Image via Complex Original
Most female celebrities rise to fame because of their good looks. However, it almost always takes more than just looks to get by in this world, even if that world is based in Hollywood and on television and film sets.
Past the glamor and the beauty that surrounds the entertainment industry, every celebrity must eventually strip off their make-up and wardrobe return to being human. For some, relaxing may include a yacht in the South of France; for others, it’s plugging in their headset and losing themselves in the World of Warcraft.
While we regular folk all have moments where we tap into our inner geek, to our surprise, being geeky doesn’t discriminate. These are the 20 Hottest Celebrity Geeks.
20. Jade Raymond
After graduating from Marianopolis College, this former G4tv contributing correspondent and managing director at Ubisoft Toronto landed a job with EA, producing The Sims Online before moving on to produce Assassin's Creed with Ubisoft. She's the one you can thank for helping you "woo-hoo" other players from the comforts of your computer chair.
19. Kari Byron
As the former host of MythBusters, this redhead had once devoted her career to challenging the truth of various myths. As the star of its spin-off series, Head Rush, budding Bill Nyes-types get one long commercial-free hour every weekday on the Science Channel with Kari Byron, super cool science celebs, and a mixture of experiments and MythBusters mash-ups that'll make any science geek explode with excitement.
18. Danica McKellar
You may know her as your first celebrity love, a.k.a. Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years, but UCLA professors know her as a Summa Cum Laude graduate with a mathematics degree. With McKellar's New York Times-bestselling books (Math Doesn't Suck, Kiss My Math, and Hot X: Algebra Exposed!, Girls Get Curves - Geometry Takes Shape), we assumed that her page-turners were some kind of Kama Sutra for 40-year-old virgins. Who would've thought that the real intention is to convince middle school children that math is fun? Not us.
17. Adrianne Curry
America's Next Top Model isn't exactly the most expected place you'd find a World of Warcraft addict. Not only has this supermodel become a Comic-Con staple (in her Princess Leia/Imperial Officer costume and all), but she often tweets photos of her playing video games on her computer, with a headset on and nothing else. If it means anything to you, she's allegedly a Night Elf Warrior with the name "Darthadri" in a Nazgrel server. Not that she needs your gifts.
To make your head spin even more, she teamed up with the god himself, Stan Lee, for the web series Adrianne Curry's Super Fans, which airs on the YouTube channel, Stan Lee's World of Heroes.
16. Janina Gavankar
Only a true gamer would freak out over the sight of a Portal 2 advertisement and cite playing Dr. Mario as the best way to unwind. If you're now wondering where she's been all your life, you can check her out as Luna on HBO's True Blood.
15. Natalie Portman
She is an Oscar winner for her performance in 2010’s Black Swan, but you can add Harvard graduate with a degree in psychology, scientific journalist and political activist against terrorism and counterterrorism to her list of achievements.
Born in Israel, Natalie is fluent in Hebrew and has also added French, Japanese, German and Arabic to her list of languages. She was once quoted saying, “I’m going to college. I don’t care if it ruins my career. I’d rather be smart than a movie star”.
With that said, let’s not forget her roles in Star Wars: Episode III- Revenge of the Sixth and the comic book series turned Hollywood blockbuster V for Vendetta. We think we can agree that Natalie is the perfect mix of beauty and brains.
14. Marina Orlova
Who needs college when we can learn from this phililogist/etymologist on YouTube? As the host of HotForWords, Wired's "World's #1 Sexiest Geek" intellectually stimulates eager learners by tracing back to the origins of various words from "OK" to terms we can't say five times fast, like "floccinaucinihilipilification." Yes, only she can make "floccinaucinihilipilification" sound like erotic foreplay.
13. Katee Sackhoff
Nerdy viewers of The Big Bang Theory would've revolted if Howard fantasized about any random guest actress on the show. Casting directors had to be cautious in selecting the perfect dream girl for the demographic. Enter: Katee Sackhoff.
While starring as Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on Sci Fi's Battlestar Gallactica, Sackhoff also voiced a female marine in Halo 3, a number of characters on Robot Chicken, Bo-Katan in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and campaigned for Resistance 2. Coming up, she's taking on a leading role in Riddick.
12. Megan Fox
If you're at a loss as to why she's on this list, check this out: Fox rates high on the geek scale with her love for playing video games. The actress fessed up to Collider saying, “I have a complete addiction to [Halo: Reach]. It is sick. I play online mostly and [other gamers] have no idea. They make fun of my gamer tag, too, because it is funny." C'mon, a girl who knows her way around a controller has to count for something.
