These Celebrities Went To School Together Long Before They Were Famous

Whether you loved or hated your time as a student, those years were likely some of the most formative of your life. You likely learned a lot, tried out some new activities, built friendships, and perhaps even got into some fun trouble.

For the following celebrities, school brought them together and gave them memories that will last forever, just like everyone else. The only difference being that they eventually made it big. Most of them hadn’t made it big yet however when they were still in school, and several of them are still close friends to this day. Check out these high-profile celebrities who were once close classmates…

Lady Gaga & Nicky Hilton

The pop icon and hotel heiress attended Convent of the Sacred Heart, an all-girls Roman Catholic school in New York City. While they were there at the same time, they weren’t in the same grade. Gaga is a few years younger than Nicky, the little sister of Paris Hilton.

Even though Gaga is both a singer and actor now, she didn’t always have the easiest time in school. According to her mom on CBS, Gaga was humiliated, taunted and isolated during those years.

Spencer Pratt & Whitney Port

Reality stars Pratt and Port were classmates at Crossroads School, an elite private school in Santa Monica, California. Later, they went on to star in The Hills and The Hills: New Beginnings together.

Pratt revealed in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that “Whitney actually dated my best friend in high school. Her, like, three-year boyfriend was my best friend.” The fact that they were closely associated in high school and then years later ended up starring in The Hills together was a “trip” per Pratt.

Jennifer Aniston & Chaz Bono

Bono, the LGBTQ+ activist who also happens to be Cher’s son, wasn’t just classmates with Aniston at LaGuardia High School, a performing arts school in New York City. They were also close friends.

Aniston told Allure that a group of classmates would go to Bono’s house after school regularly. All of those students probably thought it was awesome to hang out at Cher’s house.

Freddie Prinze Jr. & Neil Patrick Harris

Before Prinze Jr. became a 1990’s teen heartthrob and Harris entertained television audiences on How I Met Your Mother, the two were classmates. They both attended La Cueva High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Harris was older and graduated in 1991. Prinze Jr. got his diploma in 1994, only three years before landing his breakout role in I Know What You Did Last Summer, where he met Sarah Michelle Gellar, his future wife.

Kate Middleton & Prince William

The royal couple got to know each other while students at the University of St. Andrews. Middleton caught William’s eye as she strutted down the catwalk for a charity fashion show.

The prince obviously fell for her. Years later, they exchanged vows at Westminster Abbey in front of the world. Today, they are the proud parents of George, Charlotte and Louis.

Prince William & Eddie Redmayne

While the prince likely cherishes crossing paths with his wife more than Redmayne, the two attended the elite boarding school, Eton College, at the same time. They were members of the school’s prestigious Eton Society as well as teammates on the rugby team.

Regarding rugby, Redmayne reminisced on William’s time on the field on an episode of Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live. “I always felt a bit sorry for him because basically any school you’d play [against], all they wanted to do was tackle Prince William in order for them to say ‘I tackled Prince William,'” the Fantastic Beasts actor joked.

Eddie Redmayne & Tom Hiddleston

Hiddleston also attended Eton College. However, as a student, he was nowhere near the big shot that he is now. In a school production of A Passage to India, Redmayne played the story’s female lead Adela Quested and Hiddleston played one of the legs of the elephant that Redmayne’s character rode.

The actors have come a long way since their Eton days. Redmayne has won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a Tony award. Hiddleston has a major role as Loki within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Gwyneth Paltrow & Kerry Washington

Washington’s first time in the spotlight may have come when she became a member of Spence School’s acapella group Triple Trio. According to her, it’s all thanks to Gwyneth Paltrow.

During an interview with Jimmy Kimmel in 2014, Washington revealed that “When I was in junior high school, I really wanted to be in Triple Trio because there was this really amazing senior named Gwyneth Paltrow and she was president of Triple Trio.” Washington continued, “So I really wanted to be president of Triple Trio one day. And then I was co-president of Triple Trio one day. My shining honor!”

Winston Duke & Lupita Nyong’o

Sticking with Marvel, the 2017 blockbuster hit Black Panther might have been Nyong’o and Duke’s first time working together on-screen, but their connection goes way back. The Us co-stars and real life friends attended Yale’s School of Drama at the same time. Nyong’o even gave Duke a tour of the campus on his first day of school. The duo grew close, oblivious when they watched the first Avengers film together that they would be joining the cast years later.

