Now that summer is almost here, graduation season is in full swing. These celebrities know the importance of higher education and have earned doctorates in subjects such as medicine, communications, and even neuroscience.
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Shaquille O’Neal
Shaquille O’Neal certainly is no dumb jock. While he was dominating the basketball court as one of the biggest centers in the NBA, O’Neal was also busy busting open his books. He earned his master’s degree online from the University of Phoenix in 2005, but he didn’t stop there. A year after retiring from the NBA, O’Neal earned an education doctorate in Human Resource Development from Barry University, with a capstone titled “The Duality of Humor and Aggression in Leadership Styles.” The charismatic big man revealed that he wants to become a motivational speaker and has his eyes on law school.
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Ken Jeong
Acting wasn’t Ken Jeong’s first career. After graduating from Duke University in 1990, he went on to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with a medical degree five years later. He practiced medicine for a number of years and is a licensed physician in California. Although Jeong was bitten by the acting bug during college, it was his wife who encouraged him years later to follow his dream.
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Bill Cosby
While Bill Cosby has made millions of people laugh with his comedy routines, he’s always spoken seriously about the importance of education. Before he became America’s favorite television dad, Cosby earned his doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He enrolled as a part-time student, and his dissertation discussed the use of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids as a teaching tool in elementary schools in 1977. Cosby’s road to higher education was a rocky one. He dropped out of school after flunking 10th grade three times and eventually earned his GED while enlisted in the Navy.
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Mayim Bialik
Some of the jokes on The Big Bang Theory are so complex you would need a Ph.D. in rocket science to get it. Star Mayim Bialik probably gets them all because she earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA. After starring in the successful sitcom Blossom, Bialik took a break from acting and pursued higher education. Her dissertation was called “Hypothalamic Regulation in Relation to Maladaptive, Obsessive-compulsive, Affiliative, and Satiety Behaviors in Prader-Willi syndrome.” Yeah.
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Rachel Maddow
While earning her doctorate in politics from Oxford University, Rachel Maddow started her career in broadcasting. Working on her dissertation in Massachusetts, she took a part-time job at a morning show on radio for some extra cash. Maddow didn’t initially have plans to return to broadcasting after receiving her Ph.D. in 2001, but she was offered a spot on the radio program Air America soon after, where she stayed until she began her stint at MSNBC in 2008. Maddow’s dissertation focused on HIV/AIDS and health care reform in British and American prisons.
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Wladimir Klitschko
Not only did Hayden Panettiere snag herself a professional athlete when she started dating boxer Wladimir Klitschko, but she also snagged herself a doctor. The Ukrainian heavyweight world champion earned his Ph.D. from Kiev University with a dissertation on pedagogical techniques for training young athletes in 2001, which led to the nickname Dr. Steelhammer in the boxing ring. Higher education is highly valued in the Klitschko family. Wladimir’s older brother Vitali was also a heavyweight world champion boxer with a doctorate, and their mother worked as a teacher.
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Brian May
May achieved international fame as the lead guitarist in Queen, but before he reached stardom, the English musician was on the road to get his doctorate in astrophysics. Once Queen blew up, May ditched his doctorate studies and became a rock star instead. Thirty years later he registered for his Ph.D. at Imperial College and handed in his dissertation a whole year earlier than he expected. After earning his Ph.D., May was appointed Visiting Researcher at the school and is involved in the Imperial Astrophysics Group.
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Greg Graffin
By day, Greg Graffin is a college professor and by night he’s a rock star. Graffin co-founded the band Bad Religion in the late ’70s, but aside from music, he’s always had a love for animals. When he wasn’t on stage, Graffin had his head buried in his books for years, studying as a double major in anthropology and geology as an undergraduate at UCLA. He went on to earn a master’s degree in geology from UCLA and received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in zoology. Graffin has taught at both of his alma maters.
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Peter Weller
Peter Weller has more than 70 movie and television credits under his belt, but he’s best known for starring in the blockbuster film RoboCop and its sequel RoboCop 2. While stacking up his résumé, Weller earned a master’s degree in Roman and Renaissance Art from Syracuse University and occasionally taught courses in ancient history at his alma mater. In 2007, Weller enrolled as a doctorate student at UCLA, majoring in Italian Renaissance art history. He turned in his dissertation in October 2013 and revealed at the Official Star Trek Convention the following summer that he had received his doctorate.
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James Franco
We can’t call James Franco a doctor just yet, but soon that will change. Franco has juggled a successful career in Hollywood while simultaneously working towards various degrees. The Pineapple Express star earned graduate degrees from Columbia University (writing), New York University (filmmaking) and Brooklyn College (fiction writing) while participating in a low-residency MFA poetry program for writers at Warren Wilson College. Right now, Franco is a Ph.D. student in English at Yale University, but that’s not enough for the overachiever. He’s also taking classes at the Rhode Island School of Design.
