Montessorians You May Know

Notable Former Montessori Students 

  • Larry Page: Co-Founder of Google
  • Sergey Brin: Co-Founder of Google
  • Peter Drucker: Management Guru
  • Prince William & Prince Harry: English Royal Family
  • George Clooney: Academy Award-Winning Actor
  • Jeff Bezos: Founder of Amazon
  • Mark Zuckerberg: co-founder of Facebook – apparently educated at a Montessori school
  • Anne Frank: Famous Diarist from World War II
  • Friedensreich Hundertwasser: Austrian Painter and Architect
  • Bill Gates: Founder of Microsoft, Richest Man in the World
  • Jimmy Wales: Founder of Wikipedia
  • Will Wright: Designer of The Sims, Super Mario Brothers
  • Katherine Graham: Former Owner and Editor of the Washington Post
  • John and Joan Cusack: Actor and screenwriter, and Academy award-nominated actress, respectively
  • Sean Combs: Sean “P. Diddy” (aka “Puffy”) Combs, RAP Mega-Star
  • Julia Child: Famous Chef – Star of many TV cooking shows and author of numerous cookbooks Chef
  • Helen Hunt: Academy Award-Winning Actress
  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Nobel Prize Winner for Literature
  • Joshua Bell: American Violinist, Owner of Stradivarius violin
  • Lea Salonga: Multi-Award Winning Filipino-American Singer and Broadway Actress
  • Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: Former Editor and First Lady of the United States (President John F. Kennedy)
  • Berry Brazelton: Noted Pediatrician and Author
  • Kami Cotler: Actress – Youngest child on long-running series The Waltons
  • Melissa & Sarah Gilbert: Actors
  • Hugh Grant: Actor
  • Andrew Lloyd Webber: British Composer
  • Taylor Swift: Award winning musician
  • Devi Sridhar: youngest ever American Rhodes Scholar, author, oxford research fellow, oxford lecturer on global health politics
  • Alan Rickma : Actor
  • Anne Hathaway: Actress
  • HM Queen Noor of Jordan: U.N. Advisor, humanitarian activist, memoirist and wife of the late king hussein of Jordan
  • Beyonce Knowles: Singer, songwriter, actress and fashion designer,16-time Grammy award-winner
  • Helen Keller: Political activist, author, lecturer, awarded the presidential medal of freedom, one of gallup’s most widely admired people of the 20th century
  • Dakota Fanning: Actor
  • Erik Erikson: Psychologist & author
  • David Blaine: Illusionist & magician
  • Andrew McAfee: Co-director of the Initiative on the Digital Economy in the MIT Sloan School of Management.
  • Anthony Doerr: Author
  • Chelsea Clinton: Daughter of Bill & Hillary Clinton


Notable Individuals Who Chose Montessori for Their Children

  • Stephen J. Cannell: TV Writer, Producer, and Director – The Rockford Files and Many Other
  • Patty Duke Austin: Actress
  • Bill & Hillary Clinton: Former President and First Lady of the United States
  • Cher Bono: Singer and Actress
  • John Bradshaw: Psychologist and Author
  • Yul Brynner: Former Actor
  • Marcy Carcy: TV Producer
  • Michael Douglas: Actor
  • Shari Lewis: Former Puppeteer
  • Yo Yo Ma: Cellist
  • Willie Nelson: Musician – Has a Montessori school on his ranch
  • Elizabeth Berridge: Actress
  • David Blaine: Street Magician
  • Jennifer Granholm & Daniel Mulhern: Governor of Michigan
  • Gordon Ramsay: celebrity chef and author
  • Duke and Duchess of Canterbury: Prince George


Others With a Montessori Education Connection

  • Bruno Bettelheim: Noted Psychologist and Author – Married to a Montessori Teacher
  • Thomas Edison: Noted Scientist and Inventor – Helped Found a Montessori School
  • President Woodrow Wilson’s Daughter: Trained as a Montessori Teacher – There was a Montessori classroom in the basement of the White House during Wilson’s presidency.
  • Erik Erikson: Anthropologist and Author – Had a Montessori Teaching Certificate
  • Jean Piaget: Noted Swiss Psychologist – Made his first observations of children in a Montessori school. He was also head of the Swiss Montessori Society for many years.
  • Mister Rogers: Children’s TV Personality – Strong Supporter of Montessori Education
  • Alexander Graham & Mabel Bell: Inventor – Founded the Montessori Education Association in 1913. They also provided financial support directly to Dr. Maria Montessori and helped establish the first Montessori class in Canada and one of the first in the United States.
  • Alice Waters: Restaurateur and Writer – Former Montessori Teacher
  • Robert Frost: Poet Laureate. One of America’s best read poets.
  • Virginia Lee Burton: Author and Illustrator – Author of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, converted barn to Montessori School


Share by: