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“Always Thought He Would End Up In Jail”: People Who Went To School With Celebrities Reveal What They Were Like Back Then
Despite their status, fame, and possibly everlasting legacy in one industry or another, every star started out as a pretty regular person, which generally meant they also went to school, where they rubbed shoulders with other people almost every single day. So naturally, some were interested in what they were like before the fame.
A curious netizen wanted to hear from people who went to school with celebrities, and the internet delivered. Some seem designed for greatness and others were downright unremarkable. So scroll through and upvote your favorites and be sure to comment your own experiences if you have them.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
My mom went to middle school with Eminem. She never talked to him, she was a year older and she hung with a different crowd but she says he kept to himself a lot and just carried journals around. My grandma works at a flower shop and a few years ago, Eminem went in and bought flowers for his mom. When i asked grandma about it, she had no idea he was a famous rapper. She said "you mean Marshall?" Lol. She has copies of his signatures on reciepts at her work
#2
I went to school with Natalia Dyer (Nancy from Stranger Things.) She's an awesome person and very down to earth, quiet, and incredibly kind and thoughtful.
#3
Grandparents went to school with Danny Devito. They said they had always thought he would end up in jail
Regardless of what they were like, one advantage many of these stars had is that they can still claim to start out like “regular” people. These days, a common refrain when it comes to new actors or musicians is that they are simply just “nepo babies,” meaning they only achieved fame through nepotism. Take a new, “indie” artist you have found and go to their Wikipedia page. See if their parents’ names are blue.
Obviously, insider connections are generally always good, but there is a silver lining to having humble beginnings, as it might mean a person is more grounded and less likely to absolutely lose their mind when they become rich. Nicholas Cage, if you haven’t noticed, has been on an acting tear lately, due to his massive tax debt. He reportedly owed the IRS over $14 million dollars, which he paid off by taking on every role anyone would give him.
#4
jennifer, m**********n lawrence. she was a couple years older than me but no surprise she was basically what she is now except younger (class clown, pretty nice everyone loved her)
#5
My FIL went to school with Bruce Willis and grew up in the same area so they played baseball together. He says he was as good kid but with a horrible stammer so he started taking voice coaching lessons to correct it. The rest is history.
#6
Not exactly high school; however, I did go to a summer camp as a child with a very famous Canadian pop star (rhymes with Dustin feeber.) He was a brat and was constantly getting in trouble and getting picked on and laughed at, at which point he would dismiss his assailants by making claim to his soon to be fame -- I guess hes laughing now.
Fortunately, most of the people on this list actually went to high school and didn’t spend their time acting. Child stars are particularly at risk, suddenly working and subject to all sorts of attention. The result tends to be addiction later in life, as well as a feeling of estrangement from the adults who nominally should be protecting them. All too often, parents push their kids to be stars, with disastrous results.
#7
Dad went to college (sixth form) with Stephen Fry. Says he was a really funny and wise dude
#8
my cousin went to high school with George R. R. Martin and recalled having a freshman lit class with him. when it was time for everyone to read their stories, George’s was BY FAR the best. apparently the entire class simultaneously dropped their jaws. guy’s a talent. oh, and apparently he was a typical nice dude.
oh, and he started a fight club.
EDIT: u/ConfusedCow brought up the fight club part i forgot that my cousin had mentioned
#9
A friend was in acting class with Jennifer Aniston around the time she first started getting TV gigs (remember the sketch comedy show "The Edge"?) He said she was funny, smart, and really nice.
While historically, certain people have enjoyed an elevated status, national heroes, athletes, and so on, the idea of a celebrity is quite recent, in fact, many sociologists believe it’s really only been around for the last century. Mass media and the general spread of images around the world allow certain people to now be recognized across multiple continents, even in cases where people do not speak the same language or even consume their creative endeavors.
#10
Karlie Kloss was a year under me in high school. I didn't really know her well but one of my best friends was really close with her. She kept her normal life and her model life pretty separate and was always super sweet and down to earth. I coached her younger twin sisters in softball and their parents were really good about supporting all their kids equally even though Karlie was clearly the one going places. Major props to her for not turning into some stuck up b***h but even more props to her family for keeping her grounded.
#11
Went to school with Harry Styles. Didn't know him but he seemed pretty quiet, remember his band playing in the school hall.
#12
My dad went to High School with Mariah Carey. Apparently she was as full of herself then as she is now.
That didn't stop him from naming my sister after her though...
These days, we combine fame and fortune, though in the past a person could be well-known, while still relatively poor. Despite this, celebrities are relatively modest compared to “real” wealth, for example, the Forbes top 100 cumulatively have a net worth of “just” $4.5 billion in 2010. This still puts them squarely ahead of the vast majority of the world, but fame perhaps isn’t the only road to riches.
