You can’t judge a book by its cover! Just because someone is a talented actor, model or singer doesn’t mean they can’t have other traits — like crazy IQs and impressive degrees. In fact some of our favorite stars are super geniuses! Check out the gallery above and the list below to see which celebs are probably smarter than you. Some of them might seriously surprise you!
1. Emma Watson. The Beauty and the Beast star definitely has some brains to go with her looks! Emma graduated from Brown University in 2014 with a bachelor’s in English literature, studied at Oxford during undergrad, and is a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador.
2. James Franco. James picks up college degrees like they are going out of style. Though he dropped out of UCLA during his freshman year, he went back 10 years later and graduated in two years, then attended NYU for filmmaking, Columbia University and Brooklyn College for fiction writing, Warren Wilson College in North Carolina for poetry, and earned his Ph.D. in English from Yale. Dayum, son!
3. Mayim Bialik. The Big Bang Theory star was accepted to Harvard and Yale, but chose to attend UCLA, where she received bachelor’s degrees in neuroscience and Hebrew and Jewish studies. Mayim put her studies on hold to pursue acting, but finished her Ph.D. in neuroscience in 2007.
4. John Legend. Before John became the famous musician he is today, he was offered scholarships to Harvard, Georgetown and Morehouse College, but instead attended UPenn. There he studied English with a focus on African-American literature and went on to graduate magna cum laude. After graduation he worked at one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the entire world. Talk about glory!
5. Matt Damon. Matt didn’t have to put much effort into acting like a genius in Good Will Hunting. In fact, he actually first began work on the film as a simple assignment for a playwriting class at Harvard. Though Matt dropped out of Harved to pursue acting the university later awarded him the Harvard Arts Medal. Well, he did show them a lot of love in the flick!
6. Ashton Kutcher. Ashton was set to attend MIT or Purdue for engineering, but lost his scholarships after breaking into his high school for a prank. (Now we know where the idea for Punk’d came from!) But everything turned out alright for the star, as he now has both a successful acting career and has made loads of money with his business acumen by investing in companies like Airbnb, Spotify, and Foursquare.
7. Cindy Crawford. If you think all models are airheads, you are sorely mistaken. Cindy was her high school’s valedictorian and attended Northwestern University before dropping out to pursue her modeling career.
8. Alicia Keys. At 14 years old Alicia graduated from the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan with all A’s. She began attending Columbia University on a scholarship when she was just 16, but dropped out due to the success of her music career.
9. Kesha. Kesha got a near-perfect score on the SAT and was going to attend Barnard College for psychology and comparative religion, but instead decided to pursue her music career on the advice of her music producer, Dr. Luke, who she later sued for sexual assault.
10. Natalie Portman. Natalie has always put her academics before acting. She received her bachelor’s from Harvard (attending under a false name for anonymity) where her professors considered her an amazing student. She also took graduate level courses at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Oh, she also speaks six languages and has been published in scientific journals on two occasions.
11. Mindy Kaling. The Mindy Project star graduated from Dartmouth, where she studied Latin and theater and illustrated a critical and hilarious daily comic for the school paper called “Badly Drawn Girl.” The celeb was presented with an Eleanor Frost Playwriting Award in 1999.
12. John Krasinski. John spent his first semester attending Brown University teaching English in Costa Rica. When he returned to Brown he enjoyed studying biology and management of industrial and nonprofit businesses — before going to work in an “office.”
13. Geena Davis. Geena is a legit genius. The star received her bachelor’s in drama from Boston University and is actually a member of MENSA. She has an IQ in the upper two percent of the general population.
14. Lisa Kudrow. Phoebe Buffay may have been a ditz, but Lisa is anything but. She received her bachelor’s in biology from Vassar before working on a study concerning hemispheric dominance and headache types. But, like many other’s on this list, she quit academics to pursue her acting career.
HollywoodLifers, who is your fave super smart celeb? Let us know below!