Sun, July 26, 2026 at 12:16 PM UTC
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1. Cameron Diaz and Snoop Dogg went to the same high school together.Before Cameron Diaz starred in There’s Something About Mary and Snoop became a hip-hop legend, they both attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School in California. Diaz later joked that she was “pretty sure” she once bought marijuana from him. Although Snoop has said he doesn’t specifically remember the transaction, he presumed that “I might’ve sold her some of that white girl weed” (sticks, stems, and seeds). Honestly, this is the high-school reunion seating chart we deserve to see!!!
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2. John Krasinski and B.J. Novak knew each other longggggg before The Office.
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Jim and Ryan’s history predates Dunder Mifflin by several years. Krasinski and Novak played on the same Little League team as kids, and eventually attended Newton South High School in Massachusetts together. Novak recruited Krasinski to appear in a satirical school production he wrote. Krasinski recalled: “He asked me to be one of the leads. I remember saying that I couldn’t act, but B.J. said, ‘Just trust me, I think you’re funny.'” They eventually wound up working side by side on The Office, where Novak was also a writer and executive producer.
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3. Maya Rudolph and Gwyneth Paltrow became friends when they were about seven years old.
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Their connection actually began one generation earlier: Maya’s father, Richard Rudolph, and Gwyneth’s father, Bruce Paltrow, became best friends while attending Tulane University. Their daughters subsequently attended St. Augustine by-the-Sea School in Santa Monica and became childhood friends themselves. When Paltrow hosted SNL in 2001, she appeared onscreen with Rudolph and gushed about their friendship in her monologue.
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4. Maya Rudolph also credits Jack Black, her high school classmate, with helping to launch her comedy career.
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Black was a few grades ahead of Rudolph at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, where he became her improv coach for a school competition. In 2024, Rudolph told Drew Barrymore, “My drama teacher put us together, and he was my improv coach for an improv competition we did. He got me into the improv class, and he took me to my first Groundlings show.” She would eventually join said comedy institution. So, yes, a teenage Jack Black was apparently already running around inspiring future comedy legends.
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5. Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert were once roomies in Chicago.
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Before The Office and The Colbert Report, Carell and Colbert were young comedians working in the Second City orbit. And, for a time, shared a place. On an episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, they even recreated one of their sketches, “Waiters Who Are Naustead by Food,” that they performed back in their pre-fame days. Colbert said, “I was a waiter, and I used to read the specials list when I was hungover from the night before, and pretend to be nauseated from my other waiters. We did it on air, and it got us hired on The Dana Carvey Show.”
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6. Larry David and Bernie Sanders are actually distant cousins.
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David’s uncannily accurate Saturday Night Live impression of Sanders became even funnier when Finding Your Roots revealed that the comedian and senator are genuinely related. Both men were shown a photograph of the other while learning the news, producing what may be the most genetically inevitable casting decision in SNL history. David reacted by saying, “That is amazing. All right, cousin Bernie.”
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7. Sabrina Carpenter is the niece of Nancy Cartwright, the actor who voices Bart Simpson on The Simpsons.
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Cartwright publicly confirmed the relationship after fans began circulating the fact online. “I met her when she was eight. Her folks brought the three girls out to my house, and they stayed with us,” Cartwright said. “She wanted a Disney contract, and she said, ‘I want to do that’ since she was six years old.” This means one family includes both the singer behind “Espresso” and the voice behind “Eat my shorts,” which feels like an unusually powerful pop-culture dynasty.
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8. Kevin Hart and Jason Segel lived together because Judd Apatow told them to.
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Hart and Segel were cast in Apatow’s 2001 pilot North Hollywood. Hoping to create genuine chemistry between them, Apatow had the actors live together before filming. In 2022, Segel told Jimmy Kimmel, “So all of a sudden, Kevin Hart was living with me, and he’d be like, ‘Hey man, are you making breakfast? I’d like some too.’ So then I’m making breakfast for Kevin Hart.” The pilot North Hollywood was never picked up, but they would eventually appear alongside each other in This Is the End in 2013.
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9. Denzel Washington secretly paid for Chadwick Boseman’s college acting program.
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Long before Boseman joined the Marvel universe, Washington unknowingly changed his life. While studying at Howard University in the early ’90s, Boseman was selected for a prestigious summer acting program at the British American Drama Academy at Oxford. In Boseman’s AFI Tribute to Washington in 2019, he revealed to everyone that he couldn’t afford the tuition. “Mr. Washington, when asked by Phylicia Rashad to join her in assisting nine theater students from Howard University who had been accepted to a summer acting program at the British Academy of Dramatic Acting in Oxford, gracefully and privately agreed to contribute. As fate would have it, I was one of the students that he paid for.”
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10. Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes once had a legendary school-cafeteria rap battle when they were teenagers.
