10 Celebrities Who Have Been To Grad School

We may have known of Boy Abunda presently taking up his master’s degree, or Herbert Bautista’s master’s degree from UP. Are their other celebrities who have been to the jungle?

I hope this would be an interesting list for you.

Here’s the partial and unofficial list of local and international celebrities who have been to grad school in no particular order:


Claire de la Fuente. She is a famous Filipino pop singer in the 70’s with such hits as “Sayang” which earned her the moniker “Karen Carpenter of the Philippines”. She has an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) from the University of Western Australia.




Boy Abunda. The famous TV host and manager of Filipino celebrities is currently working on his master’s degree in International Relation on Public Diplomacy at the Philippine Women’s University.



Tetchie Agbayani. The talented movie and television actress also teaches Psychology at St. Joseph’s College, Quezon City. She has finished all the academic requirements for her Master of Arts in Psychology with concentration in Counseling Psychology at the Ateneo de Manila University. She is currently working on her master’s thesis.



Grace Nono. This Filipino female folk music singer has taught Oral History in Miriam College as well as Philippine Traditional Arts in UP-Diliman. She has a master’s degree in Philippine Studies from the University of the Philippines.





Agot Isidro. The famous recording artist, actress, host, and TV personality has a master’s degree in Communication from Ateneo de Manila University.




Herbert Bautista. This successful movie comedian turned politician is now mayor of Quezon City. He in fact has two master’s degrees: Master of Arts in Public Administration (UP-NCPAG) and a master’s degree in National Security Administration from the National Defense College of the Philippines. He is currently working for his doctorate degree in Public Administration and Governance at UP-NCPAG.



Dolph Lundgren. He was famous short of being a superstar back in the 1980’s. He came back into the Hollywood limelight as the disgruntled mercenary friend of Sylvester Stallone in “The Expendables”. However, despite having a fearsome giant image, he reportedly has an IQ of 160. He has a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. He was also a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT. After two weeks at MIT, he dropped off his scholarship and got into Hollywood.

Dexter Holland. He is the frontman, singer, and rhythm guitarist of the famous California punk rock band “The Offspring”. Prior to forming his band, Dexter earned his master’s in Molecular Biology from the University of Southeastern California. He was working on his PhD when he decided to focus on his band.



Brian May. He is the musician, guitarist and songwriter of the classic rock band “Queen”. He studied physics and mathematics at Imperial College in London. During the success of Queen, he stopped his PhD in physics at the same university. Thirty years later, he finished his uncompleted PhD thesis entitled “A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud”, and obtained his doctorate degree.




Bill Cosby. This famous American comedian, actor, TV producer, author, and activist has a doctorate in education. He finished a special doctorate program at the University of Massachusetts for students who haven’t finished a bachelor’s degree but had a significant impact to society throughout their career. His dissertation was a study about one of his shows: “An Integration of the Visual Media via ‘Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids’ Into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning”.

These are just few of what I could find from a few hours of internet research. If you have someone to add on to this list, please do so by clicking on the comment link below this post.


Photo taken from: (in order of appearance)
www.clairedelafuente.com, www.abs-cbn.com, www.pep.ph, www.gracenono.com, www.abs-cbn.com, www.herbert-bautista.com, www.dolphlundgren.com, www.offspring.com, www.brianmay.com, www.billcosby.com