Intro
Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Earned BA in English from Stanford, then an MFA from Yale Drama.
Smartest Moment: Honorary chairperson of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and has spoken at press events on the threat to ocean habitats posed by deep-sea trawling
Deborah Berebichez
Deborah Berebichez
Occupation: Risk Analyst, Physicist
Credentials: She was the first Mexican woman to complete a Ph. D in physics at Stanford.
Smartest Moment: Developing TheScienceBabe.com.
Fiorella Terenzi
Fiorella Terenzi
Occupation: Astrophysicist
Credentials: Studied opera in her native Italy before going into science. She has written books, released albums, and lectured around the world.
Smartest Moment: Devising a technique for converting radio waves from galaxies into sound, which she released as an album, Music From the Galaxies.
Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Graduated from Cambridge in 1980.
Smartest Moment: She's the only person to have won an Academy Award for acting (Howard's End) and writing (Sense & Sensibility).
Rebecca Ramos
Rebecca Ramos
Occupation: Playboy Playmate
Credentials: Got a degree from St. Mary's University in Texas.
Smartest Moment: She's believed to be first and only Playmate in possession of a law degree at the time she posed. Incidentally, she was 35, the oldest Playmate ever.
Geena Davis
Geena Davis
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Belongs to Mensa and is said to have an IQ of 140. She speaks Swedish, plays the piano, flute, drums and organ, and shoots a mean bow and arrow.
Smartest Moment: She was in the running to be on the U.S. Olympic archery team in 1996 and 2000.
Mireya Mayor
Mireya Mayor
Occupation: Primatologist
Credentials: The former Miami Dolphins cheerleader has gone on to become the "female Indiana Jones."
Smartest Moment: The publication of her memoir, Pink Boots and a Machete.
Ellen Muth
Ellen Muth
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: A member of brainiac clubs Intertel and Mensa, Ellen is said to have an IQ of 156.
Smartest Moment: Making her screen acting debut in Dolores Claiborne.
Danni Ashe
Danni Ashe
Occupation: Porn Star, Entrepreneur
Credentials: Went from high school dropout stripper to Internet millionaire before anyone knew what an "Internet millionaire" was.
Smartest Moment: The decisions she made early on with Danni's Hard Drive, a site she started in 1995, set the standard for the entire industry of Internet porn.
Jennifer Tilly
Jennifer Tilly
Occupation: Actress, Poker Player
Credentials: She became famous for playing ditzes, but then she started kicking ass in professional poker and everyone realized just how good of an actress she was.
Smartest Moment: Won the Ladies-Only No Limit Texas Hold 'Em event at the World Series of Poker in 2005, becoming the first celebrity to win an open (as opposed to celebrity-only) WSOP tournament and earn a World Series bracelet. She beat out exactly 600 other women to take the championship.
Asia Carrera
Asia Carrera
Occupation: Porn Star
Credentials: Attended Rutgers on scholarship, is a member of Mensa, and is said to have an IQ of 156.
Smartest Moment: She played piano at Carnegie Hall twice. Once when she was 13 and once when she was 14.
Elizabeth Shue
Elizabeth Shue
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Attended Wellesley and Harvard, but dropped out to pursue acting.
Smartest Moment: Returned to Harvard and finished her Government degree in 2000.
Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall
Occupation: Primatologist
Credentials: She is considered the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees.
Smartest Moment: The 45 years she studied and lived with wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania.
Sufiah Yusof
Sufiah Yusof
Occupation: Math Prodigy, Prostitute, Social Worker
Credentials: The Malaysian-born math whiz was admitted to Oxford at 13.
Smartest Moment: Sadly her brainiest work is well behind her. She fled Oxford, was discovered working as a waitress, ended up a prostitute, and eventually became a social worker.
Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Graduated from Vassar with a degree in biology.
Smartest Moment: While trying to break into acting, she worked for her dad, a physician specializing in headaches, for eight years. During that time she earned a research credit on his study on the comparative likelihood of left-handed individuals developing cluster headaches.
Victoria Zdrok
Victoria Zdrok
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Got a degree from the law school at Villanova and a Ph.D in clinical psychology from Drexel. She has written books and hawks penis pills on infomercials.
