This year’s Academy Awards were one wild ride, and they’ve introduced us to many worthy winners. If you’re wondering where the winners of the acting Oscars went to school before turning their attention to Hollywood, we’re here with all the details about their academic backgrounds.
Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
Adrien Brody won his second Oscar for The Brutalist, and he spent years preparing for this role. His parents enrolled him in acting classes at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in his youth, and he eventually attended Stony Brook University and Queens College before dropping out to move to Los Angeles.
Mikey Madison – Anora
Mikey Madison was home-schooled after the seventh grade because her youth mostly revolved around competitive horseback riding. This changed when she turned 14 and decided to pursue acting instead, so she started taking an online young-adult acting class.
Zoe Saldaña – Emilia Pérez
Before making a switch to acting, Zoe Saldaña was passionate about ballet and studied forms of dance at the ECOS Espacio de Danza Academy. She later turned her attention to theatre and performed with Brooklyn’s Faces Theater Group and the New York Youth Theater.
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain
Kieran Culkin comes from a family of actors, and he never got a chance to pursue higher education since he was only two when he first started acting. He attended the Professional Children’s School in New York, where he studied theater, film, and television, but dropped out during his senior year of high school.
