Educated actors

In short order, Abdul-Mateen II has risen in notoriety with roles in "The Greatest Showman", "Us", and as one of the great villains from DC Comics, Black Manta, in "Aquaman". Abdul-Mateen II earned a bachelors in Architecture while running track at the University of California-Berkley, and added a Masters of Fine Arts from Yale.

Another "don't judge him by his roles" actor ... while capable of portraying some tough and menacing villains, Akinnuoye-Agbaje is generally quite the opposite in real life. A practicing Buddhist, he holds a Law Degree from King's College in London, and a Masters of Law from the University of London.

A versatile character actor, best known for his work on television, including as the wise Master Bra'tac in the long running "Stargate: SG-1". He earned a BA from Southern Connecticut University and an MFA from Temple.

With over 175 acting credits on television and in film, Sam Anderson is instantly recognizable for his multitude of roles. His BA in literature is from the University of North Dakota while his MA in Creative Writing is from the University of Wisconsin.

The man who gave us Mr. Bean holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Newcastle University and a MS in EE from Oxford.

Karen Austin has appeared in numerous guest roles in television, and is likely best remembered for playing the original court clerk in the great comedy Night Court. In addition to her BA in Theater and Philosophy from Mary Baldwin College and her MA in Theater from Northwestern, she studied Shakespeare in the Bard's homeland (St. Anne's College of Oxford University).

Remembered best for bringing to life the hilarious and disgruntled Stanley Hudson on "The Office", Baker earned a BS in psychology from Loyola University (Chicago) and an MS in human services administration from Spertus College. Before turning full time to acting, Baker worked as a teacher and as a public servant in several City of Chicago agencies.

Angela Bassett has played a number of powerful roles throughout her long career. She holds a BA in African-American studies and a Master of Fine Arts; both from Yale (she met her husband, Courtney B. Vance, who is also on this list, while the pair were working on their Masters).

Star of stage and screens both big and small, Ryan Michelle Bathe holds a BA from Stanford and an MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She is married to Sterling K. Brown on this list.

The actor who played Ward, patriarch of the Cleaver family on Leave it to Beaver, also wrote and directed on the show. Beaumont attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (then a private school called the University of Chattanooga), and later earned a Masters in Theology from the University of Southern California.

The girl who used to be best known for playing the title role on Blossom has matured into a woman better known for academic accomplishment (in reality and fiction). She turned down Harvard and Yale to attend nearby UCLA where she earned her BS in neurobiology. She completed a PhD program in the same (the thesis dealt with Prader-Willi syndrome) after a break she returned to acting, and is now better known for her role of the geeky and lovable Amy Farrah-Fowler on The Big Bang Theory. Spending time as host of "Jeopardy" was a natural progression.

The living embodiment of anger (from his stand up routines to his character in the Oscar-winning Inside Out), Lewis Black holds a BA from the Univeristy of North Carolina in writing plays, and holds an MFA from Yale.

To call Rubén Blades an actor or even a performing artist is painting with a narrow brush. A multi-Emmy winning musical artist, he finished third with almost 18% of the vote in the 1994 presidential election in his native Panama, and later served as Minister of Tourism - and somehow managed to star in films like "The Milagro Bean Field War", "Predator 2", "Mo' Better Blues", "The Two Jakes", and "The Josephine Baker Story". His BA in Law is from the University of Panama, while his LLM in International Law is from Harvard.

Another actor who must have been great because he fooled a lot of people! Best remembered for the disgusting and conniving Boss J.D. Hogg on "The Dukes of Hazzard", Booke was a worldly man with great mental prowess. Graduating as his high school's valedictorian at 16, Booke graduated from Columbia University at 19 before later earning his Masters of Fine Arts at Yale. Capable of speaking five languages fluently he served as a counterintelligence officer for the US Army during the Korean War.

Braugher graduated from St. Ignatius High School, one of Chicago's best college prep high schools. He earned his BA in theater from Stanford before graduating from the Julliard.

There is a reason you haven't seen much of Hawk or Captain Benjamin Sisko, despite his impressive acting abilities. Brooks has spent most of the last 35 years as a professor of theater at Rutgers; the same school from wihch he earned his BA and MFA.

While he might best be known for roles on the TV series "Army Wives" and "This is Us", Brown may have reached a wider audience with his supporting role as N'Jobu in "Black Panther". Brown has a BA in Drama from Stanford and and MFA from the Tisch SChool of the Arts at NYU. He is married to Ryan Michelle Bathe on this list.