Smartest Moment: Becoming a Penthouse Pet eight years after being a Playboy Playmate. It was an unconventional move, but she wound up winning Pet of the Year.
Marilyn vos Savant
Marilyn vos Savant
Occupation: Writer
Credentials: Scored 228 on an IQ test when she was 10 years old. The Guinness Book of World Records has her certified at 190, good enough for the highest IQ of any living female.
Smartest Moment: She intellectually stunts on the reg in her "Ask Marilyn" column, a fixture in Parade magazine.
Shy Love
Shy Love
Occupation: Porn Star
Credentials: Graduated high school at 16 and went on to earn a bachelor's, then a master's degree in accounting. Became a CPA and was making six figures in a corporate environment until she was allegedly fired for having big fake boobs.
Smartest Moment: It was either starting her own production company or convincing a lot of people that she was a former six-figure accountant.
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Co-inventor of a "Secret Communication System" intended to prevent enemies from blocking signals to radio-controlled missiles during WWII.
Smartest Moment: Although the U.S. military did not use the idea at the time of its invention, it later became essential technology for the military and the cell phone industry.
Mira Sorvino
Mira Sorvino
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with a major in East Asian Studies.
Smartest Moment: While trying to break into film, she took a job as third assistant director and worked her way up to a lead role.
Lorelei Lee
Lorelei Lee
Occupation: Porn Star
Credentials: Graduated from the University of San Francisco in 2008.
Smartest Moment: She was accepted into NYU's MFA writing program. She was also awarded a National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts "youngARTS Scholarship."
Emma Watson
Emma Watson
Aisha Tyler
Aisha Tyler
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Got a Bachelor's degree from Dartmouth, majoring in Government and minoring in Environmental Policy.
Smartest Moment: After a spell at an advertising firm in San Francisco, she tried her hand at stand-up comedy before committing to acting, with a sideline in TV hosting. In her spare time she podcasts, writes books, and plays professional poker.
AJ Bailey
AJ Bailey
Occupation: Porn Star
Credentials: Holds a Master's degree in Anthropology and Museum Studies.
Smartest Moment: Her reputation as "the smartest woman in porn" precedes her. Very early in her career, she went on Howard Stern's show, and he put her in the Tickle Chair and quizzed her. She passed.
Teri Hatcher
Teri Hatcher
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Her parents were a nuclear physicist and a computer programmer. She studied math and engineering at De Anza college in California, and was headed for CalTech, but then she got a role on The Love Boat.
Smartest Moment: The publication of her book Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies on Life.
Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Long maintained that she was a member of Mensa, with a high IQ of 154, but in 2002 she admitted she was lying about the Mensa thing.
Smartest Moment: She made people think she was the smartest woman in Hollywood for so long. After her confession, a Mensa spokesman said he was glad she came clean but suspected she might qualify if she were to take the test.
Marina Orlova
Marina Orlova
Occupation: Linguist
Credentials: Her cleavage-filled but genuinely informative HotForWords YouTube channel has over 400,000 subscribers.
Smartest Moment: Called the “sexiest philologist in the world” by the New Yorker and voted the World's #1 Sexiest Geek by Wired.com.
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Graduated from Yale in 1987 with a bachelor's in English literature.
Smartest Moment: Taking time off from an Ivy League school to make a movie about a stripper who welds and becoming a star in the process.
Laura Shields
Laura Shields
Occupation: Model
Credentials: She was a straight-A student, has a degree in chemical engineering, and it's widely publicized that she has a 158 IQ.
Smartest Moment: Getting paid really well just to hold a briefcase on Deal or No Deal.
Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Graduated magna cum laude from Yale and is said to have an IQ of 132.
Smartest Moment: Speaks French fluently and dubs her own films for the francophone market.
Tina Fey
Tina Fey
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: She was the first female head writer on Saturday Night Live.
Smartest Moment: In 2010, Fey was the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the youngest-ever winner of the award.
Aishwarya Rai
Aishwarya Rai
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Considered being a doctor, but ended up studying architecture in college, although she dropped out to be a model, then Miss World, then the consensus Most Beautiful Woman in the World. She speaks Hindi, Marathi, English, Tamil and Tulu.
Smartest Moment: She delivered an incredibly articulate answer to win Miss World 1994.
