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They’re dressed to the nines, faces glowing, always ready with a charming smile on screen and in the headlines. But what were they really like before the red carpets and flashing cameras?
Redditors who claim they went to school with them decided to spill the tea, sharing stories about these now-famous faces in their pre-fame days. Some turned out to be kind and popular, others nerdy and quiet, while a few were, surprisingly, total bullies.
Scroll down to see what people had to say—and find out if your favorite celebrity made the list.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I went to high school with Wilson from *Cast Away*.
Didn't say much, mostly hung out with the volleyball team, and some kid got detention for kicking him in gym.
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#2
I went to school with Lady Gaga. She was very bright and probably the nicest girl at our school (most were stuck up rich snobs). She got bullied a lot because her parents weren't rich and because she wasn't as pretty as some of the other girls. That made her become quite rebellious. I remember one day I forgot my lunch and she shared hers with me, even though I'd hardly even spoken to her before. I was friends with her after that until we parted ways when I went to college. She was absolutely lovely, and I am so please for her success.
Luke Branwen 5 days ago
I'm STILL waiting for the founder(s) of the "Stefani Germanotta, you'll never be famous" facebook group to step up and tell how do they feel about the group now.
#3
Frank Abagnale is my dad’s cousin. We were at a family wedding and he was telling us, “yeah, they’re making a movie about my life. Leonardo DiCaprio is playing me.” He’s a professional liar, so we all just laughed at him. Then Catch Me If You Can came out.
#4
I went to high school with Calista Flockhart. She was very nice, great student, great singer, nice, chill girl. All the c**p in the media about her weight and all of that? Nonsense. She was always slender build, athletic. She looks the same today as she did at Shawnee High School in 1983. Good for you, Calista.
#5
My boss went to school with Weird Al Yankovic. Oddly enough, he said Al was weird.
#6
One of my former colleagues who retired recently went to college with Hillary Clinton. She said that she was very likeable, smart and down to earth.
#7
Kit 'Jon Snow' Harington went to the same Sixth Form College as me, year below me. Super quiet and shy. Literally the last person you'd think would end up being famous.
#8
Cool, a topic I can contribute to. Went to high school with John Legend. He was a year older than me. He was clearly very talented, lead role in most school plays, musical acts at talent shows etc. But he was basically just a really nice, humble guy. I wasn’t friends with him but I was an athlete who hung out with the theatre crowd. I helped on set construction and sound for shows. He was a basketball fan and came to most of our school’s games. His cousin was also on the team and a year younger than me.
#9
James Corden. God was he a show-off. When a bunch of 10-11 year old kids are trying to get a school play together it helps if you don’t start making up your own lines and throwing everyone into a state of utter confusion.
#10
I went to high school with Hayden Christensen before he was in Star Wars. He was artsy and seemed shy. Spent his time in the drama department, and was a nice guy from every memory I have.
#11
Not me but one of my aunts went to school with Bob Dylan in Minnesota. They tell the story all the time about how he sang a song in a school talent show and literally everyone thought he was awful. My aunt said all the parents were going “Poor Mrs. Zimmerman” in the audience because it was so embarrassing.
#12
I have a cousin who went to elementary school with one of Will Smith's sons (though I'm not sure which one). The Smiths would have birthday parties for their kids and invite the whole class. My uncle would go too since my cousin was young at the time and he'd get to talk to Will. He told me that Mr. Smith is a very friendly, down-to-earth person.
#13
I went to high school with The Weeknd, I.e. Abel Tesfaye. He was horrible. He bullied so many kids, including filming a student with a stutter while he was nervous giving a presentation ,and posting it on Facebook, tagging everyone in our grade encouraging everyone to leave comments to ridicule him. This image he has created of a quiet shy artist is completely opposite of anything I ever saw. He was an obnoxious bully. And one of the guys in his entourage also went to my high school, and once almost punched a female student in the face because she accidently bumped into him. Awful people all around.
#14
Not a super famous connection...but Avril Lavigne (Canadian musician) was the bat girl for my baseball team. She was a cute kid and respectful...it was years later when she had a hit song that I realized it was actually her.
