4.
Obama’s eighth cousin is Dick Cheney.
5.
Niecy Nash, Sterling K. Brown, and Danielle Brooks are cousins.
6.
Jon Hamm taught Ellie Kemper’s drama class when she was a freshman in high school. Later, when she was trying to make it in LA, she used her high school’s directory to reach out to Hamm (who was then starring in Mad Men) and invited him to her one-person comedy show—and he came!
7.
Adam Levine and Jonah Hill knew each other in childhood, as their parents were good friends. “Our kids grew up together, almost like brothers and sisters,” Levine’s mom, Patsy Noah, said.
8.
Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston went to Eton together, and even costarred in the play A Passage to India — Redmayne was the lead, while Hiddleston “played the front right leg of the elephant that Eddie was on,” as he told Graham Norton.
9.
Prince William also went to Eton and was even on a rugby team with Redmayne in 1997.
10.
Jennifer Aniston was in a friend group with Chaz Bono in high school, and would often hang out at Cher’s house. Cher remembers her as taking the most snacks from the snack drawer.
11.
Aniston has been friends with Adam Sandler since 1990, when the two met at a deli in Los Angeles because Aniston was dating Sandler’s friend.
12.
Speaking of Sandler, he lived with Judd Apatow before they were both famous in a $900/month apartment in the Valley. Sandler eventually left to join the cast of SNL, but continued to pay rent, as he was worried he was going to get fired and have to go back to LA.
13.
Justin Timberlake’s mom was Ryan Gosling’s guardian for a year while Timberlake and Gosling appeared on Mickey Mouse Club House, as Gosling’s mom had to return to Canada and couldn’t serve as his guardian on set.
14.
Mindy Kaling interned on Conan O’Brien’s show before she was famous.
15.
Speaking of Conan — Lisa Kudrow and Conan O’Brien dated in the ’80s, before they were famous, after meeting at an improv class.
16.
Drake went to high school with Elliot Page — and apparently wasn’t very nice to him. He wrote on his blog, “I was watching Juno tonight on the tour bus and I am so proud of you…you were always the smartest and wittiest person in our class and I only made fun of you and acted like an asshole cause I had a crush on you.”
17.
Neve Campbell and Allison Pill also went to that same high school.
18.
More high school classmates: Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman! They would end up becoming close friends, with Watts saying of Kidman, “She made me her sister. Her smaller sister. Nicole epitomizes for me the word ‘sisterhood.’”
19.
Guess who also went to high school together? Spencer Pratt and the Olsen twins — Pratt claims he sold a photo of Mary-Kate drinking at a party to the tabloids for $50,000.
20.
Tia and Tamara Mowry babysat Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen for a half-day when they were around seven or eight on the set of Full House. Their brother Tahj was appearing on the show at the time. “They were very young. So sweet, so kind. I remember all they wanted was matzo ball soup,” Tamera revealed.
21.
Andy Samberg and Chelsea Peretti went to elementary school together, and Peretti had a crush on Samberg. The two would later costar on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
22.
Maya Rudolph and Gwyneth Paltrow also went to elementary school together.
23.
Jonah Hill also went there, though not at the same time. Oh, and Maude Apatow, Zosia Mamet, Kate Hudson, Jack Quaid, Charlie Hall, Maya Rudolph, Liv Tyler, Zooey Deschanel, and Emily Deschanel.
24.
Jack Black also transferred to the school — Crossroads School — when he was a sophomore, and he helped coach Rudolph for an improv competition, then took her to her first Groundlings show. Rudolph would end up joining an improv group there that would lead to her SNL hiring. But back in school, she had a crush on Black, who she called “the theater god at my school.” He also taught her how to drive a stick shift.
25.
Holly Hunter and Frances McDormand were college roommates when they attended Yale Drama School — then lived together after graduating, too.
26.
They also, at one point, lived in an apartment with Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, Scott Spiegel, the Coen Brothers, and Kathy Bates.
27.
Am I the only person who didn’t know Matty Healy was a nepo baby? His mom is actor and television personality Denise Welch.
29.
Alison Williams worked as Tina Fey’s assistant before she was famous.
30.
Usher used to watch Beyoncé and the rest of her singing group (then The Dolls) when they came to Atlanta to work with producer Daryl Simmons. “I had to watch them ‘cause I was the authority ‘cause I guess I was the teenager at the time,” he said, saying he had to make “certain that they didn’t get in no trouble in the house at the time.”
31.
Brandy and Snoop Dogg are first cousins, according to Snoop.
32.
Speaking of Brandy — she went to prom with none other than Kobe Bryant.
33.
Bianca Lawson is Beyoncé and Solange’s ste-sister.
34.
Whitney Houston’s mom Cissy Houston was a backup singer for both Elvis, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin.
35.
Josh Brolin’s stepmom is none other than Barbara Streisand.
36.
Years before they costarred in Barbie, Kate McKinnon and America Ferrera went to a summer acting program together while they were both in high school.
37.
Kate McKinnon was also friends with Barbie director Greta Gerwig before they were famous. The two were in an improv group together in college and “made really wonderfully strange musicals together.”
38.
Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain have known each other since they attended Julliard together.
39.
Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen are brothers, which I can’t believe I never knew.
40.
Bethenny Frankel was Paris and Nicky Hilton’s nanny when they were kids. She would take them ice skating, to the pet shop, or shopping after school.
41.
Years before both starring in The Office, John Krasinski and BJ Novak went to high school together. They were also on a little league team together.
42.
Jason Segel and Kevin Hart shared a one-bedroom apartment for six months — because Apatow told them to. The two had both appeared in a pilot Apatow directed. (The series did not get picked up.)
43.
And finally, Pete Wentz’s parents met working for Joe Biden in the 1970s. Which means that without Biden’s political career, Pete Wentz — and by extension, Fall Out Boy — wouldn’t exist.