Most of them grew up in the same ways we did, learned the same things, and met people in the same way, but it’s always funny when those same celebrities knew each other before reaching the spotlight.
Here are 12 celebrities who went to school together.
1. Timothée Chalamet and Ansel Elgort
Both Chalamet and Elgort are New York natives, having gone to school together at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts before eventually breaking into the acting world at around the same time. The Dune lead and West Side Story actor, who were both nominated for a Golden Globe in 2018, actually played basketball together in high school and had a lot of the same teachers together.
2. Maya Rudolph and Gwyneth Paltrow
SNL alumni and founder of Goop saw both of their fathers attending Tulane University together before both moving to L.A. and continuing their friendships on the West coast. — Brent Lang (@BrentALang) March 16, 2014 RELATED: 8 Celebrity Couples Who Began Their Romances On ‘SNL’ The daughters, Rudolph and Paltrow, quickly became friends because of their fathers and attended St. Augustine by the Sea in Santa Monica, California, which was where their friendship blossomed into where they are today.
3. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon
Feature Flash Photo Agency / Shutterstock Everyone knows that Affleck and Damon are close friends, but what a lot of people might not know is that they actually attended the same school together. They both attended the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they actually shared the same drama teacher together. Once the pair left Boston, they went on to star alongside each other in multiple films and co-wrote Good Will Hunting and The Last Duel.
4. Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts
These two longtime friends actually met in Australia when they both attended North Sydney Girls High School and instantly hit it off. During an appearance on CBS’ The Early Show in 2007, Kidman revealed that Watts was once dating her sister’s boyfriend and that they went to “teenage parties” together and modeled alongside each other before becoming actresses.
5. B.J. Novak and John Krasinski
Before becoming The Office stars, these two actors both attended Newton South High School in Massachusetts. Even before that, as kids, they were on the same little league baseball team, so Novak and Krasinski go way back.
6. Cameron Diaz and Snoop Dogg
The Other Woman actress and famous rapper both walked through the same high school halls as they both attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School in California. Both Diaz and Snoop Dogg appeared on Lopez Tonight (at separate times) in 2011, where the rapper revealed he might have sold her “white girl weed” when they were back in high school.
7. Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke
Before starring alongside each other in Black Panther and Us, these two actors actually attended Yale University together. In fact, Nyong’o was actually the one who gave Duke his orientation tour at the university, and, coincidentally, they even went to go see The Avengers together during their time at the university. — Lupita Nyong’o (@Lupita_Nyongo) February 16, 2022
8. Camila Mendes and Cole Sprouse
Riverdale co-stars Mendes and Sprouse both attended New York University before their time together on the show. During an interview with Office Magazine, Mendes revealed that she remembered seeing him around campus. RELATED: 12 Best Lupita Nyong’o Quotes About ‘Black Panther’ & Finding Beauty In Diversity “He was a weirdo!” she laughed. “He had really long hair down to his butt cheeks.”
9. Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson
This actor-director combo got their start back when they both attended the University of Texas in Austin together. In fact, the pair roomed together before working alongside each other on The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and other films.
10. Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore
The Men in Black star and the former vice president first met when they both attended Harvard University where they lived together for four years. In 2000, Jones gave the nominating speech for his friend at the Democratic National Convention and shared some gaffs about their time together in college. “I lived with him for four years. What did we do? We shot pool and watched Star Trek, when maybe we should have been studying for exams,” he told the crowd, adding, “I always knew that he had the brains and the heart to change the whole world.”
11. Eddie Redmayne and Prince William
During an interview with Glamour in 2015, The Fantastic Beasts actor revealed that he was on the Eton College rugby team with the Duke of Cambridge. “He’s a wonderful man,” he said. “I always felt slightly sorry for him because everyone wanted to tackle the future king of England. He took all the hits.”
12. Prince William and Kate Middleton
Feature Flash Photo Agency / Shutterstock The future king met his future queen back when they both attended the University of St. Andrews back in 2001. The pair started dating two years later, got engaged in 2010, and then married a year after. It truly is a small world, and this goes to show that you never really know where you’ll end up in your career and who will be there with you once you reach the top. RELATED: 11 Most Famous Hollywood Friends Of Meghan Markle And Prince Harry Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.