#15
I talked to Kimbra once because she went to my HS. She was quite a bit older than me and I was lost because I had just started school.
And now she's just somebody that I used to know.
#16
A friend's dad went to the same high school as Robin Williams. Said he was really weird and would hang out by himself at his car in the parking lot doing impersonations to nobody.
#17
Went to HS with Ushers little bro, real cool dude. But what amazed me was how cool Usher is. He constantly had a bunch of us dumb a*s kids over at his house and was always cool as f**k and very accommodating. Would even let us sit in his studio (which was amazing!) and watch him make tracks. Super nice Family.
#18
My grandma went to the same high school as James Dean. Said he was chill and charismatic. Was kinda cocky as a result though because he KNEW he was hot stuff.
My dad used to be a punk drummer in California. Knew Green Day when they were first starting out. He said the band mates were cool but the lead singer was a "pouty b***h", that would often cancel or storm off if people he didnt like were at concerts/parties. Didnt have thick skin when it came to some criticism either.
#19
My uncle went to highschool with Stephen King. He apperantly never passed in any of his english assignments on time.
#20
This isn't from school, but my dad was neighbors with Conan O'Brien growing up. My grandmother was a dance teacher and she said Conan specifically wanted private dance lessons involving a top hat and cane routine. Also my dad says he has a specific memory of Conan jumping off the the wall that divided their yards, waving a "sword" around and yelling "Sic Semper Tyrannus!" No one in the family is surprised at all that he now touches his nipples and gets tangled in a chair during the commercials for his show.
#21
In the 1970s, I was in college with Nancy Cartwright, who is the voice of Bart Simpson. She was bright, funny, enormously talented, and very kind. And even then, she did amazingly cool voices. She left our university to finish her degree in California, studying with great voice artists.
LookASquirrel 5 days ago
And she's a Scientologist. I used to love that show but I can't support cult members.
#22
Not directly me but my middle school maths teacher used to teach heath ledger through his high school and always told us about how he misses him, very bright personality and much of a joker (pun not intended) he was, apparently he was always trying to impress the girls.
#23
My best friend in elementary school was Emma Stone. She was very smart and popular, and wanted to be an actress since she was like 5 (which is when I met her). Her family was very wealthy but definitely good people. I don't talk to her anymore but she seems to still be the sweet, progressive little girl she used to be!
#24
I went to HS with Norah Jones. I would sit in the piano practice room and eat during lunch while she played sometimes. She was quiet, but sweet, and just amazing to listen to.
#25
I was in Michael phelps's class. I don't have much to say about him. He was pretty much an a*****e and a d*******g and a lot of other people from Towson high school think the same thing.
Scarlett O'Hara's Ghost 5 days ago
And so is the life of a swimmer. It's a single person sport where you compete against yourself just as much as against others. You practice by swimming laps. Almost. The more laps you swim, the stronger and better you get. I came in at #11 for the 100 butterfly in girls high school state championships in the early 90s in NY. I was at my schools pool at 5am and in class at 730. Them back in the pool by 3, home by 6. Pool from 8 to 10. Every August through November in high school. And that isn't even an Olympic workout!! There's no time for social life on season and the sport isn't a very social sport. BTW. Now I live in AZ, and my son is Phelps' mechanic. I've pics of the two of them partaking of the doobage!
#26
I went to elementary school with Katy Perry, née Hudson, and honestly she was the best. She was one year ahead of me. In 5th grade at our crazy a*s Christian school I got kicked out of my friend group for "copying" the leader of the little clique. Class size was small and there weren't too many other kids to be friends with that I liked. Katy also appeared to be the odd woman out in her class (her dad's appearance marked her at our ultra conservative school) and she sort of adopted me, eating lunch with me every day and just being all around awesome to me. I will never forget that.
#27
My dad went to school with Vanilla Ice, he said he was nice.
#28
Christina Aguilera went to our neighboring/rival high school in Pittsburgh
To this day a friend of mine SWEARS she asked him to the Sadie Hawkins dance and he turned her down bc he thought she was a dork. He can’t prove this and we roast him on a regular basis because of this fact.