While not predominantly an actor, Ben is credited as an actor for the voice of WALL-E in the film of the same name, and played an imperial officer in Return of the Jedi. Ben holds a BS in physics from Allegheny College in Maryland, and a Masters in film production from USC.

While it likely did not help him for his tour-de-force role as King Leonidas in 300, Butler holds a law degree from Glasgow University. It was only after being fired from a law firm that Butler pursued acting as a career.

Capshaw, who played a shrieking actress in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and an astronaut in Spacecamp, is likely best known today for being Steven Spielberg's wife. She has a BA in history education and a Masters in special education, both from the University of Missouri.

The first of three members of Monty Python on this list, Chapman attended and graduated from Cambridge's Emmanuel College where he earned a medical degree, all the time writing and performing comedy, even managing to negotiate a year off to tour New Zealand with a London review called the Cambridge Circus.

One of the most respected comic actors in any part of the world, Cleese passed his A-levels in maths, chemistry, and physics, earning him a spot at Cambridge where he earned a law degree.

Once upon a time ... young Jeff Cohen played the character Chunk in the beloved film The Goonies. More recently, Cohen is a Hollywood attorney, having earned his law degree from UCLA.

Cooper rowed crew while earning(with honors) his BA at Georgetown in English (with a French minor). He became the first graduate of The New School's MFA program to return as a guest of its seminar class - better known as "Inside the Actor's Studio".

While his film career was never that great, as a TV actor and stand up comic, The Cos had few equals. He has his share of honorary degrees, but he is one of the few performers to have a bonafide earned doctorate. He has a Doctor of Education degree from UMass for his dissertation: An Integration of the Visual Media Via 'Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids' Into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning.

Marcia Cross spent about 15 years, starting in the mid-1980s guest starring on soap operas and then prime time featured series. This was all after earning her BFA in acting from the prestigious Julliard. She earned her Masters in Psychology from Antioch University in Los Angeles in 2003 ... just in time for her to sign on as the character Bree on Desperate Housewives, a role that would net an Emmy and 3 Golden Globe nominations for her acting.

He earned a BA from Southwest Missouri State college before earning an MA in Drama and a PhD in Speech Communication from Southern Illinois University. Then, while starting as a professor at the University of British Columbia, his on-screen career began. He is likely best known for playing General George Hammond in the long-running series "Stargate SG-1".

One of the stars who made the legendary series Three's Company so funny, DeWitt earned a BA in Drama from Ball State, and an MA in Drama from UCLA.

Duchovny's acting career started as a break from his academic career; a break he remains on to this day. He earned his BA in English literature from Princeton and his MA in English literature from Yale. He was working on this PhD (ironically, a thesis entitled Magic and Technology in Contemporary Poetry and Prose) when he opted to take a break. The rest is out there.

While born in Tobago, Duke earned his BA in Theater from the University of Buffalo before finishing an MFA at Yale in 2013, just before taking the role of M'Baku in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as one of his first roles.

Very few actors have had such a tougher road to higher education than Charles S. Dutton. Dutton's introduction to drama was while reading an anthology of African-American playwrights while in solitary confinement on a manslaughter conviction. He earned his GED in prison. His Masters in Drama from Yale came later.

The only actor to appear in every episode of L.A. Law, Dysart's undergraduate degree at Emerson College in Speech Communications was delayed with his service in the Air Force during the Korean War. He returned and graduated in 1956. He earned his Masters in Speech Communications from Emerson in 1981.

Foster was already an international star when she graduated valedictorian of an exclusive college prep academy. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale with a BA in literature.

A very busy director (where he earned the nickname "Two Takes Frakes") and still occasional actor, Frakes will always be remembered for his role as "Number One", Commander William Riker along side Patrick Stewart's Captain Piccard on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Frakes, the son of an English professor, started classes at Penn State University during the summer semester after high school, and graduated with a BA in theater arts in 1974. He earned his Masters from Harvard in 1976.

The Oscar nominee has led an interesting and far from ideal life, but has managed to build a great acting career. After abandoning his studies early in his career, he earned a BA in English with honors from UCLA. He earned his Masters of Fine Arts from Columbia University in writing. He missed hearing his own name announced as an Oscar nominee because he was attending one of his PhD classes at Yale, where he is working on his degree in English.