Duke told Esquire that “[Lupita] and I became really close because we shared that immigrant experience.” He’s from Trinidad, and the Academy Award winner is Kenyan, but was born in Mexico. “We shared the idea of having really big dreams knowing that we’d left our own country.”

Neil Diamond & Barbra Streisand

Before becoming superstars, Diamond and Streisand attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York. “We were two poor kids in Brooklyn,” Diamond recalled. “We hung out in the front [of the school] and smoked cigarettes.”

In 1978, the classmates joined together to create a classic breakup song, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers. They both became Golden Globe winners, in addition to receiving plenty of other awards over the decades.

Nicole Kidman & Naomi Watts

Australian stars Kidman and Watts have a friendship that goes back to their teenage days. They attended North Sydney Girls’ High School in Australia. In 1991, the actresses bonded on the set of Flirting, as the film helped further build their close relationship.

Watts told People about her ties with Kidman. “We’ve gone through a lot together over a significant amount of time. That history binds you.” She also said that they “have a strong respect and love for one another.”

Christopher Reeve & Robin Williams

When Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams met at The Juilliard School in 1973, they had nothing in common. It seemed highly unlikely they would be able to relate to one another. However, according to the late Superman actor, that was the reason they were able to become friends who were closer than brothers. They relied on each other for moral and financial support as students.

When Reeve was paralyzed in an equestrian accident, Williams was by his side. “Robin was able to share his real feelings with me, and I always did the same with him,” Reeve wrote in in his autobiography Still Me.

Rashida Jones, Kim Kardashian West, Paris Hilton & Nicole Richie

Jones appeared on an episode of Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live. The Parks and Rec star recalled her former classmates from The Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, California. She attended the school with Kardashian, Hilton and Richie. “They were younger than me. They were really cute and little, and they wore a lot of bows in their hair.”

Out of the three stars, Jones was closest with Richie. Jones stated to Porter Magazine that Richie is like a little sister to her and that their parents were friends. Jones’ father is record producer Quincy Jones, while Richie is the daughter of singer Lionel Richie. After graduating from high school, Jones attended Harvard. Kardashian, Hilton and Richie jumped right into the Hollywood headlines.

Ansel Elgort & Timothée Chalamet

Elgort has a lot of love for Chalamet, his friend and former classmate. The actors attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City, where they discovered their love of acting and basketball.

In 2017, Elgort shared a picture of the two at a New York Knicks basketball game. The caption noted that they played on the same basketball team in school and had the same drama and science teachers. Then, in the same year, both of them were nominated for a Golden Globe.

Owen Wilson & Wes Anderson

Wilson and Anderson got into some trouble during their days at the University of Texas. One adventure in particular involved breaking into their Austin apartment. The incident served as the inspiration for Anderson’s Bottle Rocket, his first feature film.

The duo’s rapport has stayed strong through the years. Along with Bottle Rocket, they’ve co-written Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, in which Wilson also acted in. Wilson has also acted in multiple films directed by Anderson: The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Darjeeling Limited and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. He even voiced a character in Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Matt Damon & Ben Affleck

A pair of Hollywood’s most well-known friends, Damon and Affleck first crossed paths while attending Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a high school in Boston. Later, they were roommates in Los Angeles right before collaborating on Good Will Hunting.

That film changed the trajectory of their careers. They wrote the screenplay for that Oscar-winning movie and have also appeared together in several other films.

Zach Braff & Lauryn Hill

Braff and Hill both went to Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. Braff wanted everyone to know his connection to Hill when he wrote on Twitter that she was at his Bar Mitzvah.

While they both got into acting, Hill was better known for her singing. However, she took a long hiatus from that. Eventually, she released a new song 21 years after her first album.

Zooey Deschanel & Kate Hudson

Former classmates Deschanel and Hudson reunited on an episode of Watch What Happens Live. They looked back on memories of their time at Crossroads School for Arts & Science in Santa Monica, California.