#29
I went to high school with Tessa Thompson. She was always cool and gorgeous. Very outgoing, funny, and stood out charisma-wise. Our school had something like 3400 people and many of them knew who she was, which says a lot. I’m not surprised she’s famous and I’m glad to see her do well.
Not celebrity, but politics-wise I also went to high school with Stephen Miller (Trump’s creepy speech writer). He was always a right-wing a*****e; he’d even go on right-wing talk shows like Larry Elder’s as a high schooler. Everyone hated him, he had a remarkable talent for infuriating people. One story I heard a few years ago was someone started an 80s club, and asked Stephen to talk about Raegan since he’d presumably know a lot about the Patron Saint of Republicans. Stephen showed up and started angrily pontificating against gun control instead. I’m amazed that he’s taken that shtick as far as he has. Everyone knew who he was in a school of 3400 for the wrong reasons.
#30
Zack Efron went to a neighboring highschool. He dated a girl from my school for a while, I remember him coming to some school dances. My wife was also in his grade at his school. He was a bit nerdy, but a nice guy. Pretty much just a normal dude from nowhere that ended up mega famous.
#31
Chloe Moretz is from my hometown but is a good bit younger than I am. She went to my ballet school briefly and her family was friends with one of my best friend's family growing up, so I was around her a good bit. She would've been maybe 6-8 at the time and she was just a cute, polite, kind of shy kid. There was some drama that caused her family to move to Atlanta and then New York, and I remember her older brother was the ham of the family that wanted to get into acting first. I was surprised when I heard that she was the one who'd gotten famous out of them. The gaudy mcmansion her dad had built at the front lot of the local "rich people" subdivision still sits vacant and one time my friends and I got drunk and went skinny dipping in the Moretz' pool in high school. I don't mean to sound snarky, it really is a weird house.
#32
I went to high school with Shaun White. He wasn't ever around because he already had a bunch of contracts and was already traveling lmao. He also bought his mom a house at 15 IIRC.
#33
My close friend‘s high school was the rival of the high school that Ariana Grande went to in florida. Her high school was considered the “rich kids” school. Apparently she was pretty popular, was always involved with (and good at) music and theater but was completely stuck up and kind of mean. Not sure if this is true but thats what the rumors were. She left at some point to go be on Victorious.
Katarzyna Zakrzewska 3 days ago
"Not sure if it's true" ?! So why are you spreading this gossip? What if it's NOT true?!
#34
I was in Drake's class for grades 1-4. We weren't super tight, but we got along okay. His mother was always taking him out of school to go to auditions, and TBQH, it never really seemed he was feeling the whole stage kid thing back then. Not that he seemed to hate it, just that to him it seemed more like an errand his mother often took him on. (Though he later seemed to grow into it, so good on him.)
I haven't seen him since then, so I don't know what he's like IRL these days, and I hope he's happy with whatever he's up to. But I will say that I am totally incapable of buying his stage persona. I remember little Aubrey Graham as, if anything, kind of a goody-two-shoes. Quick to remind other kids of rules nobody else saw them breaking, inclined to take the teacher's side if he overheard other kids complaining about her, that kinda thing. Assuming he wasn't faking an accent the entire time he went to elementary school (I gather that is not, in his case, a safe assumption.), I can also confirm that buddy's natural accent and dialect is indistinguishable from any other middle-class white kid from Toronto.
#35
Not a personal one but my mothers friend circle was involved with Eminem obviously far before he was famous. Uncle also was friends with him, and was there for his first tape he tried to get local shops and people to listen to and pick up during his young/teenage years.
From what i was told, it was very bad lmao. But being a master doesn't happen over night.
Clarification edit: spoke to my mother, we've lived in the warren area almost our entire lives so it was when he was younger living around here, mid 80s she thinks. My uncle went up to the park they all used to hang out at, and when he came home later that day he had a tape given to him by his friend "marshall" as she put it lmfao. He was really excited about it because obviously that was his good friend but she said it was pretty terrible from the song she heard from it.