Jonathan Frid started his education after serving in the Royal Canadian Navy during WWII. He earned a BA from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and an MFA in directing from Yale, all before he started playing the vampire Barnabas Collins in the gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows".

We have no doubt that Paul Giamatti earned both of his degrees from Yale; BA in English and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA). We have to wonder if his initial acceptance involved some family pull: his dad, A. Bartlett Giamatti was a Yale professor who later served as president of the University before moving up to Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

His sadly far too short life was highlighted by his sharp wit and amazing timing. His BA in English came from Columbia, and his JD was from Harvard. Before transitioning to full time comedy, he spent a few months as a lawyer.

After spending the late 1970s and early 1980s as a very young actress, Missy Gold looked like she was ready to break out as an actress after playing the first daughter of California on the hit comedy, Benson. It turned out that Benson would be all but her professional acting swan song. Gold attended George Washington University before earning her PhD from the California School of Professional Psychology, and is now a practicing psychologist.

Probably best known as the man-of-action, Major Don West, in the original TV series "Lost in Space", Goddard went back and earned his Masters in Education from Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts before embarking on a career as a special education teacher throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century.

Likely best remembered for his supporting role as Kid Twist in "The Sting", and possibly for originating the role of Howard Cunningham in the episode of "Love, American Style" that first introduced the main characters of the TV series "Happy Days", Gould earned a BA from Albany Teachers' College but his Masters and PhD were from Cornell (both in Theater).

From 1988-95, Gordon was President of the Screen Actors Guild, a position that joins him to a list that includes James Cagney, Charlton Heston, Ronald Reagan, Patty Duke, and Ed Asner (among others). While a veteran character actor of stage and television, he is likely best remembered for voicing Donatello on the 1980s-90s series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Today he teaches at his alma mater, California State where he earned his degree in political science, summa cum laude. He also holds a JD from the law school of Loyola Marymount University.

Best known as an Emmy-award winning television journalist, Cynthia's acting career largely spanned 1985-92, where her biggest film role was likely playing the Romulan ambassador in the poorly received Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. She holds a B.A. in Political Science/International Relations from UCLA and a J.D. from UCLA.

Funny? You bet! Smart? Yep! One of the non-Wayans stars of the groundbreaking In Living Color, Grier holds a BA from the University of Michigan and a Masters of Fine Arts from Yale.

Best known for playing twins Patsy and Philly Parisi on The Sopranos, Grimaldi holds a BS in mathematics from Fordham, an MS in operations research from NYU, and a PhD in data processing from CUNY. When not acting, he lectures on computer science at the college level.

One of the great TV dads of all-time ("Family Ties"), he fell in love with trains while he worked with them in his native Chicago - where he also earned his BA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. His MFA came from Yale.

A woman of many talents (her resume includes writing several plays, one of which, "Eclipsed", was nominated for the Best Play Tony Award) is perhaps most famous for playing the strong but quiet Michonne in "The Walking Dead", and Wakanda's General Okoye in the MCU, Gurira is the daughter of a chemistry professor from Zimbabwe, though she was born in Iowa. She has a BA in psychology from Minnesota's Macalester College and an MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

Hahn's career has been diverse ranging from major mainstream projects to smaller independent art works. Hahn's BA is from Northwestern, and her MFA is from Yale.

While playing the bootlick to a barely capable vice-president (in the acclaimed series Veep) may not require much education, the same is not true for multi-Emmy winner Tony Hale. He earned a BA in Journalism from Samford University, and then earned a graduate degree in Communications from Regent University.

An actor of incredible range, his work ranges from "The Eternals", "If Beale Street Could Talk", and "Causeway" to live theater and television series like "Atlanta". Henry changed from a business major to drama while at Morehouse College and went on to earn an MFA at Yale.

Sheila James was best remembered for playing Zelda Gilroy, the gal with an unrequited crush on the title character of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. She was a state legislator in California after earning her law degree from Harvard. She also served on and off as a law professor and administrator at a few different colleges.

Known for his roles in the film The Hangover and the television series Community, Jeong earned a BS at Duke University before earning his MD at the University of North Carolina ... with his residency complete, he is one of the only actors in Hollywood who is an honest to goodness medical doctor!

Before he went on to star in over 2000 adult films, Jeremy earned a bachelors degree in education and a Masters in special education from Queens College.

