Celebrities Who Have Ph.D.s or Went to Ivy League Schools

Emma Watson

Emma Watson graduated from Brown University in 2014 with an English degree. She took a year off from her studies, though, to film the last Harry Potter film of the franchise."It made me so sad when all this stuff came out that I left Brown because I was being bullied. It made no sense at all. Brown has been the opposite," she told The Sunday Times in 2011. "I've never even been asked for an autograph on campus. I threw a party for nearly 100 students and not a single person put a photo on Facebook. Anyway, even if I was being given a hard time, I wasn't going to wuss out of university because someone said 'Wingardium leviosa' to me in a corridor, or 'Ten points for Gryffindor.' I’ve been dealing with the media since I was 9. If I can't stand up to a few people giving me a hard time, it's a bit pathetic, really. I've had so much worse.”

Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling graduated from Dartmouth College in 2001 and gave a commencement address in 2018.

"I know that going into the real world sounds scary, but it’s exciting too," she said. "Finally, you’ll be in control of your own lives. No longer will there be an irrational Board of Trustees telling you you can’t have hard liquor on campus, for the ridiculous reason that they don’t want you to die. Come tomorrow, no one can stop you from filling your apartment with $4.99 handles of Uncle Satan’s Unfiltered Potato Vodka. Go crazy."

Mayim Bialik

The Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik returned to UCLA in 2007 to earn her Ph.D. in neuroscience.

"I loved going to UCLA and doing something that was very challenging academically," she told Neil Degrasse Tyson in a 2017 interview for National Geographic magazine. "I loved doing research with adolescents with special needs — that was seven years of my life. It was exciting to get my Ph.D. in 2007. But in terms of time to raise my two sons, the flexible life of an actor was better than the long hours of a research professor."

Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep attended Dartmouth College as a visiting student in 1970, then attended Vassar College in 1971, then Yale University in 1975."I got to Vassar, which 43 years ago was a single-sex institution," Streep said in her 2010 Barnard commencement speech, "and I made some quick but lifelong and challenging friends. With their help, outside of any competition for boys, my brain woke up. I got up and I got outside myself and I found myself again. I didn’t have to pretend. I could be goofy, vehement, aggressive, and slovenly and open and funny and tough, and my friends let me. I didn’t wash my hair for three weeks once. They accepted me like the Velveteen Rabbit.”

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Maggie Gyllenhaal received a degree in Eastern religions and English literature from Columbia University in 1999.

Amanda Peet

Amanda Peet majored in history at Columbia University and graduated in 1994.

Paul Giamatti

Paul Giamatti followed in his father's footsteps and attended Yale, majoring in English. He returned to get his master's degree in fine arts. He actually grew up wanting to be a professor, just like his dad, who was also president of Yale University."I had just graduated from Yale — in English — and thought about going into academic life, though I don't think I would have been suited to it," Giamatti told The Guardian in 2011. "It is because my dad died suddenly that I became an actor. I thought, I'm going to make money doing this thing I enjoy."

Lupita Nyong’o

Lupita Nyong'o graduated from Hampshire College, earning her degree in film in 2003. She then attended the Yale School of Drama, graduating in 2012.“[Hampshire is] very, very unconventional. I was quite nervous about that sort of thing, but what Hampshire is really good for is teaching you to be self-reliant and self-motivated, and I discovered that I had it in me to have a dream, make it a goal and make it happen," she told Vanity Fair in 2014.

David Duchovny

David Duchovny was an aspiring writer who received an AB in English literature from Princeton University and an MA in English literature from Yale University."[As an undergraduate] at Princeton, Walter Kirn — who's a terrific novelist — he was a year younger than me. And he was an actual poet," he told NPR in 2015. "And I think when I read Walter's stuff, I was like, 'You know what? I'm not a poet.' And that kinda woke me up."

Elizabeth Banks

Elizabeth Banks graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, earning her BA. She then graduated from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, earning her MFA.

Connie Britton

Connie Britton earned a degree in Asian studies from Dartmouth College, graduating in 1989. She even roomed with U.S. senator Kirsten Gillibrand at Dartmouth, and they traveled abroad and lived together for a summer in China.“That was a very interesting experience because I was just a freshman, so going to China… was a very big culture shock and a really amazing learning experience,” she said at New York Magazine's Vulture Festival in 2017.

Wladimir Klitschko

Wladimir Klitschko attended Taras Shevchenko National University, graduating in 2001. He also attended the College of Olympic Reserve in 1992.

Conan O’Brien

Conan O'Brien graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1985 and served as president of the Harvard Lampoon for two years.

Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett pursued African American studies at Yale before going on to study at the university's School of Drama, earning a master of fine arts degree. In 2018, she received an honorary degree from Yale, her third degree from the university.

Julie Bowen

Julie Bowen attended Brown University, graduating with a BA in Renaissance Studies in 1991.“I lived in the [Rockefeller Library]," she said in a Brown Lecture Board Q&A in 2012. "I did everything all students have ever done. But I did it in the Rock. Why would you go anywhere else? You were a flask away from an academic party.”

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman graduated from Harvard University in 2003 with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology."It's easy now to romanticize my time here, but I had some very difficult times here too," she said in her Harvard commencement speech in 2015. "Some combination of being 19, dealing with my first heartbreak, taking birth control pills that have since been taken off the market for their depressive side effects, and spending too much time missing daylight during winter months led me to some pretty dark moments, particularly during sophomore year. There were several occasions I started crying in meetings with professors, overwhelmed with what I was supposed to pull off, when I could barely get myself out of bed in the morning."

Rashida Jones

Rashida Jones studied religion and philosophy at Harvard University, graduating in 1997."Outside of what’s expected from you, what path do you really want to take in life? What are you prepared to tolerate to realize that path? Or are you waiting for someone else to define that path for you?" Jones asked at her 2016 Harvard commencement address. "I spent my younger years hoping and praying that someone would give me a break, that someone more successful and knowledgeable than I would show me the way and save me from making mistakes."

Jodie Foster

Jodie Foster majored in literature at Yale, graduating magna cum laude in 1985. She returned to Yale in 1993 to address the graduating class and was awarded an honorary doctor of fine arts degree in 1997."As I became less and less afraid of new experiences, my personality changed," Foster wrote in an essay for Esquire. "I took on a screw-the-world dress code. I hung out with people I thought were unique, nonconformist, substantially complex… I had my first and last bout with tequila. I did ska dances in the street, water-ballooned singing groups, philosophized and talked dirty until five in the morning. The control I'd had all those years was self-imposed and alienating."

John Krasinski

John Krasinski graduated with honors from Brown University in 2001."Growing up, I think that performance and trying to be more of the class clown or trying to be funny for my family was all I really cared about, but I never had the intention of being an actor," he told NPR in 2016. "Actually, when I went to college I was dead set on being an English teacher, which again, probably came from a movie. I probably saw Dead Poets Society and said, 'Oh yeah, just get kids to stand on desks, that sounds like a good life!'"

Tatyana Ali

Tatyana Ali graduated from Harvard University in June 2002 with a degree in Afro-American history and government."This is something that people don't know about Harvard," Ali told The Urban Daily in 2011. "There's actually a pretty substantial population of students of color. There are signature black events at Harvard like Apollo Night, for example, and it's time for performance and it's really integrated. It's Apollo Night, black students are throwing it, but everybody comes and everybody performs."

Edward Norton

Edward Norton graduated from Yale University in 1991 with a history degree.

Brooke Shields

Brooke Shields graduated from Princeton in 1987 with honors, majoring in romance languages with an emphasis on French."I left after my four years here with great memories and great stories. That's one of the unique ties that bind us… the commonalities that we all share," she said at the 2011 Class Day Remarks. "Like when your entire academic record gets printed in Life magazine? Right? Or when Japan's Royal Prince Hirohito wants to meet you and the dean comes, gets you out of a midterm and asks you to go to Prospect House to welcome the prince to campus. Huh? It was crazy then! …My days here were as conventional and normal as I ever could have hoped…  and that was because of my peers. …Yes, the Enquirer did try to get nude photos of me in the Mathey College shower. But the students protected me… loyalty is what I always got. And that loyalty, that allegiance, never diminishes."

Elisabeth Shue

Elisabeth Shue attended Wellesley College in 1981 and then studied off and on at Harvard University, earning her bachelor's degree in political science in 2000.

Jane Lynch

Jane Lynch studied acting at Illinois State University, graduating in 1982. She then attended Cornell University's graduate program for acting. In 2017, she received an honorary degree from ISU."Don't be a humorless do-gooder," Lynch said at ISU's Founders Day convocation in 2017. "Do operate from your heart. …Be a beacon of light for anyone lucky enough to be in your presence."

Tommy Lee Jones

Tommy Lee Jones was an English literature major at Harvard University. Fun fact: He shared a room at Harvard with former vice president Al Gore and, later, actor John Lithgow.

