10 Hot Celebrities Who Got their MBA or Business Degree

Actors, singers, athletes and other entertainers have found celebrity status through a variety of avenues and opportunities. Not all received formal education in their field, or if they did, it wasn’t the only training they received. This group of ten hot celebrities, including pro athletes, mega movie stars, and music moguls also spent time in business school.

1. Ivanka Trump: As the daughter of billionaire and business maven Donald Trump, it makes sense that Ivanka would become a powerful business force, too. Twenty-seven year-old Ivanka started as a teenage model, appearing on the cover of Seventeen and working for designers like Thierry Mugler and Tommy Hilfiger. After high school, however, Ivanka attended Georgetown University for two years and then transferred to the Wharton Business School at The University of Pennsylvania, where her father attended. She received a bachelor’s degree in economics in 2004, and is currently the Vice President of Real Estate and Acquisitions for the Trump Organization in New York City.
2. Kevin Costner: Award-winning actor Kevin Costner was one of the biggest movie stars in the 1990s and continues to make popular films. Some of his best known roles include Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, and The Untouchables, and Costner even released a country music album in 2008 entitled Untold Truths. Costner was raised throughout California in Lynwood, Ventura, Orange County and Villa Park. In 1978, he graduated from California State University, Fullerton, with a B.A. in business. After graduating, he got married and started a job as a marketing executive, but quit 30 days later in order to pursue his acting career.
3. Benicio del Toro: Benicio del Toro has won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and BAFTA Award, but before developing into a critically acclaimed movie star, del Toro was a Catholic school student in Puerto Rico. After his mother died, his father moved the family to Pennsylvania, where del Toro finished high school. After graduating, he enrolled in the University of California, San Diego, as a business student. In college, del Toro started taking drama classes and eventually took small parts in music videos and films until his role in The Usual Suspects in 1995 won him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor.
4. Clint Eastwood: Clint Eastwood is one of the most iconic American actors, starring in several Dirty Harry movies, and countless westerns in the 1960s and 1970s. Now in his late 70s, Eastwood continues to act in and direct important films like Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino and Changeling. Besides being a significant influence on the entertainment industry, Eastwood has also dabbled in politics. He was elected as the Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea on the Monterey Peninsula in California and was twice appointed to the California State Park and Recreation Commission. As a child, Eastwood’s family frequently moved around California. After graduating high school, he took several odd jobs and briefly pursued a business degree at the Los Angeles College.
5. P. Diddy: Sean "P. Diddy" Combs is one of the music industry’s most powerful players, supporting rappers like the Notorious B.I.G, Usher, TLC, Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men, Lil’ Kim and others under his Bad Boy Records label. His net worth was estimated to be around $346 million in 2006, and he has won nine Grammys, among other awards. Born in Harlem, New York, and raised in The Bronx, Combs played football in high school and graduated in 1987. After high school, he attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he pursued a business degree. While in school, Combs earned an internship at Uptown Records in New York, and ultimately dropped out of Howard to pursue work in the music business.
6. Tiger Woods: U.S. golfing legend and champion Tiger Woods has won 65 PGA events and fourteen professional major golf championships. He was also the youngest player to be awarded the career Grand Slam, and has received numerous other golf awards. In the late 1990s, Tiger Woods started winning major tournaments, and since then, he has enjoyed huge celebrity status and has endorsed companies like General Mills, Titleist, General Motors, American Express, and more. As a child, however, Woods was already known as a child golf star: he played against Bob Hope on The Mike Douglas Show when he was only two years old. Woods grew up in California and attended Stanford University after graduating high school, choosing to major in economics. Woods dropped out of Stanford after two years to turn pro.
7. Arnold Schwarzenegger: One of the most high profile celebrities-turned-political leaders, Arnold Schwarzenegger is probably just as well known for his roles in Terminator as he is for being Governor of California. Schwarzenegger is also a former Mr. Universe and is married to Maria Shriver, niece of John F. Kennedy. During his movie career, Schwarzenegger helped found the Planet Hollywood chain with Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Demi Moore. Schwarzenegger moved to the U.S. from Austria in 1968, and in the 1970s began taking English classes from Santa Monica College. In 1976, he earned a degree in Business and International Economics by correspondence from the University of Wisconsin-Superior.
8. John Elway: Football star John Elway has played for the Baltimore Colts and the Denver Broncos, with which he won two Super Bowl titles. Elway was also known as a superior football player at Stanford, where he set records and received All-American honors. While at Stanford, he studied economics.
9. Cate Blanchett: Australian actress Cate Blanchett is one of the most well-respected movie stars in Hollywood today, and has won an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two BAFTAs. Blanchett is also an acclaimed theatre actress, appearing in shows like The Seagull, Hedda Gabler, and A Streetcar Named Desire in Australia. Before becoming a professional actress, Blanchett was introduced to acting at the Methodist Ladies’ College. At the University of Melbourne, however, Blanchett chose to study economics in addition to fine arts. After graduating, she attended the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney.
10. Lionel Richie: Singer Lionel Richie has enjoyed a successful musical career since the 1960s when he formed The Commodores. In addition to performing his own songs with and without his band, Richie has also written songs for other artists, including "Lady" for Kenny Rogers. Richie formed The Commodores while he was a student at the Tuskegee Institute, where he played tennis and graduated with an economics degree.