Jones came from a poor family, and needed scholarships to attend an elite high school in Texas and Harvard, where he was an All-Ivy League offensive tackle, and roommate with future Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore. Jones wrote a thesis on the role of Catholicism in the works of Flannery O'Connor, and graduated cum laude with a BA in English.

Beautiful and original ... and very intelligent, Ashley Judd has had an interesting career and education arc. The daughter and sister of major performers in country-western, Ashley received attention immediately, playing Wesley Crusher's crush in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation before setting off for major films including Heat, A Time to Kill, De-Lovely, and more recently Divergent. She attended over a dozen schools prior to going off to college at the University of Kentucky and eventually graduated with a degree in French. Her substantial humanitarian and public advocacy work eventually led her to earning a Mid-Career Masters in Public Administration from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2016, she started a PhD program in public policy at UC-Berkley.

One of the more durable character actors of his generation, Katsulas performed in international theater, with his work on film and television being only one facet of his career. His highest profile performance was likely as Sykes, "The One Armed Man", in the Oscar nominated adaptation of "The Fugitive", opposite Harrison Ford. Science fiction fans will remember him for playing G'Kar in the series "Babylon 5". He held a BA in theater from Washington University in St. Louis, and an MA in Theater Arts from Indiana University.

Rockford born Thomas Kee holds a BA from Eastern Illinois University in Theater, Economics, and Philosophy, and earned his MFA in Acting from Brandeis. Since 2002, Kee has been an instructor for a variety of courses at several universities, including Northeastern University. In fact, his teaching job is his primary job, with acting being somewhat secondary to his work in academia.

Likely best known for playing Jaimie Buchman's good friend on the hit NBC series "Mad About You", Kenzle earned a degree in drama from Rutgers, and after an acting career of about two decades used her Masters degree from Rutgers in Clinical Psychology to become a fertility counselor.

A versatile character actor, Kogan returned to finish his BS in Animal Science from Cornell in 2007 (after a 50 year wait!). He had previously earned a Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology from UCLA. In addition to work in series like Barney Miller and small roles in films like E.T: The Extra Terrestrial and The Descendants, Kogan has practiced medicine with the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso. He also speaks five languages.

While his career in acting didn't last long, he is likely best remembered for playing the son of Peter Pan (Banning) in Steven Spielberg's Hook. After his young acting career, Korsmo earned a BS in physics from MIT, and a JD from Yale. He has since become a law professor.

A TV star best known for his roles in the TV series Parenthood and Six Feet Under, Krause graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, Minnesota) with a degree in English literature. He received an MFA in Acting from New York University's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts.

Someday, someone will make a story of Kristofferson's life, and no one will believe it was real! He earned a BA in literature from Pomona College, graduating summa cum laude (and earning membership to Phi Beta Kappa), all the while becoming a big enough collegiate athlete that Sports Illustrated included him in their "Faces and Places" section on non-professional athletes. He earned a Rhodes Scholarship that took him to Oxford, where he earned a degree in English literature. He served in the army, later achieving the rank of captain. He was offered a position teaching at West Point, which he turned down to enter show business.

One of the ultimate "never judge an actor by the roles they play" performers, Lisa Kudrow is as smart as her famous Phoebe Buffay character was not. Kudrow earned a BS in Biology from Vassar and worked as a research assistant for her father for 8 years (researching headaches) before her brother's friend, Jon Lovitz, convinced her to try comedy. No doubt her ability to fool people explains why she was the first cast member of Friends to earn an Emmy Award.

Women in Hollywood's golden era may not have had the educational opportunities that exist today, but Lamarr made her mark anyway. At the height of her career on the silver screen, and as World War II raged on, Lamarr worked with her neighbor to invent and patent a frequency hopping system that used a piano roll to help defend Allied torpeedos from being jammed by Axis ships. This invention was later crucial in the development of cordless telephones and WiFi.

Star of both stage, silver screen, and small screen, after earning her BA in English from Cal-Berkeley, Lathan almost went to law school ... but couldn't turn away from acting. While some will remember her for following in Sigourney Weaver's footsteps to star in Alien vs. Predator, or for her turn in the acclaimed drama Love and Basketball, her voice is likely familiar as that of Donna Tubbs, the wife of the title character on The Cleveland Show.

