Who are the smartest women in Hollywood? (2024)

Most people think actresses are not well educated because you have to get your start at such a young age so education is put on the back burner.

Plus being in a movie or TV show in no way requires a college education, even if you play a rocket scientist.

Also think of child stars such asLindsay Lohan, Dakota Johnson and the Olsen twins who sunk their teeth in the business fast.

Then there are the Kardashians; only one went to college out of Kris Jenner's six very successful kids: it was Kourtney Kardashian, who graduated from University Of Arizona.

But there are actually several female stars who took the time to go to college to get a higher education.

On the list are four Oscar winning actress, a rapper, that former child star and the supermodel-turned-actress, to name a few.

Here is a list at the beauties who hit the books and still have big acting careers at the same time.

NATALIE PORTMAN, 43

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Natalie Portman is a Harvard graduate, which is a big deal even if you are not an actress and are born with a very high IQ.

Her schooling began when she attended Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland.

While living on Long Island, the Star Wars actress attended a Jewish elementary school, the Solomon Schechter Day School of Nassau County.

She also studied ballet and modern dance at the American Theater Dance Workshop, and attended the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts.

At some point she enrolled at the Stagedoor Manor performing arts camp.

Portman graduated from Syosset High School in 1999. Her high school paper, A Simple Method to Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar, co-authored with scientists Ian Hurley and Jonathan Woodward, was entered in the Intel Science Talent Search.

In 1999, she began attending Harvard University to pursue her bachelor's degree in psychology. She studied advanced Hebrew literature and neurobiology, and she served as Alan Dershowitz's research assistant.

Portman graduated from Harvard in 2003

MIRA SORVINO, 56

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Like Natalie Portman, Mira Sorvino attended Harvard University.

The daughter of Goodfellas actor Paul Sorvino grew up on the East Coast. She was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey.

The leggy brunette also went to The Elisabeth Morrow School, a private, co-educational, day school in Englewood, New Jersey, educating children from nursery through eighth grade.

Then the star went to The Dwight-Englewood School, an independent coeducational college-preparatory day school, located in Englewood in Bergen County, in New Jersey. The school teaches students up to 12th grade in three functionally separate schools.

She was then accepted to Harvard University.

She studied for one year as an exchange student with CIEE in Beijing, China, where she studied Mandarin Chinese.

In 1989, she graduated from Harvard magna cum laude with a degree in East Asian studies.

She also helped found the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, one of Harvard's co-ed a cappella groups, in 1985.

BROOKE SHIELDS, 59

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

Shields was born in New York City and started modeling at the age of 11 months.

But the star also attended school the entire time while growing upin Haworth, New Jersey.

Shields first attended the New Lincoln School until she graduated in the eighth grade.

The Pretty Baby actress then went to Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, New Jersey, and graduated in 1983.

That same year Shields took a break from her modeling career to attend Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey.

Shields graduated with a bachelor's degree in Romance languages in 1987.

Brooke told Glamour in 2022: 'The ability to say I graduated with honors from this esteemed place, coming from the entertainment industry, it enabled me to have my own opinions.

'And I don't think I had them before. It was just, "Oh, she's the pretty one. That's the model," or whatever. It was all very surface, which is fine.

'I had a blast. But I knew I needed to develop intellectually so I wouldn't become a victim to the pitfalls of the industry.'

EVA LONGORIA, 49

TEXAS A&M and CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY AT NORTHRIDGE

Longoria was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, and has two degrees: herBachelor of Science at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and her master's degree fromCalifornia State University, Northridge.

She did not speak Spanish growing up, and did not learn the language until 2009.

Longoria earned her Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

At that time (1998), she also won the title of Miss Corpus Christi USA.

After completing college, she entered a talent contest that led her to Los Angeles; and shortly thereafter, was spotted and signed by a theatrical agent.

While auditioning for roles, she worked as a headhunter for four years.

After three years at California State University, Northridge, she received her master's degree in Chicano studies in May 2013.

