1.
Drake went to high school with Elliot Page — and apparently wasn’t very nice to him. He wrote on his blog, “I was watching Juno tonight on the tour bus and I am so proud of you…you were always the smartest and wittiest person in our class and I only made fun of you and acted like an asshole cause I had a crush on you.”
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3.
More high school classmates: Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman! They would end up becoming close friends, with Watts saying of Kidman, “She made me her sister. Her smaller sister. Nicole epitomizes for me the word ‘sisterhood.'”
4.
Guess who also went to high school together? Spencer Pratt and the Olsen twins — Pratt claims he sold a photo of Mary-Kate drinking at a party to the tabloids for $50,000.
5.
Tia and Tamara Mowry babysat Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen for a half-day when they were around seven or eight on the set of Full House. Their brother Tahj was appearing on the show at the time. “They were very young. So sweet, so kind. I remember all they wanted was matzo ball soup,” Tamera revealed.
6.
Jon Hamm taught Ellie Kemper’s drama class when she was a freshman in high school. Later, when she was trying to make it in LA, she used her high school’s directory to reach out to Hamm (who was then starring in Mad Men) and invited him to her one-person comedy show—and he came!
7.
Speaking of Hamm, he and Paul Rudd fought over a woman — actor Sarah Clarke — as teenagers. Rudd, a college freshman, was rooming with Sarah’s brother. He was invited to their family home, where he met Sarah’s senior prom date, who was none other than Jon Hamm. Rudd and Sarah were the ones who ended up dating, though.
8.
Scarlett Johansson and Jack Antanoff dated in high school and even went to prom together, which is so bizarre to me. They broke up after graduation, reportedly due to Johansson’s rising fame, and Antanoff wrote the song “Better Love” about her.
10.
Dolly Parton met Keanu Reeves when he was a little kid because his mom made many of her costumes, including her Playboy Bunny costume. In fact, one year, Keanu went as Dolly in the Playboy Bunny costume for Halloween. (I need photos of this.)
11.
Speaking of Keanu — Alice Cooper babysat him when he was a kid. Cooper didn’t even realize the kid he’d babysat was Keanu until Reeves revealed Cooper had babysat him on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Apparently, fake poop in the fridge was somehow involved?
12.
Cameron Diaz went to high school with Snoop Dogg, and she’s “pretty sure” she bought weed from him, which checks out.
13.
Meghan Markle did the calligraphy for Robin Thicke’s 2005 wedding invitations — not because the two were friends, but because the then-23-year-old was doing calligraphy to make ends meet before making it in Hollywood.
14.
Alicia Keys and Timothée Chalamet grew up in the same building. Larry David also lived there at one point, along with Terrence Howard, Tennessee Williams, Angela Lansbury, Mickey Rourke, and Patrick Dempsey…so I’m convinced there’s some special star-making power in the water at this building.
16.
Mick Foley and Kevin James went to high school together and were even on the same wrestling team, where they competed against each other “day in and day out,” according to Foley. He even got in on the Kevin James memes to joke about the old days.
20.
Speaking of Perry — he went to school with Justin Trudeau as a kid and even claimed he beat him up in the fifth grade because “I think he was excelling at a sport that we weren’t as good at. It was pure jealousy.”
21.
Jamie Dornan and Eddie Redmayne were roommates before they were famous. At the time, they also hung out with Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield, and Charlie Cox. I’m still searching the mail for my invite, TBH.
25.
In one more example, Kiefer Sutherland looked after Gwyneth Paltrow while working at a theater with her mom when Paltrow was 11 or 12.
26.
Mara Wilson and Ben Shapiro are cousins, and I can’t IMAGINE how awkward those holiday meals are.
27.
Joe Rogan and Gerard Way, the lead singer of My Chemical Romance, are also cousins. Sorry, but I’d make Rogan sit at the kid’s table — or in the garage by himself — at Thanksgiving.
29.
Ed Sheeran slept on Jamie Fox’s couch for six weeks when he first moved to LA. He bought a one-way ticket there for a single gig, trying to keep the momentum going, and ended up on Jamie Foxx’s radio show The Foxxhole, which led to performing at Foxx’s live music night, and then eventually sleeping on his couch and using his in-home recording studio for free.
30.
Denzel Washington paid for Chadwick Boseman and a group of his classmates at Howard University to attend a summer theater program at The University of Oxford. When they ran into each other years later, after Boseman had made it big, Denzel joked to Chadwick that he owed him money.
31.
Dominic Cooper and James Corden used to be roommates. Cooper introduced Corden to his wife, Julia Carey. That’s cute and all, but I honestly cannot picture Cooper and Corden hanging out.
32.
After meeting in a playwriting class, Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson became college roommates, and they were both kind of delinquents! Apparently, they had issues with their landlord, who wouldn’t fix their broken windows, so they staged a fake break-in. They also ended up moving out in the middle of the night, causing a private investigator to track them down. Oh, and Anderson once wrote a paper Wilson passed off as his.
33.
Speaking of Wilson, he — along with his brother, Luke — attended St. Mark’s as kids. This is the same school Tommy Lee Jones had previously attended, along with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs.
34.
And speaking of Tommy Lee Jones, he and Al Gore lived together at Harvard, which I honestly cannot imagine.
35.
Before skyrocketing to fame, Harrison Ford worked on a camera crew for The Doors, helping film a road tour movie. Apparently, they partied too hard even for him, leading Ford to say he wanted to join a monastery afterward.
36.
Larry David and Bernie Sanders are distant cousins, which is hilarious considering how many times David has parodied him.
