NEWSOld School! The Fellow Stars Nicole Kidman, Adam Levine, Cameron Diaz, More Once Had As Classmates
April 11 2021, Updated 12:01 a.m. ET
Before they became Hollywood's hottest stars, celebs were students just like us. Little did they know, they would grow up to make it big, and some of their classmates would join them on their journey to stardom.
Did you know Cameron Diaz and Snoop Dogg went to high school together in California, or that Adam Levine and Jonah Hill's bromance dates back to their junior high days?
Scroll through the gallery below to check out the celebs you didn't know went to school together below.
JENNIFER ANISTON & CHAZ BONO
If you could turn back time… you’d see that The Morning Show star was there for the American Horror Story actor, her peer and pal. Both 52 years old, they attended New York’s LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts together. Long before Chaz, Cher and Sonny Bono’s daughter whom they’d named Chastity, transitioned, he and the actress had more than a passing friendship. As Jen recalled, “Everyday, a group of us would go to Chaz’s house after school.”
ADAM LEVINE & JONAH HILL
The Maroon 5 frontman and The Wolf of Wall Street star may seem like an unlikely pair, but they grew up together in Los Angeles. “Our dads met in the principal’s office in junior high,” said Jonah, 37. “We were in a carpool; we lived at each other’s houses.”
While Adam, 42, has become famous as a rock star, performing at the 2019 Super Bowl halftime show, and as a judge on The Voice, he wasn’t always Mr. Popular. According to Jonah, the crooner had a hard time finding dates because he was “nerdy” and also “had bad acne when he was growing up.” But when Maroon 5 got signed in Adam’s senior year, things changed. “I always looked up to him,” Jonah admitted.
The two have stayed close — Jonah even officiated Adam’s 2014 wedding to model Behati Prinsloo. Quipped the actor, “How could you not be doing well with ladies when you’re a guy in a band?”
TUPAC & JADA PINKETT-SMITH
Before he became known as one of the greatest rappers of his generation, Tupac was just another kid attending Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland. Jada, 49, recalls meeting the future hitmaker on her first day of school. “He came over to me and introduced himself,” she recounted. “Pac was a little funny looking… [He] wasn’t necessarily the type of cat that I would even, like, deal with. But as soon as he approached me, he was like a magnet!”
Jada went on to become an actress, appearing in both The Matrix and Madagascar franchises, while Tupac moved to California and cemented himself as a rap legend. But they remained close until his untimely death in 1996.
“Jada is my heart,” he once said. “She will be my friend for my whole life.” Jada, for her part, called him “one of my best friends,” gushing, “He was like a brother. The type of relationship we had, you only get that once in a lifetime.”
NICOLE KIDMAN & NAOMI WATTS
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The two Aussie actors have shared more than screen time. Nicole, 53, and Naomi, 52, also both attended North Sydney Girls High School before they each moved to L.A.. “We’ve gone through a lot together over a significant amount of time,” the King Kong actress has said. The pair, who’ve known each other for more than 30 years, still have plenty in common: Both have kids around the same age — Naomi’s mom to Sasha, 13, and Kai, 12, while Nicole has younger daughters Sunday, 12, and Faith, 10 — and are acclaimed stars.
They first worked together in 1991’s Flirting: “That’s when our friendship was forged,” Naomi explained. “That history binds you. We have a strong respect and love for each other.”
CAMERON DIAZ & SNOOP DOGG
He now bakes with Martha Stewart, and she’s retired from acting, but back at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, Snoop Dogg and the Charlie’s Angel star used to hang out! “She ran with my little cheerleading homegirls,” Snoop, 49, revealed. “She was in [their] crew. She was fly and she was hip.” And Cameron, 48, has said, “I’m pretty sure I bought weed from him!”
But it’s Snoop’s look in particular that stood out to her, as she remembered him as “very tall and skinny, [with] lots of ponytails on his head!” So did the two ever date? “I never got at her like that because she was younger than me,” Snoop shared. In fact, he married his high school sweetheart, Shante Taylor, with whom he shares three kids.
LADY GAGA & NICKY HILTON
It could’ve been a bad romance when Stefani Germanotta, better known as Lady Gaga, and the hotel heiress attended Sacred Heart private high school in Manhattan together. And though Gaga, 35, has said that Nicky, 37, and her older sister, Paris, were “very, very clean” while she was “always a weird girl in school,” the two may have influenced each other more than they realized.
“It’s almost like they were there to make me aware, because so much of what I do now is [to] try to twist my world into the commercial community,” said Gaga, who focused her energy on theater at the time. “I came to school with lots of red lipstick on or my hair perfectly curled, or whatever I was doing to get attention.” But she gives some credit to the Hiltons for influencing her idea of “the self proclaimed artist.”
BUSTA RHYMES & JAY - Z
Hip-hop mogul Jay-Z had a hit with “Empire State of Mind,” but did you know he honed his skills in high school rap battles against Busta Rhymes? The pair attended Brooklyn’s George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, and Jay, 51, revealed things got competitive: “Me and Busta Rhymes actually had a rap battle in the lunchroom.”
Busta, 48, has also recalled their epic showdowns, saying that Jay’s skills pushed him to step up his game. “He had finessed the speed rapping phenomenally and I was new [to it],” Busta explained. “But losing to Jay... is what made me one of the most dangerous speed rappers today!”
TIMOTHEE CHALAMET & ANSEL ELGORT
“They were both quite popular and very different,” noted their former drama teacher. Ansel, 27, has said, “It’s really crazy, Timmy and I played on the same basketball team, we had the same drama teacher, Mr. Shifman… and then in the same year, both of us [were] nominated for a f**king Golden Globe!” To this day, Ansel and Timothée, 25, have stayed pals, attending Knicks games together.