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Both rappers attended Brooklyn’s George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, along with the Notorious B.I.G. Jay-Z recalled battling Busta Rhymes in the cafeteria and winning. On Drink Champs, Busta Rhymes remembers their rap battle and how he still wants a rematch to this day: “I was kinda getting my feet wet in the Speed Rap sh*t, and he definitely got the edge on me in that particular battle. That’s what inspired me to become so dangerous with the Speed Rap because I was always looking forward to my rematch day, and I never got that.”
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11. Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts met as teenagers in Australia.Long before they became internationally famous actors, Kidman and Watts attended North Sydney Girls High School. They met when they were 15 years old, and their friendship continued as they pursued acting careers. In Watts’ AFI Tribute to Kidman, she recounted their first meeting at a casting call for swimsuits and how quickly they bonded during a two-hour waiting period.
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12. Scarlett Johansson and Jack Antonoff dated in high school.
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Johansson and the future Bleachers frontman attended New York’s Professional Children’s School and reportedly dated as teenagers, even going to the prom together. Antonoff later wrote songs about a high school relationship with a classmate who became famous, such as “Better Love” in 2005. It’s hard not to speculate that these lyrics are about Johansson, because it feels so darn obvious: “This girl, she had it kinda sweet, till fame swept her off her feet. Sees nothing she did before, let’s her colors hit the floor. Scars are in her name, and she scars me in blame. Hey Scarlett, you’re not the same.” She has never publicly confirmed that particular interpretation.
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13. Matt Bomer and Lee Pace were roommates before either one of them was famous.
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The actors went to high school together and then studied at Carnegie Mellon University. They shared an apartment in New York as they started their careers. Pace eventually starred in projects like Pushing Daisies and The Hobbit, while Bomer became known for White Collar and Fellow Travelers. Their apartment must have had a truly unreasonable jawline-to-square-foot ratio.
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14. Madonna and Debi Mazar were struggling artists together in New York City before they got their big breaks.
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The two met in the early ’80s while hanging out at New York City’s legendary Danceteria nightclub, bonding over art and eventually collaborating together. “I met her when she came to New York, and we became dear friends,” Mazar said in 2015, “And then she was like, ‘I’m gonna do a video,’ and I was like, ‘I do makeup. I’ll do your makeup. Cool!’ And it was very much like that, and then she became a huge star.” Madonna paid homage to their early days at the Danceteria in her recent video “Confessions II – The Film,” which features a cameo by Mazar.
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15. Adele and Jessie J attended the same performing-arts school, The BRIT School.
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In a 2020 interview, Jessie J remembered that “We were in the same year! We used to sing at lunchtime together. Obviously, at that time, we didn’t realize that we’d both [eventually] have music out, but she’s amazing. She was always that really bright energy at school.” Jessie was reportedly one year ahead of Adele at The BRIT School, which means the school cafeteria occasionally featured more vocal talent than most awards shows. Amy Winehouse also attended the same performing-arts institution, just years ahead of Jessie and Adele.
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16. Dolly Parton is Miley Cyrus’s godmother.
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Parton became close to Miley’s father, Billy Ray Cyrus, after they worked together, and he later asked her to be Miley’s godmother. Dolly appeared as Miley’s “Aunt Dolly” on Hannah Montana, has performed with her repeatedly, and has showered her with so much love, even to this day. In a 2024 interview with W Magazine, Miley revealed the most heartfelt story about Dolly sending her a fax. “Dolly wrote to me to say, ‘How much do I love you? As much as my heart can hold and as far as my arms can reach.’ It gets me choked up. I just love her so much,” Miley said. “Last Christmas, she gave me a whole mannequin, done in her proportions and wearing her outfit. It’s so major.”
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17. Rashida Jones grew up with the Kardashian family, along with another celeb who was Kim’s BFF.
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Rashida and the Kardashian siblings were longtime friends. This meant Rashida knew Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, and Rob well while they were still living relatively normal lives in Los Angeles. In an interview with the Independent, Rashida reflected on her childhood with Kim, in addition to Paris Hilton: “They were on my bus. Can you imagine being on a bus where two of the 10 people get famous for having sex tapes?”
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18. Grace Jones and Jerry Hall were roommates in Paris in the early ’70s before they shared the dance floor at Studio 54.
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Jones and Hall met while both had modeling contracts and eventually built successful careers as singers and models. In Jones’s 2015 memoir, I’ll Never Write My Memoirs, she wrote: “I developed long-lasting bonds with the girls I worked with, not least because I also lived with them and we explored new, strange territory together. I’ve remained friends with Jerry to this day, and we help each other and inspire each other.”
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19. And finally, Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King knew Julia Roberts when she was born (and even paid the hospital birth bill).
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In an interview with Gayle King, Roberts said, “My parents had a theatre school in Atlanta called The Actors and Writers Workshop, and one day, Coretta Scott King called my mother and asked if her kids could be part of the school.” Roberts continued: “They were having a hard time finding a place that would accept her kids. [The Kings and my parents] all became friends, and they helped us out of a jam.”
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