Beyoncé
Beyoncé didn’t go to college. In fact, the musical superstar didn’t even finish high school, but that didn’t stop her from becoming one of the biggest names in music. In 2018, she became the first Black woman to headline Coachella, and in 2023 she became the most-awarded artist in Grammy history. The Houston native got her start in Destiny’s Child at the age of 16 before launching her solo career.
Jay-Z
Although he never went to college, Shawn Corey Carter – better known by his stage name, Jay-Z – nevertheless managed to make a name for himself in the music industry. His high school career was a bit of a roller coaster. He attended Brooklyn and New Jersey schools but never graduated from either. He’s since gone on to become the first billionaire hip-hop artist.
Rihanna
Rihanna was born in Barbados, where she left school at 16 to secure a recording contract with Def Jam Records. Her first single, Pon de Replay, reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In addition to her musical career, Rihanna has launched several other ventures including a beauty line called Fenty Beauty and a lingerie line called Savage X Fenty.
Leonardo DiCaprio
After his junior year, DiCaprio left John Marshall High School in Los Angeles. He earned his GED and eventually got cast in This Boy’s Life with Robert De Niro – the film that launched him into stardom. He went on to appear in a number of blockbuster films, including Titanic, The Great Gatsby and The Wolf of Wall Street.
Drake
Rapper Drake dropped out of high school when he was cast as Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi: The Next Generation and struggled to keep up with his classwork. He earned his GED in 2012. Drake has been a successful recording artist, breaking the Beatles’ 52-year-old record for most hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with his chart-topping singles.
Emma Stone
Emma Stone, an actress and Arizona native, dropped out of high school after her first semester to pursue a career in acting. Stone moved to California when she was 15 after persuading her parents to let her drop out by creating a PowerPoint presentation titled “Project Hollywood.” She won an Oscar for Best Actress in 2016 for her starring role in La La Land.
Steve Jobs
Steven Jobs was an American entrepreneur and inventor, best known for co-founding tech company Apple. In September 1972, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. However, after one semester, he decided the education wasn’t for him and dropped out. Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976 and went on to amass a net worth of over $10 billion dollars by his death in 2011.
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is a British entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the Virgin Group. Today, the company controls more than 400 companies, including Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Media. Branson started his first business venture, Student Magazine, when he was sixteen. He opened a record store in 1970 and started Virgin Records, which became known as Virgin Megastores in 1972.
Anna Wintour
Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vogue since 1988, is a fashion icon who has a reputation for being harsh. The Brit attended North London Collegiate School but never went on to pursue higher education. Wintour got her start in fashion at the London clothing store Biba when she was 15 years old.
Halle Berry
After earning her high school diploma from a public school in Cleveland, Ohio, Halle Berry, dropped out of her college program before completing it and headed for Chicago to become a model instead. Berry eventually made it to Hollywood, where she became a star and was the first Black woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Monster’s Ball.
Anna Paquin
Anna Paquin won an Academy Award for her work in The Piano at the age of 11 and has maintained a successful acting career since then. Paquin studied at Columbia University for a short time before leaving to focus on her acting career. She appeared in the HBO series True Blood, playing a telepathic waitress named Sookie Stackhouse. Paquin won a Golden Globe for this role.
Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews left high school to take voice and acting lessons before making her Broadway debut at age 19 in The Boy Friend. Two years later, she returned to Broadway in My Fair Lady. Since the mid-1950s, she has starred in many films and musicals, winning an Academy Award for her work in Mary Poppins and earning a nomination for The Sound of Music.
Nicole Kidman
Although Nicole Kidman didn’t finish her high school career in Australia, she did train at the Australian Theatre for Young People. Her big break came in 1989 when she starred opposite Sam Neill in Dead Calm. Today, she’s one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actresses.
Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Radcliffe, who is most famous for his role as Harry Potter, has never attended college. Radcliffe was cast as the lead in his first film at the age of 12 and then went on to star in all eight installments of the Harry Potter franchise. Since 2011, he has appeared in films including Kill Your Darlings, The Lost City, and Swiss-Army Man.
Will Smith
Will Smith became famous in the late nineties as the star of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, a sitcom about a young rapper from Philadelphia who gets sent to live with his wealthy relatives in California. Smith was a good student, and he was accepted into an engineering program at MIT. However, he decided not to attend because of his desire to pursue a rap career.
Jessica Alba
After graduating from Claremont High School, Alba chose to move to New York to study acting instead of pursuing higher education. She soon landed a lead role in the TV show Dark Angel, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Alba now serves as the founder and chairperson of The Honest Company, which has achieved a valuation of $1.7 billion.
Whoopi Goldberg
As a child, Goldberg struggled with school due to her dyslexia. She withdrew from Washington Irving High School in New York City and moved to California, where she found work as an actress. In the 1986 film The Color Purple, Goldberg took on the role of Celie, a young woman abused by her husband. She won an Oscar nomination for her portrayal.
Chris Rock
Chris Rock left James Madison High School in New York City because he was being bullied. But his talent, charm and charisma helped him overcome this setback and gain a foothold in the entertainment industry. Rock made his debut on Saturday Night Live in 1990. He has since become an acclaimed stand-up comedian and actor.
Hilary Swank
Hilary Swank left high school to pursue a career in acting. She made her debut with a small role in the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In 1999, Hilary Swank’s acting career took a turn for the better when she starred in Boys Don’t Cry. Her movie earned her a Golden Globe and an Oscar.