11. Morgan Webb
Webb, the former co-host and senior segment producer of the G4tv's X-Play and host of G4 Underground, broke the hearts of dweebs everywhere when she turned down a Playboy spread. She did, however, run the monthly video game column "Tips From the Gaming Goddess" for FHM, where she answered e-mailed questions. She has yet to respond to any e-mails about proms, though.
10. Cindy Crawford
She's widely regarded as one of the greatest supermodels ever, but what is not commonly known about Cindy Crawford is that she was first recognized as a scientist. After graduating high school as the valedictorian, Crawford was rewarded an academic scholarship to study chemical engineering at Northwestern University. However, that beautiful face with its trademark mole could not be ignored for much longer and she only lasted a year in school before eventually dropping out to model.
Since becoming a model, Crawford keeps her scientific spirit alive by lending her face and name to multiple medical research charities inspired by the premature death of her older brother.
9. Kristen Bell
If you thought God answered your prayers about creating a real-life version of Lucy Stillman from the hit video game series Assassin's Creed, you're actually not that special. Lucy's based on Kristen Bell, the former star of the minor cult hit Veronica Mars. Yet, she might be best known in the geek galaxy for donning the Princess Leia gold bikini in the flick Fanboys.
8. Mila Kunis
Mila shows her geekiest side behind closed doors. Kunis admittedly spent so much time playing World of Warcraft that she had to quit cold turkey for the sake of having a life. And who would have guessed that the same actress who played the incredibly desirable hotel clerk Rachel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall is also the voice of the commonly rejected Meg on Family Guy?
7. Rosario Dawson
Not only did Rosario Dawson star in the film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel Sin City, but she's also released her own comic book, Occult Crimes Taskforce, lending her likeness to the main character.
You've got to admit, Dawson's animation looks way more accurate than the sketches of her you've been doodling in your notebook since Kids.
6. Tina Fey
Somewhat of a spokeswoman for lady geeks, Tina Fey drops Star Wars references like a champ and keeps her nerf herder cred while talking about The Love Boat. Beyond just giving us the fantasy, we see a surefire way to get out of jury duty: Fey's character on 30 Rock, Liz Lemon, dressed as Princess Leia and admitted it's not fair for her to be on a jury because she's "a hologram."
5. Olivia Munn
Arguably the most familiar geek of all the X-chromosomes on our countdown, Munn set the bar for female nerds when she made it blatantly sexy and mainstream to be one on G4's Attack of the Show. Although video game knowledge wasn't exactly her strongest suit, Munn's dedication to the culture, proved by her penchant for dressing up as sci-fi/superhero characters, cemented the former Daily Show correspondent as a sex symbol.
4. Jessica Chobot
Jessica Chobot is the nerd herd's bastion of hope. Contrary to what her bombshell image would lead you to believe, she's not only the sexy IGN host, G4 correspondent, Fuel TV contributor, and model who infamously licked a PSP simply to turn geeks on. She's actually more personally immersed in the gaming and anime culture than you'd expect, and she has a Legend Of Zelda triforce symbol tattooed on her wrist to prove it.
3. Rashida Jones
This Harvard grad, who got her big break on Freaks and Geeks and cemented her place in Hollywood with Parks and Recreation, made a name for herself (literally) with the Call Of Duty screen name "KarenTheJimSlayer" on The Office and later created her own comic book series, Frenemy Of The State. She's just one Star Trek reference short of being the definition of the ultimate fangirl.
2. Kate Beckinsale
Kate Beckinsale’s academic scholarship would outshine her acting resume if only the attention she gets for being one of Hollywood's hottest women were given to her schooling growing up. Kate is an awarded writer who won the British bookseller W.H. Smith Young Writer’s competition twice in her teens and attended Oxford University with a focus on Russian and French literature.
The Underworld star's combination of intelligence and fantasy ass-kicking abilities gives Kate the gold seal of geekdom.
1. Felicia Day
On a one-woman mission to prove that girls can be online gamers, too, Day created, wrote, and starred in The Guild, based loosely on her own life, and recently launched the YouTube channel, Geek & Sundry.
In the music video for her song "(Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar," she points out how attached people become to others' online persona and how disappointed they get when they first meet each other in normal human form. That said, it's probably best for your mental stability to not be looking for Felicia in a fur bikini with a level-30 broadsword.
