32 Celebrities Who Dropped Out of School

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Gisele Bündchen

After being discovered at a shopping mall in Sao Paolo, Brazil, the model left school when she was just 14 to pursue her career. According to Forbes, Bündchen was the world's 5th highest paid model in 2018.

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Ryan Gosling

Gosling dropped out of Lester B. Pearson High School in Canada when he was 17 and went on to star in Disney's All-New Mickey Mouse Club.

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Cameron Diaz

Diaz dropped out of high school to pursue modeling full time at age 16. She soon went on to land her first acting gig, and become one of Hollywood's best-known actresses.

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Leonardo DiCaprio

The Oscar-winner dropped out of school after his junior year and started studying at a free local drama center instead.

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Nicole Kidman

The actress dropped out of school in Australia when she was 16 to pursue acting full time.

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Jay-Z

The rapper and producer bounced around high schools in Brooklyn and New Jersey before eventually dropping out. He is currently the 5th wealthiest celebrity in America with a net worth of $900 million, according to Forbes.

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Catherina Zeta-Jones

The actress dropped out of school at 15 to study acting full time.

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Harry Styles

Styles dropped out of school when One Direction took off because he, understandably, didn't have time for much else.

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Jennifer Lawrence

Lawrence ended her formal education when she was 14 and dropped out of middle school.

"I dropped out of middle school. I don’t technically have a GED or a diploma,"she explained during a 60 Minutes interview. "I am self-educated."

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Rihanna

Rihanna was just 16 when she signed a record deal with Def Jam and left school. Since then, she has dropped countless hits and built a fashion and beauty empire with her Fenty lines. She is also reportedly launching a luxury fashion house.

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Jude Law

Law dropped out of high school when he was 17 to star in the soap opera Families.

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Paris Hilton

Hilton was expelled from the boarding school she attended in Connecticut.

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Patrick Dempsey

He famously played a doctor on TV, but Dempsey dropped out of school at 17.

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Drew Barrymore

Barrymore's career took off at an early age with her starring role in E.T. at just age 7. After that, she became too busy in her career to ever finish school.

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Johnny Depp

Depp dropped out of school when he was 15 to pursue a career as a rock star. Apparently, acting was his fallback plan.

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Hilary Swank

After dropping out of high school at age 16, the actress now says she regrets it.

“I’m not proud to say I’m a high-school dropout,” admitted Swank. “I’m not proud that that’s something that happened, but it happened. I think school is really, really important and we have an education problem in this country and it’s a shame. It’s a shame for any kid to feel hopeless about their future.”

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Whoopi Goldberg

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Robert Downey Jr.

The Iron Man star dropped out of Santa Monica High School after his junior year when his father gave him an ultimatum to "either show up [to school] every day or quit and get a job." The move definitely worked out for the A-List actor.

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Keanu Reeves

Reeves dropped out of school because he never fit in.

"It was a very small school, and I guess I didn't fit in," Reeves told The Daily Mail in 2008. "I had conflicts and run-ins with the staff. The principal and I didn't see eye to eye," he said. "I was one of those 'Why?' kids—I asked too many questions about everything. I couldn't stop even if it got me into trouble."

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Tom Cruise

Kayleigh Roberts is the weekend editor at Marie Claire, covering celebrity and entertainment news, from actual royals like Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle to Hollywood royalty, like Katie Holmes and Chrissy Teigen. She’s a Ravenclaw who would do great things in Slytherin. To learn more about her, google “Leslie Knope eating salad GIF.

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