Famous Montessorians

Central Montessori Academy – Toddler, Preschool and Elementary in Northwest Cincinnati

We are an independent Montessori school nurturing and developing young scholars from toddler through sixth grade.

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Famous Montessorians

Did you know that these well-known adults all have a Montessori educational background?

  • Jeffrey P. Bezos – Founder of Amazon.com, the most dominant retailer on the Internet. By his mother’s account, the young Jeffrey got so engrossed in the details of activities at his Montessori school that teachers had to pick him up in his chair to move him to new tasks.
  • Beyonce Knowles – American Pop/R&B singer, songwriter, actress and fashion designer. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she attended St. Mary of the Purification Montessori School for her elementary years.
  • Sean “P. Diddy” Combs – Rapper and CEO of Bad Boy Records who says he felt fortunate to attend Mount Vernon Montessori School during his childhood. “I feel like I was nurtured into wanting to be somebody special,” he recalls.
  • George Clooney – Academy Award-winning actor and activist.
  • Larry Page and Sergey Brin – Founders of the Internet search engine Google.com.
  • William Wright – American computer game designer whose greatest success to date is as the original designer for The Sims games series; the best-selling PC game in history.
  • Jimmy Wales – Co-founder of Wikipedia. As a child, Wales was a avid reader with an acute intellectual curiosity. He credits this to the influence of the Montessori Method on the school’s philosophy of education. He says he “spent lots of hours poring over the Britannicas and World Book Encyclopedias.”
  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Nobel Prize for Literature winner attended Montessori de Aracataca for five years and credited his time there with making him fall in love with language. He said that Montessori Education gave him the desire to “kiss literature” and “the taste instilled to him to go to the school, not only see literature, but to write it.”
  • Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis – Editor for Doubleday, this former first lady attended a Montessori school where she was initially described as a “headstrong child.” Through her time there, she learned to focus her behavior and academic pursuits.
  • Anne Frank – Renowned World War II diarist. According to her friend Hanneli Goslar, Anne showed aptitude for reading and writing at an early age, a talent that was nurtured in her Montessori school. She frequently wrote at school, and was outspoken, energetic, and extroverted, telling all, from a young age, that one day she wanted to be a published author.
  • Joshua Bell – American violinist and the owner of a Stradivarius violin, he began taking violin lessons at the age of four after his mother discovered her son had taken rubber bands from around the house and stretched them across the handles of his dresser drawer to pluck out music he had heard her play on the piano.
  • Peter Drucker – Management guru, known as the father of modern management. A prolific writer, business consultant and lecturer, he introduced many management concepts that corporations around the world have embraced.
  • David Blaine – Magician, endurance artist and advocate of “street magic.”
  • Alan Rickman – Renowned English stage actor and theater director known for his modern and classical productions. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he is known best for film performances such as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series.
  • Julia Child – First world-famous television chef who clearly enjoyed her work. She credited her Montessori experience with her love of working with her hands, finding fun in her work, and her joy of working with others.
  • Helen Hunt – Academy Award-winning actress.
  • Prince William – Son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana of Wales
  • Prince Harry – Son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana of Wales
  • Chelsea Clinton – Daughter of former President Bill and Hillary Clinton
  • Princess Eugenie of York – Daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York

For more information watch:
Can you name these 10 famous Montessori alumni?
Why Montessori (Famous Montessori Students)

CMA thanks the author of Montessori Answers for compiling this list.