaron Eckhart, Golden Globe Award-nominated actor known for roles in Thank You for Smoking, The Dark Knight, Erin Brockovich
- Brian Evenson, American writer of literary and popular fiction
- Vardis Fisher, "Lost Generation" author of Children of God and the Testament of Man
- Mindy Gledhill, singer songwriter
- Tyler Glenn, lead singer for the American rock band Neon Trees
- Ryan Gosling, Academy Award-nominated actor known for roles in Half Nelson, The Notebook, Drive
- Laci Green, American sex educator
- James "Bo" Gritz, controversial former United States Army Special Forces officer
- Leigh Harline, Hollywood composer, known most notably for "When You Wish Upon a Star"
- Annette Haven, American former pornographic actress
- Katherine Heigl, American actress
- Jessica Holmes, Canadian comedian
- Julianne Hough,dancer, actress, singer, songwriter
- Abby Huntsman, political commentator and great-granddaughter of Apostle David B. Haight
- Jon Huntsman Jr., former Utah governor, former U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, China, and Russia, and grandson of Apostle David B. Haight
- Carolyn Tanner Irish, bishop in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America
- Jim Jannard, sunglasses designer and founder of Oakley, Inc.
- William Jasper Kerr, president of Oregon Agricultural College from 1907-1932
- Konrad Juengling, American LGBT rights activist
- Spencer L. Kimball, dean of the University of Utah law school, son of Mormon prophet Spencer W. Kimball
- Walter Kirn, literary editor of GQ
- Neil LaBute, playwright
- Jim Matheson, former Utah congressman
- Norma Matheson, former Utah First Lady
- Scott M. Matheson, former Utah governor
- Wilson McCarthy, head of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad
- Bert McCracken, of the rock band The Used
- Alfred W. McCune, railroad builder, mine operator, and politician
- Sterling McMurrin, U.S. Commissioner of Education in the Kennedy administration, provost of the University of Utah, and philosopher
- Merlin Olsen, NFL great and actor in Little House on the Prairie et al.
- Culbert Olson, twenty-ninth governor of California
- Grant H. Palmer, lifelong employee of the Church Educational System and author of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins
- Esther Peterson, Assistant Secretary of Labor in the Kennedy administration and consumer advocate
- Levi Peterson, author of The Backslider
- Sue-Ann Post, Australian comedian who wrote The Confessions of an Unrepentant Lesbian Ex-Mormon
- Arthur Pratt, tenth child of LDS Apostle Orson Pratt and Sarah Pratt, deputy U.S. marshal
- Sarah M. Pratt, outspoken critic of plural marriage, first wife of Apostle Orson Pratt
- Pro-Life, politician known for his opposition to abortion and for changing his name to reflect his views
- Kevin Rahm, actor known for his television roles as Kyle McCarty on Judging Amy, Lee McDermott on Desperate Housewives, and Ted Chaough on Mad Men
- Calvin Rampton, three-term Utah governor
- Marco Rubio, U.S. Senator from Florida
- Cara Santa Maria, American science correspondent and podcaster
- Wayne Sermon, guitarist for rock band Imagine Dragons
- Carrie Sheffield, writer and political analyst
- William Shunn, science fiction writer
- Mike Simpson, U.S. Congressman from Idaho
- Kyrsten Sinema, U.S. Representative from Arizona
- Julia Murdock Smith, adopted daughter of Joseph Smith
- Virginia Sorensen, "Lost Generation" novelist of A Little Lower Than The Angels
- Will Swenson, actor and singer
- Jerald and Sandra Tanner, writers, researchers and critics of the LDS Church
- Obert C. Tanner, founder of the O.C. Tanner Company, philanthropist, and philosophy professor
- Kip Thorne, theoretical physicist, co-founder of the LIGO gravitational wave project, and Nobel Laureate
- Brendon Urie, of rock band Panic! at the Disco
- Morris Udall, Arizona Congressman and presidential candidate
- Stewart Udall, Secretary of the Interior in the Kennnedy and Johnson administrations, Arizona congressman, environmental activist, attorney, and author
- Tom Udall, U.S. Senator for New Mexico
- Janet Varney, American actress and podcaster
- Paul Walker, actor known for role in The Fast and the Furious film series
- Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, feminist
- Lynn Wilder, wrote an ex-Mormon memoir
- Jenny Wilson, Salt Lake County Mayor
- Ted Wilson, former three-term Salt Lake City mayor
- Carl Wimmer, member of the Utah House of Representatives from 2006-2012
- Alex Winters, BBC children's TV presenter
- La Monte Young, extremely influential avant-garde composer of minimalist and drone music
- Warren Zevon, singer/songwriter
- Christina Aguilera is a singer who was raised in an LDS home by parents who met at the church-owned university BYU and married in the Washington D.C. Temple, though, Aguilera has not self-identified as Mormon.
