Catherine Dent, who plays savvy beat cop Danni Sofer in FX's The Shield, has accrued street cred both on and off the screen. In addition to her TV appearances, Dent has starred on Broadway and in films like Nobody's Fool, The Majestic, and 21 Grams. Here, she looks back at North Carolina School of the Arts, where she received the training to launch her career.

• Name: Catherine Dent
• Occupation: Actress
• College attended: North Carolina School for the Arts
• Major: Performing arts
• Graduation date: 1993

Nadine Velazquez, the übersexy Catalina from NBC's My Name I s Earl, has been featured on lists like USA Today's "Five rising stars to watch closely" and Variety's "Ten Actors to Watch." Oh yeah, and don't forget Maxim's 2007 "Hot 100"—she was No. 61. Here, Velazquez looks back at her days as a marketing student at Columbia College in Chicago, where bad hair was ubiquitous and graduation day couldn't arrive fast enough.

Name: Nadine Velazquez
Occupation: Actress
Major: Marketing
Graduation Year: 2001
Favorite drink/midnight snack: Water, fries, and Doritos

Impressionist Frank Caliendo, host of TBS's late night comedy show Frank TV, has mastered impersonations of people like President George Bush, John Madden, Al Pacino, and nearly the entire Seinfeld cast, among others. His uncanny impressions and political satire have also regularly appeared on Fox NFL Sunday and Mad TV. Now, Caliendo revisits his days at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he studied broadcast journalism.

Name: Frank Caliendo
Occupation: Comedian/Impressionist
College Attended: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Major: Broadcast journalism
Graduation Year: 1996
Nickname: I was always the one giving nicknames, and I stayed away from me.
Favorite drink/midnight snack: I've never been a drinker, but I'm definitely a snacker! Pizza or some type of ice cream brownie always works. Ha.

Erinn Hayes, who plays a devoted girlfriend in CBS's new fall comedy Worst Week, takes us back to her University of Colorado days, when she studied hard, played harder, and napped just about anywhere she could.

Name: Erinn Hayes
College attended: University of Colorado at Boulder
Major: Bachelors of fine art in performance
Graduation date: 1998
Grew up: Just north of San Francisco
Favorite drink/midnight snack: My friend worked at a deli, and we would go in after the bars closed, and she would make us gravy cheese fries. It is not the diet of a Hollywood actress, strictly reserved for college students.

Shonda Rhimes, creator of ABC's Grey's Anatomy, is the first African-American woman to write and produce a top-rated TV series. In addition to her Emmy-winning medical drama, she's launched the spinoff series Private Practice and written screenplays for such films as Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Crossroads, and Princess Diaries 2. Here, Rhimes revisits her years at Dartmouth, where she discovered her love for theater and confidence as a writer. The only thing she couldn't find: A hair salon.

Name: Shonda Rhimes
Occupation: Television writer/director/producer
Grew up: University Park, a southern suburb of Chicago
College attended: Dartmouth College
Major: English literature with creative writing
Graduation date: 1991

Some people hail rock journalist Chuck Klosterman as a pop-culture demigod. For half a decade, his divisive commentaries and music criticism have appeared in major magazines and books (Fargo Rock City; Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs; Killing Yourself to Live, and Chuck Klosterman IV), earning him a cult following among rock geeks nationwide. A columnist for Esquire magazine with a novel called Downtown Owl due out in September, Klosterman tells CCF about his time at the University of North Dakota, where he wrote for the school paper, gained new perspectives on life, and listened to Primus by the light of a kerosene lamp.

Name: Chuck Klosterman
Occupation: Author/journalist
Grew up in: Wyndmere, N.D.
College attended: University of North Dakota
Major: Journalism
Graduation date: 1994

Chuck "the Iceman" Liddell still lives in the town of his alma mater. That's right: This trained lethal weapon earned a B.A. in accounting at Cal Poly before claiming the Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight title in 2005. He's since become a mixed martial arts superstar, appearing on an episode of HBO's Entourage and authoring the memoir Iceman: My Fighting Life. Here, Liddell revisits his Cal Poly days, back when he juggled priorities and drank a lot of caffeine.

Occupation: UFC fighter
Grew up: Santa Barbara, Calif.
College attended: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Major: Accounting
Graduation year: 1995
Nickname: The Iceman. My trainer called me that because I don't get nervous before fights.
Favorite drink/midnight snack: Mountain Dew was my favorite drink through college; it kept me up studying for a lot of tests. Also, any kind of candy.

How and why did you choose your major?
I was just good at it. Numbers have always come easy to me. When you came in as a freshman at Cal Poly, you had to declare a major. After about three years, I thought about changing it to construction management, because I was doing construction over the summers, or to PE. Originally, PE was the major I wanted, but my grandparents didn't see it as a real major. They saw it as I was going to be a PE teacher: They didn't realize that at Cal Poly, it was only two classes away from being pre-med. They didn't see that as looking for a real job. I think being a PE coach is a real job, but that's just me.

