By Jessica Wedemeyer
10:00pm PDT, Aug 30, 2022
_
Back to school season is upon us! In honor of the fresh start to a new year of learning, Wonderwall.com is taking a look back at some of the celebrities who were classmates! First up? Kate McKinnon and Greta Gerwig! The "Saturday Night Live" alum and the "Little Women" and "Barbie" writer-director attended Barnard College, Columbia University's private women's liberal arts college, at the same time. "We went to college together. We sort of lived in a dorm together too," Kate said on on E!'s 2022 Emmys pre-show.
Keep reading to get the scoop on more famous friends from school…
RELATED: Stars who went to college after becoming famous
_
Aussie beauties Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts were friends way before they made it big in Hollywood. They were pals in their native Australia at North Sydney Girls High School. Aside from being classmates, the duo also modeled together before making it big as actors.
RELATED: Nicole Kidman's life in photos
_
Heartthrobs Ansel Elgort and Timothee Chalamet both attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts as teens before making it big. Aside from seeing each other in the hallways, they also played basketball together at the school. (They're seen here taking in a New York Knicks game together years after graduation.)
_
Dean Cain and Brooke Shields first connected as students at Princeton University. They fell for each other quickly and when she was 22, the former child star even lost her virginity to the Superman actor.
_
Stanley Tucci and Ving Rhames lived together while studying at the State University of New York at Purchase, and get this: The Oscar nominee is the one who encouraged the "Pulp Fiction" star to shorten his name from Irving to Ving professionally.
_
Though they first met at a mutual pal's bat mitzvah, Beanie Feldstein and Ben Platt later became fast friends at the Los Angeles private school Harvard-Westlake. The talented twosome would go on to find success on Broadway and the big screen and continued to stay in touch… even serving as each other's red carpet plus-ones every now and then!
_
Eddie Redmayne had a VIP on his Eton College rugby team — Prince William! The actor opened up about his famous boarding school classmate while talking to Glamour in 2015. "I always felt slightly sorry for him because everyone wanted to tackle the future king of England. He took all the hits," the Oscar winner said.
_
Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston attended Eton College, an English boarding school, around the same time and then crossed paths again at the University of Cambridge, where they cemented their friendship. Though they once appeared in a school play together — the Oscar winner as the lead female character and the Marvel actor as an elephant's right leg — they've never shared screen time. (They did, however, both voice characters in the animated movie "Early Man.") But they weren't the only famous members of the Cambridge crew…
_
Dan Stevens and Rebecca Hall attended the University of Cambridge at the same time as Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston. Though they were all friendly, only the "Legion" actor and the star of "The Town," who dropped out two years into her three-year program, lived together. They starred opposite each other in a school production of "Macbeth" and reteamed on the big screen in the 2017 comedy "Permission."
_
Before they shared the screen on "Riverdale," Camila Mendes and Cole Sprouse shared some classrooms. The actors both attended New York University at the same time. Camila has some funny memories of her time on campus with the former child star, telling Office magazine in 2017, "I saw him around and there was a time when we had class in the same building so I would always see him outside. He was a weirdo! He had really long hair down to his butt cheeks."
_
Buddies Taraji P. Henson and Anthony Anderson's friendship goes way back… all the way to college! The duo attended Howard University at the same time.
_
In 2000, a senior named Nick Kroll cast a freshman by the name of John Mulaney in the Georgetown Improv Association comedy troupe at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. They've been friends — and collaborators — ever since. The former schoolmates co-starred in a Broadway play and appeared together on Nick's "Kroll Show."
_
Conan O'Brien and CNN boss Jeff Zucker lived in the same dorm while they were students at Harvard. But they were more rivals than friends: Jeff was the president of the university's daily newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, and Conan was the president of the college's humor magazine, the Harvard Lampoon. According to Deadline, Conan once spearheaded a prank on the Crimson, stealing all the copies of the newspaper before it could be distributed. Jeff retaliated by calling the cops, and he was even on hand to confront Conan face-to-face as the funnyman was arrested. "He only forgave me when I gave him 'The Tonight Show,'" the former NBC exec said in 2005. But that forgiveness may not have lasted long: NBC fired Conan from the coveted late night gig after less than a year.
_
Did you know Gwyneth Paltrow and Maya Rudolph's fathers were friends? The men attended Tulane University together and both settled in Los Angeles. Their daughters both attended the same elementary school at the same time — St. Augustine by the Sea in Santa Monica, California.
_
Serial co-stars Winston Duke and Lupita Nyong'o attended Yale together! Yep, the "Black Panther" and "Us" stars were both Ivy League undergrads at the same time — Winston told Esquire back in 2018 that Lupita even gave him his tour at orientation! The future stars became friends and joined a group on campus called FOLKS (that was actually started by fellow actor and Yale alum Angela Bassett!).
_
Kristen Bell and "Glee" alum Matthew Morrison attended New York University together. "We actually dated very briefly," the actress told Us Weekly in 2010.
_
"Saturday Night Live" stars Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett both graduated from the University of Southern California in 2007. Though Kyle majored in film and Beck studied theater, the duo were part of the same improv comedy troupe at the Los Angeles-based college.
_
Holly Hunter and Frances McDormand were friends and then roommates during their time at Yale. The drama majors lived together again in New York City and Los Angeles. They've since co-starred in two films: "Raising Arizona" and "Crazy in Love."
_
Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones and former Vice President Al Gore shared the same group of friends during their freshman years at Harvard and later lived in the same dorm. They remained friendly long after their collegiate days: In 2001, the actor spoke during the Democratic National Convention in support of his longtime pal.
_
Rachel Bloom and Ilana Glazer both graduated from New York University in 2009. Though the "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" creator (who posted these selfies on Instagram in April 2016) studied theater and the "Broad City" star and co-creator majored in psychology, they became roommates shortly after graduation, which makes us think they probably crossed paths from time to time during their days at NYU.
_
Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson were roommates at the University of Texas. They've since co-written three films directed by the auteur: "Bottle Rocket," "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums," in which the blonde actor also appeared. Owen's also appeared in three films directed by his pal — "The Grand Budapest Hotel," "The Darjeeling Limited" and "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" — and voiced a character in his stop-motion film, "Fantastic Mr. Fox."
_
"The Bachelorette" star Rachel Lindsay dated NBA player Kevin Durant during their college years at the University of Texas at Austin. They reportedly split when the basketball player went pro at the end of his freshman year and the future reality TV star began her legal studies at Marquette University.
_
Carrie Underwood and Zach Swon of the Swon Brothers (left, with brother and bandmate Colton Swon) were classmates at Oklahoma's Northeastern State University, where they took a country music theater class together. "The class was so small," he told Taste of Country Nights. "It was a night class, and there was probably only eight people in it."
_
Prince William met a fellow art history major named Kate Middleton during their first years at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in the fall of 2001. The duo tied the knot in 2011, giving the world Duchess Kate — Britain's future queen consort.