One instance really stood out for Hudson: the drama that came with a school production of Don Quixote that both she and Deschanel auditioned for. While Hudson played the part of Quixote’s niece, Deschanel got the short end of the stick, getting the role of Quixote’s horse.

Cameron Diaz & Snoop Dogg

The California natives were students at Long Beach Polytechnic High School. They didn’t run in the same circles, but they did have mutual friends. “[Diaz] ran with my homegirls, all my little cheerleading homegirls,” Snoop said in an exclusive interview with Yahoo! Music. “She was in [their] little crew. She was fly, and she was hip.”

Diaz talked about Snoop with George Lopez on his show. “He was a year older than me,” she said. “I remember him, he was very tall and skinny. He wore lots of ponytails.”

Adam Levine & Jonah Hill

Hill told Howard Stern about how his friendship with Levine started. “Our dads met in the principal’s office in junior high,” he said. “We were in a carpool, we lived at each other’s houses.”

They’re still close to this day. Hill even officiated Levine and Behati Prinsloo’s wedding. Also, Hill’s sister, Beanie Feldstein, appeared in Maroon 5’s music video for “Girls Like You.”

Jemima Kirke & Lena Dunham

When Kirke’s family moved from the UK to New York City, she found herself overwhelmed at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn. One day, she met classmate and future Girls co-star Dunham.

The school was pretty liberal and probably a part of why they became the women they are today. “The message was very much: be who you are, do what you are great at,” Kirke said according to The Telegraph.

Busta Rhymes & Jay-Z

The Brooklyn rappers, along with the late and great Biggie Smalls, attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School. They spent a lot of time battling it out to see who the best rapper was.

Busta Rhymes spoke to MTV News about losing his first rap battle with Jay-Z. He claimed that even then, he knew that Shawn Carter was the real deal. “That was probably the first time that I lost a battle that mattered,” he said. “[Jay-Z] always exemplified greatness as an MC. He was a scientist with it.”

Ed Helms & Brian Baumgartner

Fans of The Office will be pleased to know that the on-screen chemistry between Andy (Helms) and Kevin (Baumgartner) is real. The two spent years together attending The Westminster Schools in Atlanta.

Helms has nothing but good things to say about his cast mate and former classmate. He posted on a Reddit thread that Baumgartner is “a smart, hilarious, down-to-earth fella.”

BJ Novak & John Krasinski

Another The Office connection, the actors behind Ryan and Jim are former classmates, too. Novak and Krasinski are alumni of Newton South High School. Their friendship actually predates high school, since they were also on the same little league baseball team.

Novak shared a few memories about their relationship on The Ellen Show. “John Krasinski and I have known each other our whole lives in the weirdest, most coincidental way,” he told her.

Adele & Jessie J

The BRIT School in Croydon, England, is the alma mater to several famous singers, including Jessie J and Adele. In her autobiography Nice to Meet You, Jessie J wrote that “I had all sorts of friends. I knew Adele; we were in the same year.” She continued with “We used to hang out at lunchtimes and have a little jam. We’d sing songs we’d written or perform whatever we were working on.”

Another BRIT alumna, Amy Winehouse, was a huge inspiration for both singers. They followed in her footsteps years after she debuted and they learned a lot from watching her.

Tommy Lee Jones & Al Gore

Gore, the future politician and presidential candidate, arrived to Harvard’s campus in the fall of 1965. Jones moved in down the hall in the same dorm. They ended up living together later.

Their friendship held strong over the years. In 2001, the Oscar winner attended the Democratic National Convention to support Gore. In fact, he spoke and nominated him there.

Morena Baccarin & Clare Danes

These two had major roles on Showtime’s Homeland series. Decades prior to that, they were members of the student body at a middle school in Manhattan.

Baccarin told TV Guide that “When I was 7, we moved to New York because my dad’s job was transferred. I grew up in the West Village and went to the New York City Lab School for junior high.” She continued with “Claire was there at the same time! We were somewhat friendly, so when Homeland came up, it was great.”

Camila Mendes & Cole Sprouse

Before Mendes acted alongside Sprouse on the set of The CW’s Riverdale, she met him at New York University as a student. The Sprouse twins graduated from NYU a year before she did.

