Ivy-educated Jordana Brewster has been working in Hollywood since she was a teenager. Best known for her role as Mia Toretto in the “Fast & Furious” movie franchise, Brewster, who was born in 1980, got her start just a few years later in the Brazilian kids series, "Xuxa Against Evil." She left Brazil at age 10 and then settled with her family in New York City, where she graduated from the Professional Children School. By the mid-1990s, Brewster established herself as a full-fledged actress, performing in the soap operas "All My Children" and "As the World Turns." In 2001, she landed her breakthrough role when she was cast in the action film, "The Fast and the Furious." Thanks to her exceptional acting skills and worldwide popularity, she has since reprised the role in five sequels so far. In between “Fast” films, Brewster has mostly appeared in TV shows, including TNT's “Dallas” and FOX's “Lethal Weapon.” Brewster has also earned top spots on "Sexiest Women" lists for publications including Stuff Magazine and Maxim.
Despite a flourishing acting career, Brewster did the unexpected and enrolled at Yale University in 1999. While some may have been surprised by her choice, which would require that she forgo many professional opportunities, Yale was actually the natural choice for Brewster, who might say that being a Yalie is in her blood. Her grandfather, Kingman Brewster Jr., served as President of Yale University from 1963-1977. More importantly, Brewster claims that going to college was always the plan and that Yale provided the ideal university experience. "I am a bookworm. I love reading. I loved being able to do that, and on campus I felt really safe," she said, reflecting on her Ivy League days. "I loved going to lectures and taking notes and then studying Monday to Thursday and then going back to the city and partying Friday to Sunday."
Since graduating from Yale in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Brewster has remained a loyal supporter of her alma mater. Now 41 years old, the actress is fond of looking back at how college life shaped who she became. In a 2021 interview with Collider, Brewster discussed some of her motivations for completing Yale's extremely competitive curriculum, how a Yale degree has caused people to take her more seriously, and Yale's influence on her goals. "But I think in the future as I start to want to write or as I start to work in other ways, I think it will," she said, speaking to Yale's influence on her life. "And I think it has in terms of life, in my life space, so I think indirectly it’s helped me in my career.”