smARTy-pants: Brainiacs in the entertainment industry

Some people just have everything, don’t they? Good looks, talent, fame and the brains to match all that. And the entertainment industry is filled with these multi-talented, well, talents.

If you checked out my features on Tinseltown’s girls and guys who excel in the looks and books departments, you might have been able to name a few gorgeous faces and their illustrious alma maters that I (almost offensively) left out. Obviously, I couldn’t write about every worthy candidate out there. The article would have been endless. Yes, there are that many brainy beauties in Hollywood.

Whilst doing some cognitive spring-cleaning and rearranging everything in my Mind Palace (yes, Sherlock), I was stunned to find out that the entertainment industry’s brainiacs constituted a long list.

We all know about Ivy Leaguers Emma Watson and Natalie Portman, but did you know that Star Trek co-stars Chris Pine and John Cho both went to Berkeley, that Hollywood beauties Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Connelly attended Stanford, or that 3 of the 4 Pevensie kids from The Chronicles of Narnia went to Oxbridge universities? And these are just a handful of the many impressive celebrities compiled in this post.

So, here it is. Presenting the smARTy-pants (see what I did there?):

Note: Names indicated with a * are also graduates of the most prestigious drama schools in the world.

(The list is organised in alphabetical order by last name)

Name	Known for	University	Major
American universities
Casey Affleck	Actor	Columbia University	Physics, Astronomy and Western Philosophy
Andrew Baldwin	Naval Officer; Doctor; The Bachelor (Season 10)	Duke University	Biology
Elizabeth Banks*	Actress	University of Pennsylvania	Theatre Arts
Angela Bassett*	Actress	Yale University	African American Studies
David Benioff	Screenwriter and Producer | Game of Thrones	Dartmouth College
Candice Bergen	Actress	University of Pennsylvania
Julie Bowen	Actress | Modern Family	Brown University	Italian Renaissance Studies
Jesse Bradford	Actor | Clockstoppers	Columbia University	Film
Jordana Brewster	Actress | Fast & Furious	Yale University	English
Dean Cain	Actor | Superman	Princeton University	History
John Cho	Actor | Harold & Kumar, Star Trek	University of California, Berkeley	English
Misha Collins	Actor | Supernatural	University of Chicago	Social Theory
Jennifer Connelly	Actress	Yale University, transferred to Stanford University	English (Yale); Drama (Stanford)
Anderson Cooper	News anchor	Yale University	Political Science
Brett Dalton*	Actor | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	University of California, Berkeley
Matt Damon	Actor	Harvard University	English
Claire Danes	Actress | Homeland	Yale University	Psychology
Bruce Dern	Actor	University of Pennsylvania
Kara DioGuardi	Singer-songwriter; Judge on American Idol	Duke University	Political Science
David Duchovny	Actor | The X-files	Princeton University (undergraduate)	English Literature
		Yale University (postgraduate)	English Literature
James Eckhouse	Actor |Beverly Hills, 90210	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
James Franco	Actor	University of California, Los Angeles (undergraduate)	English
		Columbia University (postgraduate)	Writing (MFA)
		Yale University (postgraduate)	English (PhD)
		New York University (postgraduate)	Filmmaking
Jodie Foster	Actress	Yale University	Literature
Matthew Fox	Actor | Lost	Columbia University	Economics
Paul Giamatti*	Actor	Yale University	English
Joseph Gordon-Levitt	Actor	Columbia University	History, Literature and French Poetry
Jake Gyllenhaal	Actor	Columbia University	Eastern Religions and Philosophy