Shaquille O’Neal

In 2012, Shaquille O'Neal received his doctoral degree in education from Barry University. For his doctoral project, he explored how business leaders use humor in the workplace.

Sigourney Weaver

Sigourney Weaver attended Stanford University, graduating with a bachelor of arts degree in literature in 1971. She then graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 1974.

Vanessa Bayer

Vanessa Bayer graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004. She majored in communications and was an active member of Bloomers, an all-female comedy troupe at the university."I enjoyed [Bloomers] so much," Bayer said at a University of Pennsylvania panel. "I hadn't found anything like that except for school. I didn't know what it was like to really enjoy and feel like you were excelling at something."

Liev Schreiber

Schreiber attended Brooklyn Tech High School and then attended London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and Yale School of Drama. He graduated from the latter in 1992.

Jordana Brewster

Jordana Brewster graduated from Yale University in 2003 with a BA in English.

Matthew Fox

Matthew Fox attended Columbia University and graduated with a BA in economics in 1989.

Julia Stiles

Julia Stiles graduated from Columbia University in 2005, majoring in English."Having gone [to Columbia] for two years now, I realize the reason I'm staying is 'cause it makes me happy — I love being in an environment where, for the most part, all that matters is my ideas," she told Elle magazine in 2002. "But the reason I went in the first place was because I don't want to be 40 years old, surrounded by studio executives who went to good colleges, and feel like I'm at a disadvantage. And, more importantly, I don't want to get sucked into the whole Hollywood thing to the point where I can't exist in a world that doesn't revolve around me."

Laura Linney

Laura Linney attended Brown University, graduating in 1986 with a degree in theatre arts. She then studied at the Arts Theatre School in Moscow and graduated from the Juilliard School in 1990.

Ashley Judd

Judd graduated from the University of Kentucky, where she majored in French. She received her master’s degree in public administration with a focus on gender equality from Harvard in 2009. Judd enrolled at UC Berkeley in the fall of 2016, pursuing public policy.She said in a Facebook video she hopes to "do some good thinking, some rigorous research and fill it with my typical heart and soul and see how I can continue to do my little part to make the world a better place."

Frances McDormand

Frances McDormand graduated from Bethany College in 1979 with a BA in theater. She then attended Yale University, earning her master of fine arts degree in 1982.

Aisha Tyler

Aisha Tyler graduated from Dartmouth College in 1992 with a degree in political science and a minor in environmental policy."I realized that I wasn't happy doing what I thought I was going to be happy doing, and that what I really loved was performing," Tyler told Boston.com. "It was a pretty simple thing. Once you get a degree, you kind of feel like, well, I can always go back to working behind a desk, so why don't I just go out on my own for a little while and see how it goes."

Ellie Kemper

Ellie Kemper graduated from Princeton University in 2002 with a BA in English. She then attended the University of Oxford to earn her graduate degree in English."Walking through the campus of my college in the Northeast, I quickly learned that it was not normal to smile at people whom you did not know. This required some adjusting on my part; in St. Louis, most people peppered interactions — even with strangers — with smiles,” she told HuffPost in September 2017. "I had made only one friend so far, Kate Fox, and I knew that she was the real deal. As I told my mom on the phone one night, 'When someone smiles at Kate, she smiles back.'"

Anderson Cooper

Anderson Cooper graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a BA degree in political science. He also studied Vietnamese at the University of Hanoi.

Mira Sorvino

Mira Sorvino graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1989, with a degree in East Asian studies. She also co-founded the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, a co-ed a cappella singing group.

Jenny Slate

Jenny Slate graduated from Columbia University in 2004, majoring in literature. During her time there, she also helped form the improv group Fruit Paunch.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1968 with a BS in economics.

Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama graduated cum laude from Princeton University in 1985 and went on to earn her degree from Harvard Law School in 1988."My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before," Obama wrote in her college thesis. "I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."

Kathryn Bigelow

Kathryn Bigelow studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, receiving her bachelor of fine arts degree in 1972. She then attended the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program in 1972 on scholarship. Later, she studied film at Columbia University School of Arts, graduating in 1979.

John Legend

John Legend graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999, studying English with an emphasis on African-American literature. He was the president and musical director of jazz and pop a cappella group Counterparts.

James Franco

James Franco has an MFA from Columbia and a Ph.D. from Yale.

Wentworth Miller

Wentworth Miller graduated from Princeton University in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in English literature.

Malia Obama

After taking a gap year, Malia Obama, daughter of former president Barack Obama, began attending Harvard in the fall of 2017.