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ST. LOUIS – As students head back to class, here’s a look at some celebrities who graduated from high schools across the St. Louis area.
Tina Turner – Sumner High School
- She graduated in 1958.
- After high school, she worked as a nurse’s aide at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Phyllis Smith – Cleveland High School
- After high school, she graduated with a degree in elementary education from University of Missouri-St. Louis.
- In the 1970s and 1980s, she worked as a burlesque dancer and as a cheerleader for the former St. Louis Cardinals football team.
John Goodman – Affton High School
- In high school, he played football as an offensive guard and a defensive tackle.
- He went on to play college football at Missouri State University where earned a degree in fine arts.
Jon Hamm – John Burroughs School
- After high school, he earned an English degree from the University of Missouri.
- In 1993, he returned to John Burroughs and taught acting to eigth-graders.
Nelly – University City High School
- He was born in Austin, Texas and moved to University City with his mom as a teenager.
- While in high school, he formed the St. Lunatics with his friends and half brother, and had a single “Gimme What Ya Got” in 1997.
Chingy – McCluer North High School
- He grew up in Walnut Park.
- In high school, his friends called him “Howie.”
James Gunn – St. Louis University High School
- He graduated from high school in 1984.
- After high school, he earned a degree in arts from Saint Louis University where he created political cartoons for the student paper, The University News.
- She attended Pierremont Elementary School in the Parkway School District.
- After high school, she earned a theater degree with a minor in journalism from Truman State University.
Andy Cohen – Clayton High School
- After high school, he earned a degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University.
- He was an intern at CBS alongside Julie Chen, who also was an intern at that time.
Ellie Kemper – John Burroughs School
- Jon Hamm was her acting teacher at John Burroughs where they acted in a play together.
- In 2015, Kemper starred in “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” where Hamm played her abductor in the Netflix show.
Karlie Kloss – Webster Groves High School
- At 14, she was on a June cover issue of Scene Magazine in Chicago, which led to the start of her career.
- While attending Webster Groves High School, she was a cheerleader, and graduated in 2011.
