Friday Open Thread

Good Morning Obots!

The Fun Facts: Black Celebs Who Attended Ivy League Schools series concludes today with Courtney Vance and two rising stars.

  

COURTNEY B. VANCE

 

Harvard University, BA, History (1980); Yale University, MFA, Drama (1986).

Best known for his role on Law & Order: Criminal Intent as ADA Ron Carter, Vance discovered his niche in acting during his time in Yale’s graduate drama program. Vance has earned two Tony Award nominations, each in Tony Award-winning productions. He was nominated for his role in August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences and for his lead role in John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation.

An accomplished performer, he’s also well known for his roles in Dangerous Minds (1995) and The Preacher’s Wife (1996). Vance married fellow Yale colleague, Angela Bassett, in 1997. He and Bassett have authored a book, Friends: A Love Story.

Ryan Leslie

Harvard University, BA, Government and Economics (1998)

Scoring a perfect score of 1600 on his SATs at the age of 15, Leslie went on to deliver Harvard’s “Harvard Oration” at his graduation ceremony when he was just 19 years old. Joining Cambridge’s elite jazz group, The Krokodiloes, the child prodigy discovered his love for music.

Since then he as written music and produced for Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment, Donnell Jones, New Edition, Cheri Dennis and more. Transition,  the second album  released by Leslie was nominated for a 2011 Grammy  for Best Contemporary R&B Album. It was released nine months after his self-titled debut album.

Still recognizing the importance of education, Leslie recently hosted a “mini-music seminar” for Harvard’s Black Student Law Association called “The Bizness Behind the Business.”

Aisha Tyler

Dartmouth College, B.A., Political science (1996)

At Dartmouth, Aisha co-founded and sang in the all-female a capella group, The Dartmouth Rockapellas, a group devoted to spreading social awareness through song. After briefly working for a San Francisco advertising firm, she toured the country pursuing a comedy career before finally moving to Los Angeles.

 Success came Tyler's way in the summer of 2000 after she took the lead at auditions for the job of emcee for E! Entertainment Television's popular Talk Soup, where she got the job, replacing former host Hal Sparks. A hip satire, the show drew its choice bits from daytime television talk shows. In March of 2001 Tyler joined Robert de Niro, Rene Rousso, and Eddie Murphy in the film Showtime. Tyler plays the love interest to Murphy, with whom she also appeared in 1997's Metro.