N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) are green and versatile ligands for the development of transition metal (TM) catalysts. Presented is a brief overview of recent advances on NHC-TM complexes for dehydrogenative catalysis using alcohols. Various NHC-TM complexes, mostly based on noble metals Ir, Ru, and Os, as well as some nonnoble metals like Cu, Mo, and Mn, are described. These NHC-TM complexes have been applied to acceptorless alcohol dehydrogenation (AAD) to aldehydes or ketones, and dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols for C-O bond, C-C bond, C-N or C--N bond formation. In comparison, the NHC-based Ru and Ir systems are relatively widely studied, the development of NHC-based non-noble metals catalysts is still in its infant for sustainable dehydrogenative catalysis using alcohols.