#13
Not me but my parents both went to school with J.K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter. Neither of them liked her, apparently she was a bit gothic according to my parents and always looked like she felt under the weather. Apparently she was like a prefect or something of that nature in her final year of school and really disliked my dad. My dad told me he would in his words," Get in trouble for anything, literally one step out of line and she would be on me like a fly." Apparently all of the teachers in Harry Potter are also based off of teachers from that school as well and my parents say that they can compare teachers from the books and movies with real life teachers they have. Pretty cool.
#14
I was a bench player as a senior on the St. Vincent-St. Mary basketball team when Lebron was a freshman. Coolest dude. Had the backs of everyone.
#15
Grandma went high school with Elvis. Everybody thought he was strange and he liked to dress flashy even then.
He had a crush on my great aunt, but she turned him down.
Edit- I’m starting to think all these people are exaggerating their stories they told us.
Of course, the downside is that many celebrities often face various risks. First of all, the aforementioned addictions, but stalking and celebrity worship, are still quite common, making it hard for some stars to have any semi-balance of a normal life. The statistics speak for themselves, as stars actually tend to die younger than the majority of the population. So at least they got a “normal” high school experience. If you want to hear more about celebs before they were famous, click here, and here.
#16
My friends mom went to HS with Snoop Dogg. Evidently he was pretty much the same.
#17
One of my good friends went to school with Avril Lavigne. Apparently she was the popular girly-girl.
#18
My mom went to high school with Dave Grohl, dated his best friend or his brother's best friend or something. She said a hell of a stoner, VP of the class, and would sometimes play music over the loudspeakers. And a nice guy overall.
#19
My bro went to school with Matthew Perry. During one of the school plays Perry had the lead role and my brother was a tree.
#20
I went to high school with Carrie Underwood. She was a grade below me. Sang at just about every football and basketball game we had, as well as the yearly "Old Settlers Day" celebration. She was nice, though there are some that might say she was just the teensiest bit snobby. This was mostly because she didn't party like a lot of kids her age we're at the time. She didn't sleep around, and sang "I will remember you" at my graduation. One thing I remember: She sometimes had a strange sense of fashion. She'd sometimes wear these weird red leather pants with an old, faded Dan Marino Dolphins jersey.
#21
My brother and I both went to school with Tina Fey. We didn't know her, but we likely knew everyone that helped inspire "Mean Girls".
#22
Christina Perri. We were pretty tight freshman year, and then I went the super angsty teen route and she took the more chill "hippie" route. We always still got along but didn't hang out after that. She was always incredibly nice, regardless.
#23
Josh Hutcherson. He was always very quiet, didn't talk to people that much, and wasn't around often as he was already an actor. We weren't friends,, but others have said that he was a little stuck up. Although I wonder if it's because he just wanted some time to be a regular kid.
#24
My uncle grew up with Iggy Pop. They used to trade weed for LSD back in the day. In Iggy's biography there is a chapter on Iggy's best friend who happens to be one of my uncle's best friends. Says he was really cool dude who always was telling him to come out and see his band. Unfortunately my uncle never went.
#25
My grandmother went to high school with Marilyn Monroe (before she was MM). Norma Jean Baker only went to the same high school as Grandma for 1 year. Grandma said she was very shy.
Not school, but I worked at a company as a brand ambassador with Nicole Johnson (Michael Phelps wife), and she is gorgeous in person as well as incredibly nice.
#26
My dad went to high school with Barrack Obama, he said he was a good basketball player. It was also rumored that he smoked weed. He also had a nice fro. My brother posted a pic of him in my [dad’s yearbook](https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/788z94/a_picture_of_president_obama_in_my_dads_high/?st=J9G3Y42J&sh=4847be60https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/788z94/a_picture_of_president_obama_in_my_dads_high/?st=J9G3Y42J&sh=4847be60)
#27
Tyler the creator. I went to the same middle school and high school as him. He was KIND OF a loner. In high school, he would spend his lunch in the auditorium playing on the piano. He kept to himself at school but was really goofy and energetic. I remember that, in middle school, he made a MySpace music page and posted some of his beats. He was already into graphic art and stuff (like the clothes and stuff he sells now). He used to skate a lot. He won first place at our middle school talent show by lip-syncing a song that I cannot remember at the moment. Everyone liked him a lot.
#28
I went to High School with Aziz Anzari. He used to always answer questions wrong in class and try to argue that he was actually right. Like, if the teacher asked what year America was discovered, he would say 1896 and tell the teacher they are wrong. He would ask for their source and claim the source was unreliable. Eventually, the teachers would ignore him then he'd tell me they were racist. I wasn't really sure if he was funny or weird, I guess he was both.
#29
I wouldn't exactly say celeb, or school. One time I sat beside this guy James on a boat. He was ok I guess.
Who the f**k are these people.