“He was a weirdo! He had really long hair down to his butt cheeks,” Mendes told Office Magazine of Cole. “He was really shy, too. I would see him at parties sometimes and I always kind of randomly talked to his brother [Dylan], but I never got a chance to talk to him because he was more to himself.” Although Mendes had plenty to say, Cole claimed that he didn’t remember her at school.

Jada Pinkett Smith & Tupac Shakur

The pair met while studying at Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland. Pinkett Smith remembers their first encounter vividly and shared the memory in an interview. “It was the first day and he came over to me and introduced himself. And in high school, Pac was a little funny looking. Definitely from looking at him, wasn’t necessarily the type of cat that I would even, like, deal with.”

Despite her initial impression of Tupac, she still hit it off with him and they developed a strong bond. “He was one of my best friends,” she exclaimed. “He was like a brother.”

Matthew Morrison & Kristen Bell

Bell really loved the musical show Glee. Her connection to it stemmed from her relationship with Mr. Schuester, played by Morrison.

They attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts together, but Morrison dropped out to star in the Broadway production of Footloose. The two also dated for a short period of time before they ever became famous.

Beck Bennett & Kyle Mooney

The Saturday Night Live cast members met on campus at the University of Southern California. They clicked instantly due to their passion for comedy.

Bennett and Mooney founded the comic sketch group Good Neighbor. They created more than 50 short videos and caught the attention of big names like Steven Spielberg. They made it big in 2013 when they were added to the cast of SNL.

Nick Kroll & John Mulaney

In 2000, Kroll and Mulaney linked up while attending Georgetown University. Kroll was the upperclassman who recruited Mulaney into the Georgetown Improv Association.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Kroll said that “Honestly when I met him, I was like, this guy’s so funny, I’m going to hold on tight.” He continued about Mulaney, “I’ve sufficiently done that for a long time.” It’s true, as the two have worked together on numerous projects.

Rachel Lindsay & Kevin Durant

Lindsay was The Bachelorette on the show’s 13th season. Before that, she was a student at the University of Texas. Durant was there at the same time, but only for a little bit, as he declared for the NBA draft after only one year in college.

There were rumors that the two had been romantically involved during college. The Bachelorette put a stop to that on an episode of the “Bachelor Party” podcast.

Dean Cain & Brooke Shields

Cain and Shields initially met while at Princeton University. A romance developed between them as they continued their studies at the institution.

“I was in love with her certainly. We were college sweethearts,” Cain said on an episode of the Meredith Vieira Show. “We truly had a wonderful relationship. We were two young people, and we cared for each other.”

Josh Hartnett & Rachael Leigh Cook

The actors attended Minneapolis South High School together, but were in different grades. Cook admitted that when they were classmates, she thought Hartnett “was really cute.”

They would later have lead roles in the 2001 romantic comedy Blow Dry. Other notable actors in that film include Bill Nighy and Alan Rickman.

Matthew Perry & Justin Trudeau

Perry went to grade school with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau. The Friends star admitted that he teamed up with a friend to beat up Trudeau. During an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Perry explained that he was in fifth grade and Trudeau was only in third grade.

“I think he was excelling in a sport that we weren’t, so it was pure jealousy,” Perry said. “I’m not bragging about this, this is terrible. I was a stupid kid, I didn’t want to beat him up. In fact, I think at one point I tried to turn it into love play.” In response to Perry’s comments, Trudeau joked about his Friends character and asked for a rematch.

Rami Malek, Kirsten Dunst & Rachel Bilson

These three attended Notre Dame High School in California. Malek and his twin brother, Sami, graduated from the school in 1999, the same year as Bilson.

During an interview with E! News at the Golden Globes, Malek claimed that he’s still friends with Dunst and that he “used to have a little crush on her.” They also took a musical theater class together.

Kelly Preston & Barack Obama

Actress Preston and former president Obama were both born in Hawaii. They graduated from Punahou High School, but they didn’t know each other at the time.

During an interview on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, Preston explained that she “was living in Australia when he was at school.” When she later reconnected with Obama, he said “I saw you around campus.”

Robert Pattinson, Tom Sturridge & Jack Whitehall

Pattinson and Sturridge are best friends and their friendship dates back to their time at Harrodian School in England. They’re so close that the Twilight star is the godfather of Tom’s sister Matilda Sturridge’s daughter.

