Entertainment
17 Stars You Didn't Know Went To College
It's hard to imagine it now, but there was a time when some of your favorite stars were working on their GPA rather than their red carpet look. While some of these celebrities were already famous by the time they hit their college years, others made it big after they put in their four years on campus. Click through to find out where some of your favorite celebrities went to college.
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman attended Harvard University after she found Hollywood success. Her professors at the Ivy League school have confirmed that she didn’t just skate by on her fame — according to her professors, she was a highly determined and focused student.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
The Don Jon star took some time off of acting to attend Columbia University in New York City. He studied French literature but never officially graduated from the school.
Kourtney Kardashian
Kardashian attended the Southern Methodist University in Texas before transferring to the University of Arizona for junior and senior year. She graduated with a degree in theater studies.
Nicole Richie
Like Kourtney Kardashian, Richie also studied at the University of Arizona, though she didn’t graduate. She dropped out after two years of studying media and moved back to Los Angeles, where she would become a reality star.
Lisa Kudrow
You might be surprised at what Kudrow studied in college. The Friends star studied biology at Vassar College before deciding that comedy was her thing.
Edward Norton
The actor is actually an Ivy League man. Norton studied at — and graduated from — Yale University before pursuing acting.
Troian Bellisario
Before she starred on the ABC Family drama Pretty Little Liars, Bellisario studied acting at USC’s School of Dramatic Arts. Spencer would be so proud.
John Legend
The “All Of Me” singer may be a musical genius, but he’s a regular smartypants as well. He attend the University of Pennsylvania, where he directed an acapella group.
Mindy Kaling
Kaling graduated from Dartmouth College in 2001, where she studied playwriting. She has since incorporated her alma mater into The Mindy Project — Peter (Adam Pally) is a Dartmouth man.
James Franco
What college didn’t James Franco attend? He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree from UCLA, then studied filmmaking at NYU while simultaneously receiving a Master’s of Fine Arts in creative writing from Columbia University. In 2010 he pursued a Ph.D. in English from Yale University.
Maria Menounos
Menounos attended Emerson College in Boston, Mass., the place she credits as fueling her passion for newscasting.
Kristen Bell
The Veronica Mars actress studied musical theater at NYU. She made her Broadway debut while she was still a student at the university with a musical adaptation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
John Krasinski
The Office actor graduated in 2001 from Brown University. He scored the lead in the sitcom four years later.
Rashida Jones
Krasinski wasn’t the only Office alum to have attended an Ivy League school. Rashida Jones graduated from Harvard in 1997 with a B.A. in Religion and Philosophy.
Ashton Kutcher
Kutcher enrolled at the University of Iowa in 1996, but dropped out when a talent scout plucked him out of obscurity.
Rooney Mara
The Side Effects star attended George Washington University in D.C. She admitted that she didn’t like college at first, and that she was “terrified” for most of her freshman year.
Elizabeth Banks
The onscreen Effie Trinket studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a member of the sorority Delta Delta Delta.