Maggie Gyllenhaal	Actress	Columbia University	Literature and Eastern Religions
Nicholas Hammond	Actor | The Sound of Music, The Amazing Spider-Man (TV Series)	Princeton University	English
Katie Holmes	Actress	Columbia University
Famke Janssen	Actress	Columbia University	Creative Writing and Literature
Ken Jeong	Actor	Duke University
Rashida Jones	Actress | Parks and Recreation	Harvard University	Religion and Philosophy
Tommy Lee Jones	Actor	Harvard University	English
Ashley Judd	Actress	Harvard University (postgraduate)	Public Administration (MPA)
Mindy Kaling	Actress | The Mindy Project, The Office	Dartmouth College	Playwriting
Ellie Kemper	Actress | The Office	Princeton University (undergraduate)	English
		University of Oxford (postgraduate)
Charlie Korsmo	Former child actor | Hook	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (undergraduate)	Physics
		Yale Law School (postgraduate)	Law (J.D.)
John Krasinsky	Actor | The Office	Brown University	Theatre Arts
Will Yun Lee	Actor	University of California, Berkeley	Political Science and Ethnic Studies
John Legend	Singer	University of Pennsylvania	English
Dan Lin	Film producer	Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (undergraduate)
		Harvard Business School	MBA
Laura Linney*	Actress	Brown University
John Lithgow*	Actor	Harvard University	History and Literature
Ron Livingston	Actor | Band of Brothers	Yale University	Theatre and English
Rachel Maddow	Television host	Stanford University (undergraduate)	Public Policy
		Lincoln College, Oxford (postgraduate, Rhodes Scholar)	Politics (DPhil)
Wentworth Miller	Actor | Prison Break	Princeton University	English
Frank Morgan	Actor | The Wizard of Oz	Cornell University
Tim Blake Nelson*	Actor	Brown University	Classics
Becki Newton	Actress | Ugly Betty	University of Pennsylvania	European History
Alessandro Nivola	Actor | Jurassic Park III	Yale University	English
Edward Norton	Actor	Yale University	History
B. J. Novak	Actor | The Office	Harvard University	English and Spanish Literature
Conan O’Brien	Talk show host	Harvard University	History and Literature
Masi Oka	Actor | Heroes	Brown University	Computer Science and Mathematics
Amanda Peet	Actress	Columbia University	History
Josh Pence	Actor	Dartmouth College
David Hyde Pierce	Actor | Frasier	Yale University	English and Theatre Arts
Chris Pine	Actor	University of California, Berkeley	English
Natalie Portman	Actress	Harvard University	Psychology
Mike Posner	Singer	Duke University	Sociology
Christopher Reeve*	Actor | Superman	Cornell University	Theatre
Cameron Russell	Model	Wellesley College, transferred to Columbia University	Economics and Political Science
Brooke Shields	Actress	Princeton University	French Literature
Elizabeth Shue	Actress	Harvard University	Government
Julia Stiles	Actress	Columbia University	English Literature
Dr. Travis Stork	Doctor; The Bachelor (Season 8); Host of The Doctors	Duke University (undergraduate)	Anthropology
		University of Virginia (postgraduate)	Medicine
Emma Watson	Actress | Harry Potter	Brown University	English Literature
Sigourney Weaver*	Actress | Aliens	Stanford University	English
Brian White	Actor	Dartmouth College	Political Science, Psychology and Theatre Arts
Allison Williams	Actress | Girls	Yale University	English
Reese Witherspoon	Actress	Stanford University	English Literature
James Woods	Actor	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Political Science
Karl Yune	Actor	Columbia University	Theatre
Rick Yune	Actor | Die Another Day	Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (postgraduate)	MBA
Canadian universities
William Shatner	Actor | Star Trek, Boston Legal	McGill University	Economics
Donald Sutherland*	Actor	University of Toronto	Engineering and Drama