37.
Pedro Pascal and Sarah Paulson have been friends since the early ’90s before they found fame. One of the first times they hung out, they saw Woody Harrelson at a park and bonded over being fans of Harrelson. When Paulson began to book work, she would give Pascal money so he could afford to eat. And this is why they’re the internet’s Mom and Dad!
38.
Werner Herzog once rescued Joaquin Phoenix from his upside-down car after he got in a crash. Herzog happened to be passing by and saw the wreckage. Phoenix says he heard a “gentle tap” and a “calming and beautiful” German voice telling him to relax, which made him feel safe. Herzog helped him get out of the car but disappeared moments later. “I got out of the car, and I said thank you, and he was gone,” Phoenix recounted.
39.
Timothée Chalamet and Ansel Elgort went to high school together and competed for the same parts in plays. They also had the same drama and science teachers and played on the same basketball team. (TBH, I cannot picture either of these men playing basketball.)
41.
Kerry Washington is from the same neighborhood in the Bronx as Jennifer Lopez and attended the same high school as Gwyneth Paltrow.
43.
Seth Rogen and Nathan Fielder went to the same high school and were even in an improv group together.
45.
And maybe I’m the last person on the planet to discover this, but Kate Spade was David Spade’s sister-in-law.
46.
I did know this one, but it’s still worth mentioning: Francis Ford Coppola is Nicolas Cage’s uncle. This means Sofia Coppola is his cousin.
47.
Cage is also the cousin of Rooney’s lead vocalist, Robert Schwartzman, and actor Jason Schwartzman. Their mother, Talia Shire, memorably played Adrian in the Rocky films.
49.
Adam Levine and Jonah Hill knew each other in childhood, as their parents were good friends. “Our kids grew up together, almost like brothers and sisters,” Levine’s mom, Patsy Noah, said.
53.
Maybe you already know this, but Aniston has been friends with Adam Sandler since 1990 when the two met at a deli in Los Angeles because Aniston was dating Sandler’s friend.
54.
Speaking of Sandler, he lived with Judd Apatow before they were both famous in a $900/month apartment in the Valley. Sandler eventually left to join the cast of SNL but continued to pay rent, as he was worried he was going to get fired and have to go back to LA.
55.
Justin Timberlake’s mom was Ryan Gosling’s guardian for a year while Timberlake and Gosling appeared on Mickey Mouse Club House, as Gosling’s mom had to return to Canada and couldn’t serve as his guardian on set.
57.
Speaking of Conan — Lisa Kudrow and Conan O’Brien dated in the ’80s before they were famous. The two met at an improv class.
58.
Andy Samberg and Chelsea Peretti went to elementary school together, and Peretti had a crush on Samberg. The two would later costar on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
61.
Jack Black also transferred to the school — Crossroads School — when he was a sophomore, and he helped coach Rudolph for an improv competition, then took her to her first Groundlings show. Rudolph would end up joining an improv group there, which would lead to her being hired on SNL. But back in school, she had a crush on Black, who she called “the theater god at my school.” He also taught her how to drive a stick shift.
63.
They also, at one point, lived in an apartment with Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, Scott Spiegel, the Coen Brothers, and Kathy Bates.
64.
Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell met in junior high, though Campbell avoided Raimi at first, saying, “I remember him dressed as Sherlock Holmes playing with dolls in the middle of the floor. And I remember going way around him.” The two became friends in high school, however, and would go on to collaborate on the Evil Dead film series and Xena: Warrior Princess.
65.
Am I the only person who didn’t know Matty Healy was a nepo baby? His mom is actor and television personality Denise Welch, and his dad is actor Tim Healy.
66.
I also suspect I may be the only person who didn’t know that Andie MacDowell is Margaret Qualley’s mom.
69.
This is perhaps not a huge surprise if you know that Allison Williams’ dad is famous anchor Brian Williams.
70.
Usher used to watch Beyoncé and the rest of her singing group (then The Dolls) when they came to Atlanta to work with producer Daryl Simmons. “I had to watch them ’cause I was the authority ’cause I guess I was the teenager at the time,” he said, saying he had to make “certain that they didn’t get in no trouble in the house at the time.”
74.
Whitney Houston’s mom, Cissy Houston, was a Grammy Award-winning artist who, at one point, sang as a backup singer for Elvis, Dionne Warwick, and Aretha Franklin.
75.
It’s no surprise Cissy worked with Dionne Warwick, considering she’s her aunt — which means Dionne and Whitney are cousins.
77.
Years before they costarred in Barbie, Kate McKinnon and America Ferrera went to a summer acting program together while they were both in high school.
78.
Kate McKinnon was also friends with Barbie director Greta Gerwig before they were famous. The two were in an improv group together in college and “made really wonderfully strange musicals together.”
80.
Bethenny Frankel was Paris and Nicky Hilton’s nanny when they were kids. She would take them ice skating, to the pet shop, or shopping after school.
83.
Henry Fonda and James Stewart were roommates back in the 1930s in New York City, then moved to LA together, where they remained roommates. Despite their differences (particularly political ones), they remained friends for decades.
84.
Michael Bowen has two half-brothers through his mother: Keith and Robert Carradine. Keith and Robert are, on their dad’s side (their dad was famous Westerns actor John Carradine), half-brothers with David Carradine — who appeared with Bowen in Kill Bill. Though the two aren’t blood-related, Bowen has referred to him as a stepbrother.
85.
Oh, and Keith’s daughter is actor Martha Plimpton.
What are other wild celeb connections you know? Let us know in the comments!
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