From actors and musicians to comedians and models, Hollywood's most popular performers serve as the core of the entertainment industry. It's easy to forget that some of our favorite stars were once like us; it's difficult to imagine Natalie Portman and Conan O'Brien taking notes during class or cramming for exams. Behind the fame and glamorous lifestyles, however, Hollywood is home to some super-smart celebs. From Jodie Foster to John Legend, here are 16 stars whose intelligence just might surprise you:
1. Natalie Portman
The stunning Oscar winner earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Harvard and has been published twice in scientific journals. She's also a language powerhouse; Portman is fluent in Hebrew, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese.
2. Conan O’Brien
The TV host was the valedictorian of his high school and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in history and literature. His 72-page senior thesis concerned the use of children as symbols in the works of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.
3. Jodie Foster
The actress was the valedictorian of her high school and graduated magna cum laude from Yale with a B.A. in literature. She's also fluent in French and understands Italian, Spanish, and German.
4. Ashton Kutcher
Kutcher was offered scholarships to MIT and Purdue for biochemical engineering before breaking into his high school and being convicted of third-degree burglary. The actor subsequently enrolled at the University of Iowa but dropped out to pursue a modeling career.
5. Mindy Kaling
Kaling graduated from Dartmouth in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in play-writing. While attending Dartmouth, she was a member of an improv comedy troupe, performed with an a cappella group, created her own comic strip for the college's daily newspaper, and wrote for Dartmouth's humor magazine.
6. Allison Williams
The HBO starlet graduated from Yale, where she was a member of the improv comedy troupe Just Add Water for four years.
7. James Franco
Ten years after dropping out, Franco returned to complete his education at UCLA and graduated in just two years. Immediately after, he enrolled in four graduate programs: filmmaking at NYU, fiction writing at Columbia, fiction writing at Brooklyn College, and a low-residency poetry program at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. He completed his graduate thesis at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design in 2012 and is currently working to obtain his Ph.D. in English from Yale.
8. Rashida Jones
Before she was Ann Perkins on NBC's comedy "Parks and Recreation" or Karen Filippelli on "The Office," Jones earned a B.A. in comparative religion from Harvard.
9. B.J. Novak
Best known for his role as Ryan Howard on "The Office," Novak graduated from Harvard in 2001 with degrees in English and Spanish literature. His 83-page senior thesis was titled "To Be or Not to Be: Hollywood’s Answers to Hamlet’s Question."
10. Emma Watson
We know her as Hermione Granger, but Emma Watson set out to create a new identity for herself when she graduated from Brown with a bachelor’s degree in English literature. Watson has also studied at the University of Oxford in England and was appointed UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador in 2014.
11. John Legend
John Legend studied English and African American literature at UPenn but was also offered scholarships to Georgetown, Morehouse College, and Harvard. He worked at Boston Consulting Group, considered one of the most prestigious management consulting firms, for three years before his career as a musician took off.
12. Matt Damon
A playwriting class assignment at Harvard led Damon to develop his first draft of "Good Will Hunting."
13. Mayim Bialik
The actress doesn't just play a neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler on “The Big Bang Theory” -- Bialik graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in neuroscience. In 2007 she completed her doctorate, which examined the role of oxytocin and vasopressin in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in adolescents with Prader-Willi syndrome.
14. Ken Jeong
Before Ken Jeong landed roles on "Community" and "The Hangover" trilogy, he studied pre-med at Duke, earned his M.D. at UNC Chapel Hill, and completed his residency as a physician in New Orleans.
15. Vampire Weekend
All four members of the indie rock band attended Columbia together.
16. Cameron Russell
The supermodel has walked the runway for Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Versace, and Victoria's Secret, but in her 2012 TEDx Mid-Atlantic presentation "Looks Aren't Everything," the Columbia grad proved that being smart is sexy.