Comedian Whitehall also attended school with Pattinson, but not Harrodian School. Before Pattinson met Sturridge at Harrodian, he was a student at Tower House School with Whitehall.  “We did plays together and he always got the main part,” Whitehall divulged as a guest on The Ellen Show.

Natalie Portman & Jared Kushner

Portman used to be friends with Kushner when they went to Harvard. However, things have changed now that he’s President Donald Trump’s senior advisor.

During an interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, she revealed that she now refers to him as a “supervillain.” She said that “Unfortunately, there’s not a lot funny to say about someone you were friends with becoming a supervillain.”

Kate Hudson & Liv Tyler

Hudson and Tyler are both children of famous parents, but another thing they have in common is their schooling. The two were classmates at Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in California.

To this day, they still remain friends. They even had roles together in the 2000 romantic comedy movie Dr. T & the Women.

Lenny Kravitz, Nicolas Cage & Slash

Beverly Hills is home to a boatload of Hollywood stars and has only one major public high school, so it’s no surprise that many celebrities attended it. For example, musician Lenny Kravitz, actor Nicolas Cage and guitarist Slash all went to school together in the 1980’s.

After graduating, Kravitz went on to win several Grammy awards. Cage won an Oscar and Slash received his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Scarlett Johansson & Jack Antonoff

Johansson and Antonoff attended New York’s Professional Children’s School. They even went to prom together and briefly dated, much to the surprise of Antonoff’s ex Lena Dunham.

Dunham revealed that she was scrolling through a Tumblr account dedicated to old celebrity couples, when she stumbled upon a photo of Johansson and Antonoff. “She’s beautiful, he’s beautiful, but it was just so surreal to be looking through this blog that gives me so much pleasure and then there’s my boyfriend,” Dunham said.

Cynthia Erivo & Taron Egerton

England’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art has plenty of famous former students. Two of those are Erivo and Egerton.

In an interview with E! News, Erivo recalled that “I first remember seeing him in the library.” She continued, “He was running around, and he was just, like, frantic.” Erivo remembered thinking he looked sweet. It turns out he was and she found herself wanting to take care of him.

Andy Samberg & Chelsea Peretti

Brooklyn Nine-Nine costars Samberg and Peretti were elementary school classmates. They’re the same age and were childhood friends who lived two blocks away from each other.

“We weren’t good friends, but we also weren’t not friends, if that makes sense,” Samberg tried to explain to Esquire. Peretti revealed to Conan O’Brien that she had a “huge crush” on Samberg when she was young.

Robert Downey Jr. & Sean Penn

In the early 1980’s, there was a popular group of young actors who starred in several teen movies. Two of them were Downey Jr. and Penn.

They had acted together while at Santa Monica High School. Other big names to have attended that school are Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen and Rob Lowe.

Conan O’Brien & Jeff Zucker

O’Brien and CNN boss Zucker lived in the same dorm while studying at Harvard. They were more rivals than friends. Zucker was the president of the university’s daily newspaper and O’Brien was the president of the college’s humor magazine, the Harvard Lampoon.

Deadline reported that O’Brien once led a prank on Zucker’s newspaper team and stole all the copies of the newspaper before they could be distributed. Zucker called the cops and was even on there to see O’Brien get arrested. “He only forgave me when I gave him The Tonight Show,” the former NBC executive later said.

Carrie Underwood & Zach Swon

Underwood went to Oklahoma’s Northeastern State University with one of the Swon Brothers. Zach took a country music theater class with her.

“The class was so small,” he reminisced to Taste of Country Nights. “It was a night class, and there was probably only eight people in it.”

Dan Stevens & Rebecca Hall

Stevens and Hall went to the University of Cambridge at the same time as Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston. Though they were all friendly, only Stevens and Hall, who dropped out prior to completing her program, lived together.

They starred opposite each other in a school production of Macbeth, too. In 2017, they teamed up again in the comedy Permission.

Holly Hunter & Frances McDormand

Hunter and McDormand were first friends and later became roommates during their time at Yale. They were drama majors and clearly had similar interests and skills.

They later lived together again in both New York City and Los Angeles. Over the years, the friends co-starred in Arizona and Crazy in Love.