Ken Jeong & 9 Other Celebrities You Didn't Know Had Advanced Degrees - Screen Rant

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The misconception that celebrities like actors and musicians have only ever had that one passion and never excelled in any other field has been completely debunked over the years. Many celebrities have proven to be talented businesspersons and are actually pretty highly educated. In some cases, the celebrities are pretty vocal about the achievements they have made beyond what has garnered them the status of being "famous," while others haven't really talked much about their smarts.

These celebrities went above and beyond graduating from high school and have post-secondary education, and even beyond.

10 Ken Jeong

The saying goes "I'm not a doctor, I just play one on TV." But in the case of Jeong, it's actually both. Not only did Jeong graduate with an M.D. from the UNC School of Medicine, but he was also a licensed physician and practicing doctor for many years. He also had a passion for acting and took theater classes at UCLA before he entered medical school.

After completing his residency, Jeong began working as a physician of internal medicine while also performing at The Improv and comedy clubs. The acting bug hit him hard and he decided to pursue it full time, appearing in both movies and TV shows, including his own sitcom called Dr. Ken.

9 Mayim Bialik

It's well known that Bialik is the only cast member from The Big Bang Theory who actually understood the complex scientific dialogue that went on in every episode. That is because she has a Ph.D. in neuroscience.

After starring in the sitcom Blossom, Bialik went to UCLA and earned a B.S. in neuroscience, then pursued a doctorate. In 2007, she went back to get her Ph.D. So, while she played a doctor on the show, Bialik is also one in real life.

8 Shaquille O'Neal

Everyone knows of O'Neal's tremendous talent as a basketball player. But while he left LSU to pursue his career in the NBA, he did go back to finish his education, something he had reportedly promised his mother he would do.

He has a B.A. in general studies with a minor in political science. He also earned an MBA through the University of Phoenix online, and further went on to earn an Ed.D in Human Resource Development. As if that weren't enough, O'Neal has also studied directing and cinematography with the New York Film Academy.

7 Danica McKellar

A vocal spokesperson for getting young girls interested in typically male-dominated STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) studies, McKellar has put her money where her mouth is, so to speak.

The woman known in Hollywood as Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of California, where she graduated summa cum laude. She has co-authored a number of scientific papers and has written six non-fiction books that are all aimed at middle-school and high-school girls and promote the study of mathematics.

6 James Franco

The multi-talented actor, director, comedian, producer, painter, and writer is also an accomplished academic. He studied English at UCLA while continuing to act and earned an undergraduate degree. He then attended graduate school at Columbia University for writing while also going to the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University for filmmaking.

That wasn't all. At the same time, Franco was going to Brooklyn College for fiction writing and attending a low-residency MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College for poetry. He earned his M.F.A. and studied for a Ph.D. in English at Yale. The Rhode Island School of Design was another program he was enrolled in. Additionally, Franco has taught film classes at universities and high schools.

5 Natalie Portman

The Academy Award-winning actor who is set to reprise her role as Jane Foster in Thor: Love and Thunder, which will be out in 2022, studied psychology at Harvard University. She graduated in 2003 while balancing both her studies and career in acting. In fact, there are many high-profile roles she turned down, possibly because she was too focused on her education at the time.

She has a love of science, having contributed to a study on memory called "Frontal Lobe Activation During Object Permanence: Data From Near-Infrared Spectroscopy." In high school, she wrote a paper called "A Simple Method To Demonstrate The Enzymatic Production Of Hydrogen From Sugar."

4 John Legend

As if being a talented singer/songwriter, actor, and EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) winner wasn't enough, and mentoring a new generation of singers on singing competition series The Voice, Legend is also highly educated.

He went to the University of Pennsylvania despite reportedly being accepted into schools like Harvard and Georgetown. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English, and a special emphasis on African American literature.

3 Lupita Nyong'o

Earning a bachelor's degree in film and theater arts from Hampshire College, Nyong'o isn't just a massively talented actor, she is also the first Kenyan and Mexican actor to win an Academy Award.

Additionally, she earned an M.F.A. from Yale University. She comes from a long line of academics: she is related to Tavia Nyong'o, a professor at New York University, Omondi Nyong'o, a pediatric ophthalmologist in California, and Kwame Nyong'o, a leading animator and technology expert in Kenya.

2 David Duchovny

While Gillian Anderson's character Dana Scully on The X-Files was the scientist on that show, Duchovny is actually an accomplished academic in real life. He graduated from Princeton University, summa cum laude, with an A.B. in English literature. He even had his poetry receive an honorable mention from the Academy of American Poets.

Duchovny went on to attend Yale University where he graduated with a Master of Arts in English Literature. And he would have achieved a Ph.D. as well but never finished his doctoral thesis, entitled Magic and Technology in Contemporary Fiction and Poetry. In addition to acting, he also directs.

1 Rowan Atkinson

While Atkinson usually plays goofy characters on screen, most notably in Blackadder and as the hilarious Mr. Bean, he is actually quite the academic who is nothing like the dimwitted, slapstick comedy on-screen counterparts.

He earned a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Newcastle University and continued on at The Queen's College to earn an MSc in Electrical Engineering. He did begin pursuing doctoral work but acting pulled him away from his studies and he found a more fulfilling career on screen.

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About The Author

Christine Persaud (609 Articles Published)

A professional writer and editor with 18+ years of experience, Christine, now a freelance writer/editor, is a self-professed TV fanatic with tastes that vary considerably from comedies to dramas, sci-fi, and more. She can usually be found binging a new show at night, coupled with a glass of red wine. With a long history writing in the field of consumer tech, she now also writes on topics from entertainment to parenting, lifestyle, marketing, and business. She resides in Toronto, Ontario in Canada with her husband and young son.