What makes a nerd a nerd ? Generally it has to do with them showing great attention to detail in intellectual hobbies and pursuits . In short, we tend to know a nerd when we see one.
Or do we? Celebrities will occasionally peel back the layers and give us a glimpse into their personal lives — personal lives that, at times, can look extremely nerdy.
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Nathan Fillion
We don’t really have an update to this tweet from the Firefly star back in 2014. But, as anyone who’s tried to learn Magic: The Gathering knows, you have to be at least a little bit of a nerd to pick up a deck in the first place.
Rosario Dawson
It’s the eternal debate: Star Wars or Star Trek ? Plenty of fans have picked a side and stuck with it, but not Rosario Dawson. She’s an admitted Trekkie who knows some Klingon and also loves the Star Wars franchise. She’s said that if she can get in both Star Wars and Star Trek , she’ll be ready to retire .
Leonardo DiCaprio
Lots of us have stories about the priceless action figure collection we had as kids that our mom threw out. Leo had such a collection, only as an adult. His Star Wars and G.I. Joe action figures fetched nearly $100,000 at auction , with the proceeds going towards environmental efforts.
Serena Williams
The G.O.A.T. of women’s tennis is at the end of her career, which should give her time to indulge in one of her nerdier hobbies: Avatar: The Last Airbender fandom. Williams is all about talking about the lore and mythology of the franchise.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
We’re seeing a bit of a theme here that started with Nathan Fillion: nerds who are big-time Magic: The Gathering geeks. JGL is one such geek. He says he got started playing the card game after a childhood interest in Dungeons & Dragons.
Mila Kunis
World of Warcraft is the kind of game that can just suck a player right into its world. Mila Kunis got a little too invested in the game at one point. Her agent couldn’t reach her unless they logged into the game to contact her. Kunis eventually broke the addiction.
Robin Williams
It’s fairly well-known that Robin Williams named his daughter Zelda after the legendary Nintendo franchise. The two even appeared in a couple of commercials for a new Legend of Zelda game. There’s more, too: he also dabbled in Warhammer 40k, though he didn’t play the game himself.
Stephen Colbert
The world is full of Lord of the Rings geeks, people so invested in Tolkien’s lore that they can rattle off every little detail. Late night host Stephen Colbert is one such person , with LOTR director Peter Jackson even saying that Colbert is the biggest Tolkien nerd he’s met.
Megan Fox
Megan Fox is nerdy about something that’s decidedly old-school: comic books. In fact, before her acting ambitions took her to Hollywood, she grew up wanting to be a comic artist . Her favorite series include Danger Girl and Midnight Nation .
Grimes
Grimes definitely follows the beat of her own drummer, and this extends to the music she makes. She’s such a fan of the Dark Souls video game franchise that she wrote a song that’s themed around the notoriously difficult dungeon crawler.
Vin Diesel
Perhaps one of the better-known nerds in Hollywood, Vin Diesel’s passion for Dungeons & Dragons is well established . Even while he was working as a bouncer and trying to get his acting career started, he was playing D&D on his off days.
Ed Sheeran
Sheeran’s a big fan of the Warhammer 40k gaming sets. In fact, he’s so invested in it that he posted this pic to Instagram, showing him putting together space marine figurines while backstage before one of his concerts.
Quentin Tarantino
Tarantino may have the most niche hobby on this list: he collects specific board games. We’re not talking about Settlers of Catan or the normal fare, either. Tarantino’s collection is focused around board games based on old movies and TV shows.
Michael B. Jordan
Actor Michael B. Jordan has a passion for something that many fans keep under wraps. Jordan is a big-time anime nerd, and he doesn’t care who knows it , as he regularly shares his anime hot takes across social media.
Matthew Perry
The Friends alum is so invested in one of his nerdy hobbies that it got him injured. While playing a Fallout game, Perry went a little too hard and injured his hand. After this revelation, he was cast to play a role in Fallout: New Vegas .
Margot Robbie
Margot Robbie is in the perfect age demographic to have been a big Harry Potter nerd in her younger years, and this is exactly what she was. In fact, she admitted to lying about needing glasses so she could better resemble the bespectacled wizard.
Lady Gaga
While Gaga’s injury wasn’t as severe as Matthew Perry’s, you can add her to the list of celebs who’ve hurt their hands while obsessively playing a video game. In this case, Gaga’s game of choice was Bayonetta , an action-adventure franchise.
Henry Cavill
For most actors, learning they’d been cast as the Man of Steel himself would be career-defining. Henry Cavill, on the other hand, missed the call informing him he’d been cast as Superman because he was obsessively playing World of Warcraft .
Brie Larson
Larson’s a celeb who wears her Star Wars fandom on her sleeve. She posted this decidedly nerdy pic to Instagram and has said in interviews that her ambition as a kid was to play a younger version of Princess Leia. When she met Samuel L. Jackson, who played Mace Windu, she cried.
Ben Stiller
Stiller’s obsession is pretty typical for people who grew up during a certain era: he’s a big-time Star Trek nerd . In fact, his film company — Red Hour Films — is a reference to Star Trek: The Original Series . Stiller has also been known to reference the franchise in his movies.