Calling Spike Lee an actor might be the same as calling Alfred Hitchcock an actor ... yes, they did appear on screen, but everyone remembers them for their work behind the camera. Still, it isn't possible to ignore one of the more thoughtful director's of his generation.

Lee started his college career at Clark in Atlanta, but earned his BA in mass communication from Morehouse. His MFA in film and television was earned from New York’s Tisch School of the Arts.

A veteran of stage and screen, Mark Lenard will forever be remembered for playing Sarek, the cooly logical, yet somehow endearing father to Mr. Spock in "Star Trek". Lenard's World War II military service interrupted his college work, but he returned home to earn a Masters in Theater and Speech from the University of Michigan.

One of America's most accomplished actors, in addition to his Oscar nominated work on the silver screen and his award winning television work, all ranging from slapstick comedy to deep drama, Lithgow is an accomplished writer and has voice credits which include Yoda in the radio broadcast of the original Star Wars trilogy in addition to Shrek ... not to mention a Tony Award for his work on the New York stage. Lithgow graduated magna cum laude with a BA degree in history and literature from Harvard. He is also a Fulbright Scholarship winner, which he used to attend the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art

An actress equally adept in comedy, drama, and action films, Liu attended New York's prestigious Stuyvesant High School before attending NYU for one year. She then transferred to the University of Michigan, where she earned a BS in Asian languages, and can now speak five of them fluently.

The long time star of "The Young and the Restless" and "Desperate Housewives", Longoria is also a noted local and national activist. Her BS in Kinesiology is from Texas A&M-Kingsville, while her MA in Chicano Studies from California State University-Northridge.

Perhaps no actor in history has managed to fool more people into thinking that he wasn't that bright. After graduating from the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology, he earned a MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sydney, and had begun classes at MIT on a Fullbright Scholarship when he left to start acting. He also speaks three languages fluently, with some knowledge of four others. Not bad for a man who is likely to be remembered for saying "I must break you!"

The incredibly funny native of the South Suburbs of Chicago, Lynch trekked down I-55 to Bloomington to earn her BA from Illinois State University. Her MFA is from Cornell.

We can thank John Malkovich for encouraging John Mahoney to stick with acting which took him from the stage of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater to Broadway and Hollywood. He earned his BA from Quincy College and his MA in English from Western Illinois University (where he taught English for a time before he moved to Chicago and started acting).

With impressive early work in "The Last Black Man in San Francisco" and "Da 5 Bloods", Jonathan Majors is someone a lot of people are watching out for in future film projects. His BA is from the University of North Carolina School for the Arts, and his MFA is from Yale.

The Emmy and Golden Globe winning Camryn Manheim comes from an educated family and is known for her work with the deaf. She earned her BFA from California - Santa Cruz and her MFA from NYU.

A holder of American acting's Triple Crown, the three-time Oscar winner has a BA in Theater from Bethany College in West Virginia and an MFA from Yale.

Jim Henson puppeteer and choreographer, McFadden is best known for her role as Doctor Beverly Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. She graduated cum laude from Brandeis with a BA in theater arts. After TNG, in addition to other projects, she has taught drama at various schools, including USC.

After playing Winnie Cooper on "The Wonder Years", McKellar attended UCLA, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in mathematics while co-authoring a paper (Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin-Teller models on Z Squared) that proposed the Chayes-McKellar-Winn theorem. She has helped produce a video series teaching yoga, and published a series of books helping young girls to get more involved in math. In 2005, she got her PhD in Math from the University of Chicago.

The Emmy-winning actress best known for playing the latter half of Will & Grace is more than just funny. She graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis with a BA in Theater Arts, and then earned an MFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Joseph Brown (Victor Millan, professionally) had a number of credits (and uncredits) over a 4+ decade career, ranging from "Giant" and "Tuoch of Evil" to "King Kong vs. Godzilla" and "Scarface". Brown earned his BA and MA from UCLA in theater arts, and later taught at Santa Monica College before becoming the Dean of the theater arts department.

Ilan Mitchell-Smith acted for less than ten years, and is best remembered for playing Wyatt, opposite Anthony Michael Hall, in the cult classic Weird Science. He earned a BA from the University of California-Davis in Medieval Studies, an MA from Fordham, and a PhD in English from Texas A&M. He is currently a professor of English.