Originally posted February 10, 2006

Kristen Bell, former star of Veronica Mars, has landed spots on other television shows like Gossip Girls and Heroes, where she currently plays an electrifying femme fatale. Bell tells U.S. News about her years at New York University, where she developed her love for the theater while enjoying life in the Big Apple.

Name: Kristen Bell
Occupation: Actress
College attended: New York University
Major: Theater
Graduation date: With just a few credits shy of graduation, I made the decision to leave my junior year because I was given the amazing opportunity to do a Broadway show. I plan to return to NYU to complete my degree as soon as I can move back to New York City.
Academic awards: My junior year of college, I applied for an honors-level transfer track and was accepted to a more advanced program called the "experimental theater wing."
Nickname: Annie
Favorite drink/midnight snack: Diet Dr. Pepper and Easy Mac and Cheese (I eat much healthier now).

How/why did you choose your major?
I love performing, singing, and the theater. It was the perfect way to combine all three.

Activities (sports, music, clubs, theater?)
Seeing every show New York City had to offer! 

Originally posted November 10, 2005.

Many consider actor Ed Helms, brown-nosing salesman from NBC's The Office, the next face of American comedy. A former correspondent for The Daily Show, Helms has also appeared in recent blockbusters like Evan Almighty, Walk Hard, and Semi-Pro. Approaching his first leading role in A Whole New Hugh, which he is also co-writing and plans to release sometime next year, Helms looks back on his days at Oberlin College, where he created his own major, rappelled off buildings, and developed a satirical edge.

Name: Ed Helms
Occupation: Writer, comedian, actor
College attended: Oberlin College
Major: Film theory and technology
Graduation date: Spring 1996
Academic awards: 0
Nickname: ED2000 ("Enforcement Droid 2000" from the movie Robocop)
Favorite drink/midnight snack: We made home fries a lot. With cayenne pepper and tons of ketchup. Delicious.

How/why did you choose your major?
I was a geology major through my sophomore year. That took me to the Bahamas for a month for "research," which was great, but it also showed me how completely uninterested I was in geology. I wanted to change majors, but I had limited options because I had been through two years of course study already. So, out of desperation, I opted for Oberlin's "Design Your Own Major." I cobbled together a number of theater, computer science, film studies, and art classes in a Hail Mary attempt to graduate in four years. Somehow the committee bought it and thus "Film Theory and Technology" was born. I am the only person in the world with that major...and for good reason.

Originally posted September 15, 2005.

Humorist Mo Rocca, Daily Show alum and author of All the Presidents Pets, is a correspondent for The Tonight Show, among other programs. A regular judge on Iron Chef America and panelist for NPR's weekly quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, Rocca tells us about his experiences at Harvard, where he made great friends, volunteered at a prison, and consumed dangerous amounts of sugar.

Name: Mo Rocca
Occupation: political satirist, television personality, author
College attended: Harvard
Major: English
Graduation date: 1991
Academic awards and honors: None. None at all.
Nickname: Bruiser
Favorite drink/midnight snack: Jolt Cola and Goobers

How/why did you choose your major?
I wanted to study theater, but Harvard didn't have an established theater major. English was the closest I could get.

Originally posted September 1, 2005.

Actress Danica McKellar (The West Wing, The Wonder Years) is one serious math geek. Following the success of her best-selling book Math Doesn't Suck, McKellar authored a new pre-algebra survival guide Kiss My Math. Here, she tells us about her days as a student at UCLA, where she was inspired by classmates and developed a reputation as Hollywood's math wiz.

Name: Danica McKellar
Occupation: Actress/Math Education Activist
College attended: UCLA
Major: Mathematics
Graduation date: June 1998
Academic awards and honors: Summa cum laude, "College Honors," "Departmental Highest Honors," invited to Phi Beta Kappa (I had never heard of it at the time, and when the letter came, I couldn't figure out who this "society" was who wanted $25 and I didn't respond. Oops!), and the only recipient of the "UCLA Department of Mathematics Sherwood Award."
Nickname: Dan-Dan (in grade school)
Favorite drink/midnight snack: Arnold Palmer/baby food

How/why did you choose your major?
Loved math classes. I was going to be a film major but then took a calculus class, finished the top of my class, and was hooked! For a while I thought about doing a double major but then realized that I could always go back and study filmmaking, and that now was the time to really focus and experience mathematics. I love "thinking" and I loved studying math!

Originally posted August 18, 2005.

The world-famous vampire fiction author tells us about her college years, when she got her first work published in a student magazine and learned that she was definitely not cut out for acting.

Occupation: Author
College attended: San Francisco State University
Major: Political science

How/why did you choose your major?
I meandered through several majors, principally focused on getting an education. I ended up in political science because the courses I took captivated me. I was fascinated by history, social science, and political theory and political history. Also I did very well in these courses.

Activities (sports, music, clubs, theater?)
Never had time for any. I worked full time the entire time I was in college to support myself; after I married, my husband and I worked and went to school full time.