My uncle had that tape for awhile, but a friend wanted to borrow it to let other friends hear it, still before he was famous so there was no foul play. Either it's sitting somewhere and nobody knows about it, in the trash, or somebody realized what it was and stashed it away by now. A really cool story overall though learned more than i ever heard about it.
#36
Went to middle and high school with Halsey. She was in the same grade as me. Didn't really talk to her much but she was always very outgoing and artistic so it's not a surprise that she became what she is now.
nottheactualphoto 4 days ago
Why keep downvoting those who don't recognize a celebrity's name? Nobody is born knowing this stuff.
#37
Growing up, I was good friends with one of the creators of Adventure Time. We played pencil-and-paper roleplaying games together when we were about 12 - I was the gamemaster and we had a group of about five of us. His character rode a capybara and his familiar was a duck that could turn invisible.
We were also in boy scouts together. We'd all just be standing around and all of a sudden he'd have this harmonica in his mouth and his hands in his pockets, swaying back and forth. Adventure Time didn't surprise me.
#38
I went to highschool with emily ratajkowski. She is a year older than me and was in a grade above me. We weren't friends ourselves, but she was friends with a lot of people I was friends in. In no way did I know her well, but i remember she was always smiling and very nice. The most memorable thing though, is I had her dad as my art teacher for a semester when I was a sophomore. He had been with the school for SO many years and I think he retired the year after I had him. My highschool was relaxed as f**k but he was the ultimate DGAF teacher. He would take attendance and then leave for the rest of the class, came back 5 minutes prior and would take attendance again. He was a super nice guy, very very talented.
Back to emily though, the only thing I truly remember from her in highschool is she was cute but not like D**N! She had gnarly eyebrows, not in a bad way at all, they were just intimidating but also really cute in a way. Great girl (from what I could tell) and I'm happy she's big and famous now.
Cindy Brick 1 day ago
Wait a second -- I'm supposed to be impressed that Dad ditched his own class repeatedly?!?
#39
Second hand info but my friend went to high school with Timothee Chalamet and says he was enigmatic, beloved by their teachers (performing arts school in NY), mostly nice/cool, and kind of full of himself & aloof. To be fair, I think he was already a working actor at that point.
This may be known already but he also dated Madonna’s daughter, Lola, in high school.
#40
I went to high school with Joe Keery. I wasn’t personally friends with him but had a few classes here and there and he was relatively well known in our class (then again, in a class of 150 people it’s more unusual NOT to know somebody). He was always very nice and friendly, the complete opposite of Steve at the start of S1 of Stranger Things. I’m really glad to see him succeed as much as he has and wish him all the best in his career (which we will watch with great interest).
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What do you think ?
Ellinor 5 days ago
People who says "I'm old, who ?" under every post, yes you're old but that doesn't mean that you can't do a google search. Also it's not "cool" and it doesn't make you "special" to not know about famous people of the moment.
DrBronxx 4 days ago
It seems like you're projecting a fair bit onto people who are just asking a question.
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Auntriarch 5 days ago
I was at the same school as Richard E. Grant. He was mad about acting then, so no surprise.
DrBronxx 4 days ago
Stop downvoting people who are just asking who someone is. Sure Google is a thing, but so are the comments here. You can engage, educate, help. There are people on this list who I don't know, and I appreciate it when others explain who they are. Telling people to go to Google, when they are actually asking something, is just rude.
Ellinor 5 days ago
People who says "I'm old, who ?" under every post, yes you're old but that doesn't mean that you can't do a google search. Also it's not "cool" and it doesn't make you "special" to not know about famous people of the moment.
DrBronxx 4 days ago
It seems like you're projecting a fair bit onto people who are just asking a question.
Load More Replies... Auntriarch 5 days ago
I was at the same school as Richard E. Grant. He was mad about acting then, so no surprise.
DrBronxx 4 days ago
Stop downvoting people who are just asking who someone is. Sure Google is a thing, but so are the comments here. You can engage, educate, help. There are people on this list who I don't know, and I appreciate it when others explain who they are. Telling people to go to Google, when they are actually asking something, is just rude.
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