Our Ranking of Popular GED Holders

Nicolas Cage is an actor and filmmaker born in Long Beach, California. He was raised in a Catholic family. Cage comes from a family of actors. He left secondary school early; however, this did not stop him from acquiring and focusing on his GED before following his famous family members' footsteps.

Mila Markovna Kunis was born in Ukraine (formerly part of the Soviet Union). At the age of 7, the family moved from the Soviet Union to the United States. On her second day in L.A., Kunis was enrolled at Rosewood Elementary School, not knowing a word of English. While in Los Angeles, she attended Hubert Howe Bancroft Middle School. Kunis used an on-set tutor for most of her high school years while filming That '70s Show to earn her GED.

Leonardo DiCaprio dropped out of high school after his junior year and eventually earned his GED years later. He'd already begun acting in minor roles and commercials at the time, then moving on to more iconic films. While he likes to attend college, it never actually happened, and now he's said, according to People, that "life is my college."

Eminem studied at Lincoln High School in Warren, Michigan, where he failed the 10th-grade multiple times and quit at 17 years old. Regardless of being a poor student, Eminem consistently had a profound partiality for language, reading comic books, and even the dictionary.

Beyoncé attended the high school for the Performing and Visual Arts of Houston, Texas. She continued to sharpen her musical skills before transferring to the Alief Elsik high school, the last school she attended. What happened next remains a bit foggy. Some report says that she got her diploma while in high school other sources say that she eventually got her GED. At a similar time that she's still in high school, Beyoncé and Destiny's Child started gaining popularity.

Robert Downey Jr. is an actor and producer; he was born in Manhattan, New York City. He had success in his youth, followed by a period of substance abuse and legal issues. As a child, Downey was "surrounded by drugs." His father, a drug addict, allowed Downey to use marijuana at age six, an incident which his father later said he regretted He never graduated from high school but instead earned his GED in prison.

Growing up in Los Angeles, she spent her freshman year at the Marywood-Palm Valley School in Rancho Mirage, California. In 1996, the Hilton family left California. At 15, she attended Professional Children's School. Hilton's parents sent her to a series of boarding schools for emotionally troubled teens, including Cascade, CEDU, and Provo Canyon School. Her educational system experience was brief; she then attended an ultra-exclusive Dwight School before dropping out a few months later and earned her GED certificate afterward.

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, aka Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television judge born in Santa Barbara, California. Before she became famous, she was a Christian music singer who dropped out of high school at 15 to pursue her dream. Despite her success -- and studio albums -- she regrets dropping out and later got her GED.

He quit high school at the age of 16. His reason: The comedic actor wasn't solely a class clown but also a straight-A student. However, times were hard for the young Canadian, where he had to leave school and seek employment to support his family. He worked as a security officer and custodian before deciding to undertake his hand at comedy.

Although Michael was about to graduate from high school, he was determined to go to Hollywood, California, to pursue his career. Michael decided to leave after his eighteenth birthday; however, before graduating from high school (Michael didn't receive his General Equivalency certificate till 1995.) His father drove him to L. A and gave him $3,000 to get started. Michael went to high school in his native hometown but never finished. When he got married, had kids, and was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, earning his GED become his priority. Fifteen years after quitting high school, Fox went back and got his GED.