Britney Spears
Pop icon Britney Spears exemplifies the fact that even though people endure hardships in life, they can still achieve great success in their chosen field. At 18 years old, she decided not to waste time in college and committed herself full-time to her music career. An interview with Spears revealed that she spent 11 hours a day singing and learning choreography during the early stages of her career.
Katy Perry
Katy Perry began her music career at fifteen and gained popularity quickly. However, despite her good grades in school, at 16 she decided not to attend college, as she felt it would interfere with her career as a singer. Perry took the risk of dedicating herself to her passion and today she is one of the most successful musicians of our time.
Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell is a British-born entrepreneur and talent scout, who rose to prominence in the television industry as a judge on Pop Idol and later The X Factor. Now one of the wealthiest celebrities in the world, despite starting off his career working in a post room at a small record label. Cowell left high school with only two O Levels and never attended college.
Kate Moss
Kate Moss didn’t even finish school. She was 14 when she was signed to a modelling agency. Moss is one of the best-known supermodels in the world. Over her 30-year career, she has graced countless magazine covers and has been in photo shoots for some of the biggest fashion brands around.
Alan Sugar
Sir Alan Sugar is best known for being the star of the BBC TV series The Apprentice, in which he makes aspiring young businessmen submit to his shrewd management skills and become employed by him. He was born into a working-class London family. After leaving school with no qualifications, Sugar became a greengrocer’s boy in the East End.
Tom Cruise
Despite struggling through school, actor Tom Cruise went on to become one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Cruise chose not to attend college and focused on his acting career. He’s starred in hit films such as Mission Impossible and Top Gun, earning him an estimated $600 million.
Eminem
Eminem, who dropped out of school at 17, has previously spoken about his difficulty focusing on his studies because he wanted to be a rapper. After leaving school, Eminem released his debut album. Over the next few years, he continued to release new albums and collaborate with other artists such as Rihanna and Nicki Minaj. He is now worth an estimated £185 million.
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz didn’t enjoy her time at school, she felt it was a waste of time, so when she reached 16 and had saved enough money she decided to drop out and pursue a career in modelling. Diaz went on to become one of Hollywood’s most well-known actresses, working ever since her breakout role in the 1994 comedy film The Mask.
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga, who is now a global superstar and one of the highest-paid music artists in the world, was accepted into Collaborative Arts Project 2, a music school at New York University’s Tisch School of The Arts when she was 17 years old. She left after her second year to pursue her music career full-time.
Rachael Ray
Rachael Ray didn’t have a formal education in the culinary arts, but she did have a passion for cooking. Ray left her Bachelor’s degree program in Nutrition to become one of today’s biggest chef stars. Ray has since dominated the Food Network, daytime television and sold numerous books.
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling rose to stardom as a child actor in Canada. He later left school in order to take on roles in independent films. Gosling has appeared in several Hollywood films, including The Notebook and Barbie. He has been nominated for two Oscars and four Golden Globes.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey never attended college because her career took off when she was a teenager and got her a job hosting a radio show on Nashville station WVOL. This eventually led to hosting her eponymous talk show – The Oprah Winfrey Show – which ran for 25 seasons. Winfrey now has a net worth of over $2 billion.
Jessica Simpson
After signing with Columbia Records at age 18, Jessica Simpson dropped out of high school to pursue a music career. Simpson, who first made a career of singing and acting, is now an entrepreneur with her clothing line The Jessica Simpson Collection, which is available at various department stores.
Demi Moore
In 1986, at the age of 16, Demi Moore left Fairfax High School in Los Angeles to pursue her modeling career in Europe after getting signed to an agency called Elite. She later she appeared in the films Blame It on Rio and About Last Night. In 1990, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role in the film Ghost.
Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen dropped out of Point Grey Secondary School in Canada after he was cast in Judd Apatow’s Freaks and Geeks to pursue an acting career. During his time in school, Rogen and his childhood friend Evan Goldberg co-wrote the 2007 film Superbad.
Marilyn Monroe
After marrying her first husband, James Dougherty, in 1942, Marilyn Monroe dropped out of high school and began a career in modeling. Monroe’s natural beauty and talent for acting led her to a string of film roles, including lead roles in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot.
Madonna
Madonna, who later became known as the queen of pop, attended the University of Michigan for a few months before dropping out and moving to New York City to pursue a music career. Madonna’s debut single came out in 1983, four years after she dropped out of college.
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence is one of Hollywood’s most famous dropouts. She left her formal education while she was still in middle school and never pursued further education, saying she felt she had found her calling as an actor. In 2013, Lawrence became the second-youngest Best Actress winner in history, and she went on to become the world’s highest-paid actress.
Jessica Chastain
Actress Jessica Chastain admitted in 2015 that she dropped out of high school. She did not graduate because she was a bad student who was often absent from class. However, she did go back and get an adult diploma later on. Chastain is now a successful actress and Oscar winner.
Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey was born in Newmarket, Ontario. As a teenager, he stopped going to school and he found a job at a tire factory to support his family. After that, he gave up his education. Carrey went on to gain celebrity status for his roles in Ace Ventura and The Mask.
Al Pacino
In an interview with The Washington Post in 2016, Pacino said that he left high school after tenth grade to work and support his single mother, who suffered from depression. He explained that he wasn’t very good at school and wasn’t focused on his classes. Pacino recalls his eighth-grade drama teacher telling his parents, “You have to encourage your boy to act.”
