Celeb entertainers with an engineering degree

Madiha Jawed | shiksha.com

And we thought grey cells don’t exist on hot bods! But the fact is, they do. There is nothing more exciting than a celebrity with a combination of fabulous looks, a fat bank balance, unrestrained talent and a smart brain.

Besides possessing a very funny bone, our dear Mr.Bean aka Rowan Atkinson, has a super impressive academic pedigree. Before making us ‘rofl-ing’, this king of comedy was romancing circuits and wires.

Back home, did you know that the immensely talented Nagesh Kukunoor could probably teach us a thing or two about Chemistry and chemicals?

The list doesn’t end here. There are others, who before joining the bandwagon of the rich and the famous, were busy completing their engineering degrees.

BOLLYWOOD:

1. Nagesh Kukunoor:

Profile: Director.Actor.Producer.Writer

Degree: Chemical Engineering

Industry: Bollywood

This bollywood director pursued his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Osmania University in Hyderabad. He further went on to pursue his masters in the same field from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta in 1991. Soon after completing his master's, he started working as an Environmental Consultant at Trinity Consultants in Texas and then in Atlanta. During his stay in Atlanta, he attended workshops in film. The workshops, thus ignited the fire, and Kukunoor, commenced his studies in acting at the Warehouse Actor’s Theatre in Atlanta and as a result co-produced and directed a short film, “One Culture at a Time.”

To pursue his dream of film-making, Kukunoor returned back to India, however, due to shortage of funds, he went back to the US and resumed his job of a consultant to make enough money to return to India.

In the year 1998, this hyderabadi lad gave a kick start to his career in film-making and till date, has directed numerous including some of the latest ones :

• Iqbal (2005)
• Dor (2006)
• Bombay To Bangkok (2008)
• 8x10 Tasveer (2009)
• Aashayein (2010)
• Mod (2011)
• Lakshmi (2014)

Here, take a look at what this ex-environmentalist consultant is upto these days:

 

2. Sonu Sood:

Profile: Actor.Producer.Model

Degree: Electronics Engineering

Industry: Bollywood, Telegu

Who would have thought that the very evil and rustic ‘Chedi Singh’ of Dabang fame with masculinity dripping out of every inch of him has an enviable degree? This Punjabi Munda, who wanted to be an actor since his childhood, boasts a graduate degree in Electronics Engineering from Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering, Nagpur.

3.       R.Madhavan:

Profile: Actor

Degree: Electronics Engineering

Industry: Bollywood

Charming over a million hearts with his cute smile, R Madhavan has a graduate degree in electronics from Rajaram College, Kolhapur. This Tamil lad besides representing India as a cultural ambassador in Canada has received the Best NCC Cadet Maharashtra.

Before joining the world of glitz and glamour, Madhavan was trained with the Royal Army, Navy and the Air Force.

 

4.       Sushant Singh Rajput:

Profile: Actor

Degree: Mechanical Engineering (drop-out)

Industry: Bollywood, Television

If not an actor, Sushant Singh Rajput, would have, undeniably, been an engineer. This small town lad was the 7^th rank holder in AIEEE (All India Engineering Entrance Exam) and soon after the results for the exam were declared, he got himself enrolled in the Delhi College of Engineering (Delhi College of Engineering) to pursue Mechanical Engineering.

His immense passion for acting was the reason he decided to take a drop in the third year of his graduation and thus joined Barry Jones.

Rajput shot to fame with 'Kai Po Che', a movie based on Chetan Bhagat's novel - Three Mistakes of My Life.

5.       Akkineni Nagarjuna

Profile: Actor.Producer

Degree: Automobile Engineering

Industry: Telegu Cinema

Akkineni Nagarjuna is amongst one of the most popular faces in the Tamil Film Industry, if not Bollywood. Nagarjuna has pursued his Bachelor of Engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy and further completed M.S. in Automobile Engineering from Eastern Michigan University.

HOLLYWOOD:

6.       Rowan Atkinson:

Profile: Comedian. Actor. Screen-writer.

Degree: Electrical Engineering

Industry: Hollywood

Did you imagine Mr.Bean teaching you a thing or two about electrical engineering? Definitely, not! But to our surprise, he certainly can.

Listed in the top 50 funniest people ever by a group of comedians, Atkinson boasts a Bachelor’s as well as a Master's degree in electrical engineering from Oxford University. It was at Oxford, when he fell in love with comedy and acting, to be precise. He shot to fame in Britain in the 70s with Mr.Bean.

7.       Ashton Kutcher

Profile: Model.Actor.Producer

Degree: Biochemical Engineering

Industry: Hollywood

Well, this hot bod is a combination of droolicious looks and an intelligent brain. Kutcher, an American actor, model and producer possesses an engineering degree and that too a biochemical one. He was a student of biochemical engineering at the University of Lowa and in the year 2013, Lenovo announced him its latest product engineer. 

'Jobs', released in the year 2013, was Kutcher's latest movie. Check out the trailer below:

8.       Cindy Crawford

Profile: Film Actress, Television Actress, Entrepreneur, Model, Television Personality

Degree: Chemical Engineering

Industry: Hollywood

So, you think this is hotness personified? Well, no! This a perfect example of beauty with brains. Crawford, who shot to fame as one of the most popular supermodels in the 80s and 90s, attended Northwestern University to study Chemical Engineering, for which she received a scholarship too. But, shortly after the first semester, she dropped out and entered the world of full-time modeling.

Check the Pepsi commercial featuring Crawford, launched in the year 1991. The ad, supposedly, has become an iconic classic.

In the year 2002, the model recreated the ad for Diet Pepsi.

9.       Tom Scholz

Profile: Guitarist.Songwriter

Degree: Mechanical Engineering

Industry: Music

A part of an American rock band from Boston, Tom Scholz owns an engineering degree. A guitarist and songwriter by profession, Scholz pursued his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT! For a short span of time though, Scholz worked as a product design engineer too at Polaroid.

Soon after he shot to fame and was travelling the world for shows, this smart brain invented the Rockman guitar amplifier, which, till date, is being manufactured and sold with his signature on the unit.

10.   Alfred Hitchcock

Profile: Director.Producer

Degree: Mechanical and Electrical Engineering

Industry: Hollywood

Watching the genre of movies he created, one could simply guess the kind of brain he possessed. Before entering the world of stardom, Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock studied mechanical and electrical engineering at St. Ignatius' College and the University of London. His first ever job out of school was that of an estimator for the Henley Cable and Telegraph Company, London.

Interestingly, it was believed that Hitchcock's attention to detail and fanatical planning of his sets stemmed from his training as an engineer.

Video courtesy: Youtube