One of the original stars of Law & Order, Moriarity earned a degree in theater from Dartmouth before earning a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Known for his roles in "Hell on Wheels" and as Captain Christopher Pike in some of the more recent series set in the "Star Trek" universe, Mount earned a bachelors degree from Sewanee: The University of the South before earning his MFA from Columbia.

Born in the U.K. and raised in India, Nayyar did all of his studying in America. He earned a Bachelors in Business from Portland University and an MFA from Temple before jumping back to England to work briefly with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Then it was (fictitiously) off to CalTech for The Big Bang Theory.

Veteran character actor Maidie Norman's career spanned over 4 decades and included playing a maid in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?". Norman earned a BA from Bennett College in 1934, and a Masters from Columbia in 1937.

Making her film debut in South Pacific, France turned her suffering as an abused child, into something positive. She earned a masters degree in psychology and, between acting roles, worked as a counselor, focusing on abused children, abused women, and women in prison. In 1989, she won the "Woman of the Year" Award from the City of Los Angeles.

Born in Mexico City to Kenyan parents, Nyong'o's first feature film role was in Twelve Years a Slave, and for that she earned an Oscar. Her third film credit was Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens, so big budget blockbusters seem to agree with her as well. She holds a masters in acting from Yale.

Born in Japan, Oka earned his BS in Computer Science from Brown before going off to work for Industrial Light and Magic, helping create the visual effects on films like Mighty Joe Young and the three Star Wars prequels. He is probably best know today for his acting on the TV series Heroes and re-imagined Hawaii 5-0.

World Class comedian and world traveler, Palin earned a degree in History from Oxford in 1965. In recent years, Palin has taken to producing documentaries in history including the lives of artists and World War I.

Randall Park has been all over the silver and little screen, ranging from Selina Meyer's rival for the presidency in "Veep" to his long running role as Louis Huang in "Fresh Off the Boat", and as Jimmy Woo in the MCU. Park has a BA in English and Creative Writing and an MA in Asian American Studies from UCLA.

A great actor of stage and screens of all sizes, Parsons probably is not quite the pure intellect of his Dr. Sheldon Cooper character from The Big Bang Theory, but that doesn't mean he and Cooper are so different. Like Dr. Cooper, he started off in Texas, with a BA degree from the University of Houston before moving on to southern California to earn his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of San Diego.

Ron Perlman's career is so diverse and contains so many varied films from the amazingly popular to the solemnly artistic that it is virtually impossible to classify his career in any simple manner other than to say he is damn good at what he does. Perlman earned a BA in Fine Arts from Lehman College in New York City. He later earned a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Minnesota.

Probably best known for his role as Pete in the series Benson and as the Talaxian chef, Neelix, in Star Trek: Voyager, Phillips has a wide array of stage work under his belt. He has a BA in English Literature from Boston University and a MFA from Cornell.

A veteran actor whose first big break was on the TV series "Fame", his BA in philosophy is from the University of Redlands, while his Masters in Drama is from the Catholic University of America in Washington DC.

Not many actresses can switch between the world of video game Doom and the world of Georgian England in Pride and Prejudice with such aplomb. She had to take a day off from her feature film debut Die Another Day to take a final exam ... which helped her earn a degree in English Literature, with honors, from Oxford's Wadham College.

With over 100 credits to his name, Larry Pine has starred in everything from soap operas to adaptations of Chekov and more modern hits like "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Dead Man Walking". He has a BA from the University of North Texas and an MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

She was quoted in 2002 as saying "I'd rather be smart than a movie star". She got to be both. As a high school student, she co-authored A Simple Method to Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar; a paper that earned her semifinalist status in the Intel Science Talent Search. She holds a BA in psychology from Harvard.

Meinhardt Raabe, did not have a degree in mortuary science, but was the last surviving cast member with a speaking part from the immortal The Wizard of Oz. Meinhardt earned a BA in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin in 1937, and earned his MBA from Drexel University in 1970.

One of the most Renaissance and accomplished Americans in history, Robeson was a gifted athlete (inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame) and incredible singer (received a lifetime Grammy Award), likely best known for his role in "Show Boat". Robeson earned his undergraduate degree from Rutgers (Phi Beta Kappa), and played professional football to support his education at Columbia Law School, where he earned his law degree.

Craig Robinson was honing his craft as a Chicago Public School teacher when he started to hone his comic skills. His BA is in music from Illinois State University, and his MA in Music Education is from St. Xavier University on Chicago's South Side.