British universities
Gethin Anthony*	Actor | Game of Thrones	Balliol College, Oxford	English Literature
Rowan Atkinson	Actor | Mr. Bean	The Queen’s College, Oxford (postgraduate)	Electrical Engineering (MSc)
Jamie Bamber*	Actor | Law & Order: UK, Battlestar Galactica, Band of Brothers	St John’s College, Cambridge	Italian and French
Kate Beckinsale	Actress	New College, Oxford	French and Russian Literature
Sacha Baron Cohen	Actor	Christ’s College, Cambridge	History
Louise Brealey	Actress | Sherlock	Girton College, Cambridge	History
John Cleese	Actor	Downing College, Cambridge	Law
Lily Cole	Model; actress	King’s College, Cambridge	History of Art
Christian Coulson	Actor | Harry Potter	Clare College, Cambridge	English
Richard Curtis	Screenwriter | Notting Hill, Love Actually	Christ Church, Oxford	English Language and Literature
Hugh Dancy	Actor	St Peter’s College, Oxford	English
Alfred Enoch	Actor | Harry Potter, How to Get Away with Murder	The Queen’s College, Oxford	Portuguese and Spanish
Alice Eve	Actress | Star Trek Into Darkness	St Catherine’s College, Oxford	English
Emilia Fox	Actress | The Pianist	St Catherine’s College, Oxford	English
Stephen Fry	Actor	Queens’ College, Cambridge	English Literature
Ricky Gervais	Comedian, actor	University College London	Philosophy
Hugh Grant	Actor	New College, Oxford	English
Robert Hardy	Actor | Harry Potter	Magdalen College, Oxford	English
Naomie Harris*	Actress | James Bond	Pembroke College, Cambridge	Social and Political Sciences
Georgie Henley	Actress | Narnia	Clare College, Cambridge	English
Tom Hiddleston*	Actor	Pembroke College, Cambridge	Classics
Freddie Highmore	Actor | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Emmanuel College, Cambridge	Spanish and Arabic
Tom Hooper	Director | The King’s Speech, Les Miserables	University College, Oxford	English
Mr Hudson	Singer	St Anne’s College, Oxford	English Literature
Mick Jagger	Lead singer of The Rolling Stones	London School of Economics	Business
Skandar Keynes	Actor | Narnia	Pembroke College, Cambridge	Arabic and Middle Eastern History
Rory Kinnear*	Actor | James Bond	Balliol College, Oxford	English
Hugh Laurie	Actor	Selwyn College, Cambridge	Archaeology and Anthropolgy
Harry Lloyd	Actor | Game of Thrones	Christ Church, Oxford	English
Andrew Lloyd Webber	Composer	Magdalen College, Oxford	History
Miriam Margolyes	Actress | Harry Potter	Newnham College, Cambridge	English
Chris Martin	Lead singer of Coldplay	University College London	Greek and Latin
Brian May	Lead guitarist of Queen	Imperial College London	Mathematics and Physics (BSc)
			Astrophysics (PhD)
Ian McKellen	Actor	St Catharine’s College, Cambridge	English Literature
Dudley Moore	Actor	Magdalen College, Oxford	Music and Composition
Emily Mortimer	Actress	Lincoln College, Oxford	Russian
Hannah Murray	Actress | Game of Thrones	Queens’ College, Cambridge	English
Christopher Nolan	Director	University College London	English Literature
Michael Palin	Actor	Brasenose College, Oxford	Modern History
Rosamund Pike	Actress	Wadham College, Oxford	English Literature
Anna Popplewell	Actress | Narnia	Magdalen College, Oxford	English Language and Literature
Steven Price	Film composer	Emmanuel College, Cambridge	Music
Eddie Redmayne	Actor	Trinity College, Cambridge	History of Art
Dan Stevens	Actor | Downton Abbey	Emmanuel College, Cambridge	English literature
Freddie Stroma	Actor | Harry Potter, Pitch Perfect, UnREAL	University College London	Neuroscience
Tilda Swinton	Actress	Murray Edwards College, Cambridge	Social and Political Sciences
Emma Thompson	Actress	Newnham College, Cambridge	English
Rachel Weisz	Actress	Trinity Hall, Cambridge	English
Mark Williams	Actor | Harry Potter	Brasenose College, Oxford