Famous people who took classes at UCLA

This list does not include celebrities who either attended UCLA for multiple years or graduated from the university.

In April 1951 and again in 1952, Marilyn Monroe took classes through UCLA's Extension program. She took a night class called "Backgrounds in Literature" with Claire Soule as the teacher. Those who knew her well knew that she loved to read, and she continued studying literature for the rest of her life, accumulating a vast personal library.

In 2022, pictures of Kendrick Lamar attending classes at UCLA went viral, and people all over the world were curious about what the famous musician might be studying. The pictures, which were first posted on the social media platform TikTok, showed Lamar in a classroom.

There are several hypotheses online that suggest he might have been studying psychology to "master his pen." However, it's not 100% clear what classes he was attending. UCLA even admitted that the photographs went viral and said, "Photos from 2022, but the lesson stays the same—UCLA is where you level up."

Ben Stiller went to UCLA to study film. He joined the Beta Theta Pi fraternity in 1983. However, he dropped out after nine months (or less than a year, depending on the source) to return to New York City and attempt to make it as an actor by taking acting classes and auditioning for various roles.

Jim Morrison went to UCLA to study film. People who truly knew him recognized his strong desire to learn, which led him to read extensively in literature, poetry, and philosophy. Morrison experimented with new techniques in his student films while attending UCLA. He directed his own short films and provided sound for other students' projects. The only known surviving work of his from that time is the student film "First Love" (1964). Some of Morrison's instructors and classmates thought his work was difficult or didn't like it, while Manzarek said he detected "cinematic poetry" in Morrison's movie.

Nicolas Cage, whose full name is Nicolas Kim Coppola, did go to the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. Some other famous people have spoken more about their time at the school than he has, but it's known that he attended to pursue his early acting dreams.

His uncle is Francis Ford Coppola, and his family has a long history in the film industry. He wanted to make his own way, yet his time at UCLA shows that he was serious about mastering the trade.

Even though he spent only a short time at UCLA, he likely learned a great deal about acting, film, and theater there before embarking on his long and successful career, during which he became known for his distinctive and often unconventional acting style.