Her thesis was 'Success STEMS From Diversity: The Value of Latinas in STEM Careers'.

LADY GAGA, 38

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

Lady Gaga - born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in NYC - studied music at New York University.

From age 11, she attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Roman Catholic school.

Because she had started playing a piano as a child, herparents encouraged her to pursue music and enrolled her in Creative Arts Camp.

She then attended Regis High School where she starred in her school plays.

Gaga also studied method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute for 10 years.

In 2003, at the age of 17, Gaga gained early admission to Collaborative Arts Project 21, a music school at New York University (NYU)'s Tisch School of the Arts.

She lived in an NYU dorm.

During her time at the Tisch School she focused on songwriting.

In 2005, Gaga withdrew from school during the second semester of her second year to focus on her music career.

Her first hit songs were Just Dance and Poker Face; both came out in 2008 when she was 22-years-old.

JODIE FOSTER, 61

YALE UNIVERSITY

Jodie Foster, whose birth name is Alicia Christian Foster, attended prestigious Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

The Taxi Driver star grew up in Los Angeles to a single mother who got Jodie into acting at a young age.

Foster was a gifted child who learned to read at the age of three, she claimed.

She attended the Lycée Français de Los Angeles, a French-language prep school, and became fluent in French.

When she graduated in 1980, she delivered the valedictorian address for the school's French division.

She went on to study at Yale University in the early 1980s.

The Oscar-winning actress majored in African-American literature.

Jodie wrote her thesis on Toni Morrison under the guidance of Henry Louis Gates Jr., and graduated magna cum laude in 1985.

In 1993 she went back to Yale to talk to the graduating class.

In 1997, The Silence Of The Lambs actress also received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.

And in 2018, she was awarded the Yale Undergraduate Lifetime Achievement Award.

MEGAN THEE STALLION, 29

TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY

Megan Thee Stallion, born Megan Jovon Ruth Pete, has graduated fromTexas Southern University.

The Hot Girl rapper - who got her stage name due to her 5ft10in height - was raised in Houston, Texas.

The budding rapper attended Pearland High School and graduated in 2013.

In 2013, she became freshman at Prairie View A&M University.

By this time she was already rapping and making videos that she shared on social media.

She told Rolling Stone in 2021: 'I thought I wanted to be a nurse and then I found myself at school and I was like, okay, definitely don't want to be a nurse,' she said.

'I didn't tell my parents I switched my major and then I started really rapping. I left Prairie View and I came home. I got a job, but I was still going to community colleges.

'Finally, I was like you know what? I need to go back on campus. So then that's when I wound up at Texas Southern University.'

She graduated in December 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in health administration.

EMMA WATSON, 34

BROWN UNIVERSITY

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is a graduate ofBrown University, a private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island.

After moving to Oxford with her mother and brother, she attended the Dragon School, remaining there until 2003.

From age six, she wanted to become an actress, and trained at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts.

She also studied singing, dancing, and acting at the theater school. The brunette had never acted professionally prior to the Harry Potter series.

After the Dragon School, Watson moved on to Headington School, Oxford.

While on film sets, she and her castmates were tutored for up to five hours a day.

In June 2006, she took GCSE school examinations.In May 2007, she took AS levels in English, Geography, Art, and History of Art. The following year, she dropped History of Art to pursue the three A levels, receiving an A grade in each subject.

Watson took a gap year after finishing secondary school, to film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Parts 1 & 2 beginning in February 2009.

She then went to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

In March 2011, after 18 months at the university, Watson announced she was deferring her course for 'a semester or two'.

In May 2014, she graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature.

In 2023, she began a masters course in creative writing at Oxford University.

DANICA McKELLAR, 49

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

Danica McKellar spent her early years on the hit TV show The Wonder Years but still managed to graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles.

The star, who is of French, German, Spanish, and Dutch descent, also fit in time to study plenty.

Danica studied at theYoung Actors Space in Los Angeles.