#31
My ex went to high school with zac effron. They were in play together but he ended up getting more and more famous at that point so he ended up homeschooling or something before graduation.
#32
Wiz Khalifa went to school here for a year or two due to his parents being military. My older sister was a year ahead of him in jr high. Surprisingly, those that remember him from school say he was more of a goody-two-shoes, would have never touched weed. He played football..and supposedly still keeps in contact with some old friends here.
#33
Went to school with Bo Burnham. Cool guy. Didn't get to talk to him a whole lot but he seemed cool.
#35
Last time this was asked I talked about Grimes but I think this time I'll talk about my experience with Justin Trudeau as a sub teacher.
Had him for grade eleven socials. We were learning about the origins of WWI. He started telling us about this really cool band called Franz Ferdinand. He seemed really agitated that no one in the room had heard about them. Like he was taking personal offence at that and kind of spazzing. At the time I was just thinking wow settle down man. A few months later Take Me Out became a smash hit and I thought man, that prime minister's son sure is hip. That's bad news for Ben Mulroney.
But I should share a serious story too. September 11, 2001, I was only 13 but I could tell that this was some serious s**t. For social studies that year I had a wouderful teacher named Tom Harpunik who'd won the Prime Minister's award for teaching and I knew that he'd have excellent class discussion set up for that. Unfortunately I didn't have socials that day. But my French teacher wasn't at school that day (I never wondered why she was away that day, but come to think of it, she was East Indian so I wonder if she was afraid about retaliation against a person of colour). Our sub was Mr. Trudeau. At the time I knew who Pierre was and I think I knew he had a son who was a teacher but i don't think I put that together at the time.
So there I am in French class on 9/11 with this sub who says that he's actually a history and drama teacher but he's from Montreal so he teaches French from time to time. He wasn't going to teach us French that day;he wanted to talk about geopolitics, to the extent that 13 year olds could. He had some thoughts but he was more concerned with facilitating discussion. Unfortunately I don't remember a lot of what was said but I remember that he really did want to hear from every student about how they thought it would affect their lives.
I've got my problems with his policies, but given that day I'm not surprised that he's PM. He's got the name recognition, he's handsome, and he's really good at bringing people together and making them feel heard.
Edit: grimes post https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/4mstpl/past_teachers_of_present_celebritiesfamous_people/d3y6wpb/
#36
I went to school with Ellen Page. We were in the same group of friends, went to all the same parties and ate lunch together. She kept thinking I was calling her "Hellen" all the time which was weird.
"Hi Ellen hows it going?"
"My name is ELLEN! Not Hellen!"
My best friend dated her for a bit and they were nice together. She's one of those people that acts exactly how you'd expect. She's a bit timid and shy but very nice.
#37
My boss went to HS with Rosie O'Donnell. He says she was loud mouthed and pushy just like she is today. Against all logic she was even the Homecoming Queen.
Years later she sponsored the 20 year reunion for his class and hired "The Captain & Tennille" as the entertainment.
#38
Alexis Bledel from Gilmore Girls was in a few of my private middle school classes. Just another kid going to school, she was discovered by one of those mall talent people so during middle school/most of highschool she was just a normal student. I still have my yearbook somewhere with her in it.
#39
I went to school with Tony Romo. Tony was very respectful of teachers and other students. He was the best athlete in school, but he didn't act like a jock at all, he far more of a "nerd" than anything. I believe he graduated Salutatorian.
I also went to school with the lead singer of [The Record Company](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8aNK3XMP5w), Chris Vos. Was a really nice, humble guy that loved music. Genuinely cool guy that moved from small town WI to L.A. and killed it.
#40
My mom went to high school and college with Larry the cable guy and they had a close circle of friends. He actually asked my mom to prom but she stood him up. They grew up in south Florida so when she heard his act years later she thought it was so funny that his character had a heavy country accent. But she said he was always the class clown and she knew he was destined to do something big.
#41
My sister graduated high school with Aaron Hernandez. I went to the same school, but graduated before they did. My sister says that he was a trouble maker and kind of a jerk. He knew football was his golden ticket and didn't really care about anything else.
He went through a lot in his life and my sister was still happy for him when he got drafted. She lives out of state now and it used to be her go to fun fact when people would ask her about where she is from. The fact has become a lot less fun over time.
#42
My brother went to HS with Jake Lloyd (the person who played young Anakin Skywalker in Phantom Menace) and according to him he wasn't the most popular guy and was bullied at one point.
#43
Jake Thomas who was in a lot of stuff but is most known for playing Lizzie McGuire's little brother. This little s**t would come into the pizza place I worked at and ALWAYS send his pizza back 2 or 3 times. He wanted so much sauce that the dough would end up being half raw. We'd always have to make the pizza in a special way to accommodate him. F**k that guy.
#44
I went with a few:
Thomas Pridgen (drummer) - Awesome dude, we played in jazz band together, had some great times.
Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) - Didn't know him too well, but was always a big force in the theater productions obviously.
The Lonely Island guys were seniors when I was a freshman, but we had some friends in common and seemed super chill from what I remember
#45
My sister went to high school with Jeffree Star. It was the 2000s, let's just say he was the emo king, and always had a full face of makeup with crazy hair. Emo girls would compete for his attention and he was an antisocial jerk. Most high school drama was about him. He started doing makeup in the porn industry, then after high school people forgot about him. Now he has his own makeup brand.
#46
John Mayer went to my high school and sang with my friend's brother's band. I never met him but I heard he stole a bunch of their songs for his solo album. They told me he was a d**k because of that, but not sure about prior.
I played drums with Ricky (Raviv)Ullman in high school band for 3 years til he got a lead role on a Disney show called 'Phil of the Future' or something like that. He was liked by almost everyone in our grade. Forgot to add that he was also very smart and probably in the top 5-10% of our graduating class.
Justin Long grew up close to me and I heard he is chill and nice to be around.
#47
My older brother went to middle school with Sean Kingston. He said he was annoying and quiet which seems to contradict, but then again, my older brother is bit of a jerk so I wouldn't take his word for it.
#48
I grew up in church (Oak Hills Church in San Antonio) with Ally Brooke from Fifth Harmony. Me and my friends always thought she was kind of annoying because she ALWAYS had to be the one who lead praise and worship time/ sing everywhere! Like every Sunday, Wednesday night bible studies, any retreats, and on mission trips. I'm pretty sure for the entirety of my church life I only saw her sing and trust me there were plenty of other just as good singers there, but then she eventually got famous and left. However, you could tell she was always super cocky and didn't really get along too well with the other girls (as far as I can remember) and when she joined fifth harmony she kinda cut off all her friends at her old high school (Brandies High School). And I remember how one of her best friends, who also went to church with us, was extremely hurt by it.
Anyways now she's famous as s**t, and I can't stand fifth harmony bc it just reminds me of her and how she acted all those years ago.
(Not trying to intentionally bash on Ally or anything, this is just simply how I remember her)
#49
I went to high school with Roman Atwood. He was a good dude. We skateboarded and got into all kinds of BS. He pulled pranks then too, just not on the same scale. Good times
#50
I was the celebrity actually. First year I was loved, second year hated, third year loved, fourth year hated, fifth year hated, sixth year loved. I dropped out in my seventh year.
Only had a small circle of friends who stuck by me through thick and thin, even assaulting a government facility together with me
What do you think ?
SkyBlueandBlack 1 year ago
I went to school with the drummer from Alien Ant Farm. What was he like? I dunno, ask someone who knew him. There were almost 900 of us at my graduation ceremony. Going to the same school as someone doesn't mean you knew them.
Jack S 1 year ago
I went to school with Shia LeBeouf, told him I was a Satanist and he offered to buy a small goat to sacrifice as long as he could bathe in it's blood. This is a complete fabrication of the truth. This did not happen. Believable though right?
juice 1 year ago
well i'd believe that one...according to the song, he's a cannibal!
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Apatheist Account2 1 year ago
Some of these things need to be regional or split by age. The proliferation of media means that most of us won't have heard of most of these. I was on a Tube next to Peter Bowles, but people outside the UK or under 40 won't know who he is, despite him being a huge UK TV star in the 1980s.
Mat Hall 1 year ago
I once met Robert Smith on the tube - it always seems kind of incongruous to see famous people just being people, but I guess traffic in London sucks even for celebrities...
Load More Replies... SkyBlueandBlack 1 year ago
I went to school with the drummer from Alien Ant Farm. What was he like? I dunno, ask someone who knew him. There were almost 900 of us at my graduation ceremony. Going to the same school as someone doesn't mean you knew them.
Jack S 1 year ago
I went to school with Shia LeBeouf, told him I was a Satanist and he offered to buy a small goat to sacrifice as long as he could bathe in it's blood. This is a complete fabrication of the truth. This did not happen. Believable though right?
juice 1 year ago
well i'd believe that one...according to the song, he's a cannibal!
Load More Replies... Apatheist Account2 1 year ago
Some of these things need to be regional or split by age. The proliferation of media means that most of us won't have heard of most of these. I was on a Tube next to Peter Bowles, but people outside the UK or under 40 won't know who he is, despite him being a huge UK TV star in the 1980s.
Mat Hall 1 year ago
I once met Robert Smith on the tube - it always seems kind of incongruous to see famous people just being people, but I guess traffic in London sucks even for celebrities...
Load More Replies... You May Like 30 Hollywood Secrets That Celebs And Execs Would Like To Be Swept Under The Rug "Which Celebrity Faded Away Without Many Realizing It?" (50 Answers) 50 Best Actors To Have Ever Graced Our Screens
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