Julie Peterson
Julie Peterson
Occupation: Playboy Playmate, Chiropractor
Credentials: That's Dr. Julie Peterson to you. She's a chiropractor and a member of the Society for Neuroscience. She also had her own syndicated radio show for CNN about health.
Smartest Moment: She's believed to be the first Playboy Playmate admitted to Mensa.
Amy Mainzer
Amy Mainzer
Occupation: Astrophysicist
Credentials: Got a Ph.D. in Astronomy from UCLA, a M.S. from CalTech, and a B.A. from Stanford.
Smartest Moment: Held a research fellowship at NASA that led to a stint on History Channel series The Universe.
Joanna Angel
Joanna Angel
Occupation: Porn Star, Writer, Director
Credentials: Graduated from Rutgers with an English major and minor in Film Studies.
Smartest Moment: Feeling that Suicide Girls was "the McDonalds of alt porn," she saw the need for an alternative to the alternative, and launched the hugely successful Burning Angel.
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: A self-proclaimed "big dork who reads loads of books," she was accepted to Stanford but left after a year to pursue acting.
Smartest Moment: Playing a not-so-dumb blonde in Legally Blonde.
Famke Janssen
Famke Janssen
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Studied economics for a year at the University of Amsterdam but left to become a model/actress. She later studied literature and creative writing at Columbia.
Smartest Moment: Took the role of Jean Grey in the X-Men movie series.
Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Connelly
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Studied English for two years at Yale, then went to Stanford to study drama.
Smartest Moment: Actually using her college studies to get ahead in film.
Carmen Kass
Carmen Kass
Occupation: Supermodel
Credentials: By general consensus she is "the smartest supermodel," which is sometimes rephrased as "the only smart supermodel."
Smartest Moment: She plays in serious chess tournaments when not modeling lingerie.
Joy Bryant
Joy Bryant
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: She attended Yale.
Smartest Moment: Told People that she isn't into giving presents for Christmas, and that she might rather tell her future kids that her gift to them will be a college education.
Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: She attended Princeton.
Smartest Moment: Writing her senior thesis ("The Initiation: From Innocence to Experience: The Pre-Adolescent/Adolescent Journey in the Films of Louis Malle, Pretty Baby and Lacombe Lucien") about a movie she starred in.
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Got a degree from Harvard, did graduate study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University.
Smartest Moment: Co-authored study "Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence: Data from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy" as an undergraduate at Harvard.
Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys
Occupation: Singer
Credentials: Finished high school in three years, graduating as valedictorian at the age of 16.
Smartest Moment: From "Fallin'" to "Empire State of Mind," her career has exemplified brilliance.
Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Claimed an IQ of 163, spoke five languages, and was a classically trained pianist and violinist.
Smartest Moment: Realizing that her gaudy IQ number wasn't what got the public going; "They're more interested in 40-21-35," she said.
Tera Patrick
Tera Patrick
Occupation: Porn Star
Credentials: Got a BS in Biology from Boise State.
Smartest Moment: She started her own production company and modeling agency, and left porn while still at her peak.
Danica McKellar
Danica McKellar
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: The actress best known as Winnie Cooper is said to be a member of Mensa with an IQ of 154. As an undergrad at UCLA, she co-authored a scientific paper that put forth what is now known as the "Chayes–McKellar–Winn theorem."
Smartest Moment: She's written three The New York Times bestsellers: Math Doesn't Suck, Kiss My Math, and Hot X: Algebra Exposed.
Kate Beckinsale
Kate Beckinsale
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Studied French and Russian literature at New College in Oxford.
Smartest Moment: Winning the W.H. Smith young writer's contest twice in her teens. Once the award was presented to her by Ted Hughes.
Rashida Jones
Rashida Jones
Occupation: Actress
Credentials: Voted "most likely to succeed" in high school; graduated from Harvard in 1997.
Smartest Moment: Opted not to pursue a career in law after OJ Simpson was acquited.
Cindy Crawford
Cindy Crawford
Occupation: Model
Credentials: High school valedictorian, won full scholarship to attend Northwestern and study chemical engineering.
Smartest Moment: Ditching Northwestern almost immediately to become one of the world's greatest supermodels. Chemical engineers don't make squat.