And she also polished her acting skills at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in Union Square in New York City.

McKellar then went on to college: she studied at the University of California, Los Angeles and earned a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude in Mathematics in 1998.

As an undergraduate, she coauthored a scientific paper with Professor Lincoln Chayes and fellow student Brandy Winn titled 'Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin–Teller models.'

Their results are termed the 'Chayes–McKellar–Winn theorem.'

Later, when Chayes was asked to comment about the mathematical abilities of his student coauthors, he was quoted in The New York Times, 'I thought that the two were really, really first-rate.'

JULIA STILES, 43

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Julia Stiles was born in New York City and is a graduate of Columbia University.

She started acting at age 11, performing with New York's La MaMa Theatre Company.

Her first movie was in 1996: I Love You, I Love You Not with Jude Law and Claire Danes.

Her first school wasFriends Seminary, an independent K-12 school in Manhattan within the landmarked district in the East Village.

It is the oldest continuously coeducational school in New York City, and has students in Kindergarten through Grade 12.

Danes attended theProfessional Children's School, a not-for-profit, college preparatory school geared toward working and aspiring child actors and dancers in grades six through twelve.

Stiles graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English literature in 2005.

In 2010, she received a John Jay Award, an honorary award given annually to five alumni by the Columbia College Alumni Association for professional achievements.

JESSICA CHASTAIN, 47

JUILLIARD SCHOOL

Jessica Michelle Chastain was born in Sacramento, California and went on to studyacting at Juilliard School in New York City.

She attended grammar school in Sacramento.

Then Jessica went to the El Camino Fundamental High School in Sacramento.

Chastain did not qualify for graduation, but later obtained an adult diploma.

But she later attended Sacramento City College from 1996 to 1997, during which she was a member of the institution's debate team.

In 1998, Chastain finished her education at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and made her professional stage debut as Juliet in a production of Romeo and Juliet staged by TheatreWorks, a company in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The production led her to audition for the Juilliard School in New York City.

She was accepted and granted a scholarship funded by actor Robin Williams and she graduated from the school with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2003.

In May she received an honorary doctorate from The Julliard School

The Help actress took part in the special ceremony.

The mother-of-two was just one of the stars that received the degree 'in recognition of their outstanding contributions' in the entertainment industry, according to a statement on the school's official website.

MAYIM BIALIK, 48

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

Mayim Chaya Bialik, who was raised in the Bronx in New York City, graduated fromUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Bialik came west for her acting career.

The Big Bang Theory star, who has Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary roots,graduated in 1993 from North Hollywood High School in Los Angeles.

She was granted a deferred acceptance and attended University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) due to her acting commitments.

At the Los Angeles university, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in neuroscience, with minors in Hebrew and Jewish studies.

She graduated in the year 2000.

Bialik has said she did not have the grades needed for medical school.

She went on to study for a doctorate in neuroscience.

Then in 2005, she took a break from studies to return to acting.

She returned to earn her Doctor of Philosophy degree in neuroscience from UCLA in 2007 under Dr. James McCracken.

Her dissertation was titled 'Hypothalamic regulation in relation to maladaptive, obsessive-compulsive, affiliative and satiety behaviors in Prader–Willi syndrome.'

YARA SHAHIDI, 24

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Yara Sayeh Shahidi is known for her TV shows Black-ish and Grown-ish.

Somehow, she also managed to graduate from Harvard University two years ago as well.

The actress was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota then moved to California'; she is of African American and Choctaw heritage, with Iranian from her father's side.

Sahidi attended Immaculate Heart Middle School and part of Immaculate Heart High School.

She had to leave for her acting career.

Shahidi graduated in 2017 from Dwight Global Online School.

In 2017, Shahidi was admitted to Harvard University, and she began her studies there in 2018 after taking a gap year.

The beauty had a plan to major in Interdisciplinary Sociology and Black American Studies.

Shahidi graduated from Harvard in 2022.