- Martha Nibley Beck, daughter of Mormon apologist Hugh Nibley and author of bestseller Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith.
- Bruce Bastian served as a church missionary to Italy, graduated from BYU, and married in a church temple before coming out. He and a BYU professor developed and co-founded WordPerfect software for word processing.
- Patrick Califia is a writer on the topic of sexuality and identifies as a bisexual trans man.
- Jim Dabakis is a Utah state senator married to his husband Stephen Justeson and enrolled in BYU in 1971, but left after his mission when he came out at as gay at 23.
- Laci Green is a bisexual sex educator and online video creator for Seeker and MTV. In 2016, Time named her one of the 30 most influential people on the Internet.
- Sonia Johnson is a prominent radical feminist and supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.
- Kate Kendell is a lesbian lawyer from Utah who currently serves as the Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. She graduated from the University of Utah in 1988 and became the first staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah. Kate and her partner, Sandy Holmes, live in San Francisco with their two children, as well as Kendall's daughter from a previous marriage.
- David Petruschin is a drag queen with the stage name "Raven" and was raised Mormon.
- Benji Schwimmer, the winner of the 2006 So You Think You Can Dance show.
- Misty Snow is an American politician and transgender woman who grew up Mormon in Salt Lake City. She won over 1/4th of Utah votes for state senator, as the first transgender nominee for a major party to the nation's Senate.
Excommunicated members
- Lavina Fielding Anderson, scholar, writer, editor, and feminist
- Martha Beck, sociologist, life coach, best-selling author, and columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine
- Arthur Gary Bishop, serial killer and child molester
- Jason Derek Brown, 489th fugitive to be placed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list
- Ted Bundy convicted serial killer and rapist
- John Dehlin, founder of the Mormon Stories podcast
- James J. Hamula, former LDS general authority
- Mark Hofmann, double murderer and an expert forger; "considered by forensic experts to be the best forger yet caught"
- Helmuth Hübener, opponent of the Third Reich; posthumously reinstated by the LDS Church in 1946
- Sonia Johnson, feminist and a Peace and Freedom Party presidential nominee
- Kate Kelly, lawyer and feminist, advocate of woman holding the priesthood
- Ogden Kraut, independent Mormon fundamentalist author
- Deborah Laake, wrote an ex-Mormon memoir
- George P. Lee, former LDS general authority, convicted child molester
- Bob Lonsberry, writer and talk radio host, expelled for "bad conduct" prior to 2001, has since rejoined
- David Charles Manners, British writer and charity co-founder
- Richard McCoy, Jr., hijacker of a United Airliner passenger jet for ransom in 1972
- Teresa Nielsen Hayden, essayist and science fiction editor, lapsed at time of excommunication
- Orson Pratt, Jr., first son of Apostle Orson Pratt
- D. Michael Quinn, LDS historian
- Denver Snuffer, Utah lawyer and author of books on LDS doctrine
- Simon Southerton, molecular biologist lapsed at time of excommunication
- Paul Toscano, attorney and author
- James Walker, president of Watchman Fellowship
- George D. Watt, secretary to Brigham Young and compiler of the Journal of Discourses
- Ann Eliza Young, ex-wife of Brigham Young