Badgley Was a Child Prodigy

4 weeks ago 20th Oct 06:30

Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley was a child prodigy - he graduated high school five years early.

The actor was so desperate to embark on an acting career, he fast tracked his education and took the extra classes he needed to attain his high school certificate - all so he wouldn't have to be tutored on TV and movie sets.

I graduated when I was 13

Badgley, who got his big break in an episode of Will and Grace when he was 12 and then landed a role in The Young and the Restless a year later, explains, "I graduated when I was 13. It was really just to avoid the onset tutor thing. I was taking community college courses when I wasn't working so I'd spend six months working and six months going to school, on andoff".

He even turned down a place at the prestigious University of Southern California "I was accepted at Usc, but I never went. I was working as well and I realised at that point I didn't want to go to film school, I just really wanted to work and do what I was doing".