Culture Icon | Tig Notaro

Tig Notaro. Image credit: Greg Skidmore

Tig Nataro is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, and writer. Notaro began her career in music as a band manager and promoter but her talent for comedy was clear when she first started doing stand up comedy in LA in the 1990s. Her projects continued to grow and landed her opportunities in film, radio, and television. When Notaro joined the cast of Star Trek: Discovery in Season 2, she expanded her fan base...by light years...BA DUM, TSH! As Cammander Jett Reno in Discovery, she not only brings her ascerbic humor that she's famous for, she brings a whole new level of role model to LGBTQIA2S+ communities and youth.

Notaro was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. As a breast cancer survivor, Notaro has used her visibility and experience, and unique humor, to advocate for a variety of causes including LGBTQIA2+ issues, health & wellness, and environmental causes. She has also brought attention to aspects of surviving breast cancer that society has often found challenging. Notaro became a vegan in 2017 and earned a certificate in plant based nutrition in 2019 from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.

We join many Star Trek fans in thoroughly enjoyoing her portrayal of Commander Reno on Discovery and we are incredibly thankful for her and her inspiring story in her work and in her life. She gives new inspirational meaning to that oh-so-Star-Trek phrase, "live long and prosper".

Notaro was named the Future-ish 2022 Queen of the Smart Set.

Smart Stars | Geena Davis

Geena Davis is is an American actor, activist, model, and producer. She completed her bachelor's degree in drama from Boston College in 1979 and received honorary doctorate degrees in fine arts from Bosten College in 1999 and Bates College in 2009 for her work with the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media.

In addition to a successful modeling, acting, and production career, Davis is an advocate and activist for a multitude of subject matters and causes including women in sports, gender bias in media, STEM, and other humanitarian and envioronmental social and environmental challenges. Davis also trained and competed for a spot in the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the sport of archery.

Davis has been nominated for and received dozens of awards including an Oscar for Best Supporting Acress in The Accidental Tourist and a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama in "Commander in Chief". The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose her for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Academy Award, for her work to undestand and address gender bias in media.

Davis was named the Future-ish 2021 Queen of the Smart Set.

Smart Stars | Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman is an actor, producer, and director with American and Israeli citizenship. Portman was born in Jerusalem and is the only child of Avner Hershlag, a gynecologist, and Shelley Stevens who serves as Portman's manager. Portman had maternal great grand parents who died at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and a paternal Romanian great grandmother who was a British Intelligence spy in WWII.

The family moved to the US for her father's medical education when Portman was three years old. Portman graduated from High School in Syosset, Long Island in 1999 and then studied ballet and modern dance at the American Theater Dance Workshop in New York. She later graduated from Harvard in 2003 with a BA in Psychology. She has studied several foreign languages, including Arabic, French, German, Hebrew, and Japanese. Portman co-authored two research papers that were published in scientific journals, first while she was in high school and the second while she was at Harvard. she was in college. "A Simple Method to Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar" was published in 1998 as part of the Intel Science Talent Search, co-authored by Ian Hurley and Jonathan Woodward. During her studies at Harvard as a research assistant to Alan Dershowitz, a paper on a memory research project she contributed to was published in 2002, titled "Frontal lobe activation during object permanence: data from near-infrared spectroscopy". Portman has taken graduate courses at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was a guest lecture at Columbia in 2006 and was a commencement speaker at Harvard in 2015.

Portman has appeared in many main stream and independent films, as well as television, theater, and commercials. She has been nominated for and has won many prestigious acting awards including Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and SAG Awards - among many others. Portman made her directorial debut with Eve which won the 2008 shorts competition at the 65th Venice International Film Festival.

Portman has aligned herself with many causes, including animal rights, coal divestment, education, the environment, poverty alleviation, LGBT rights, micro-lending, women's rights, and both American and Israeli politics.

Portman has an Erdős–Bacon number of 7.

Portman was named the Future-ish 2018 Queen of the Smart Set.

Futurazzi | Rachel McAdams in Future-ish Roksanda Ilincic

We're always on the watch for fashion with a future-ish flair. Our latest find is actress Rachel McAdams at the August 2013 premier of her movie, About Time, at Somerset House in London. The pale lavender gown is by Serbian designer, Roksanda Ilincic and features a very futuristic hologram belt along with surprise blue and aqua stripes on the back of the dress.

Culture Icon | Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres is an award-winning American actress, author, comedian, spokesperson, and television host. In addition to her extensive acting and comedy career, since 2003 she has hosted The Ellen DeGeneres Show (aka "Ellen") which features celebrity interviews, musicians, new products, games, and many human-interest stories.

DeGeneres has won numerous awards, including Daytime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards, and People's Choice Awards. She has also hosted the Emmy and Academy Awards. DeGeneres received the Tulane President's Medal in 2009 and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2012. She landed her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.

DeGeneres and her partner, Portia de Rossi, are vegans and DeGeneres has regular segments on her show called "Ellen's Healthy Living" that feature tips and recipes for going vegan. She has raised awareness and money for issues ranging from animal rights and bullying to breast cancer and relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named DeGeneres a Special Envoy for Global AIDS Awareness in 2011.

The groupies of Studio F here at Future-ish are HUGE fans of DeGeneres for several reasons. She has had many STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) guests on her show ranging from actress Danika McKeller to young inventor Peyton Robertson. She also often highlights the work of outstanding teachers across the US which will always get a big gold star and an A+ from us. She is also an admirer of great design both on her show and in her personal life. Even more fabulous...DeGeneres came out publicly as a lesbian in 1997 and she has been an outspoken advocate and role model for the LGBT community ever since. She is a champion of diversity in every way and her sign-off for each show, "Be kind to one another!" has become a mantra here at Future-ish.

DeGeneres was named our Queen of The Smart Set for 2014.

PS. And yes...Ellen's occasional and outrageous guest DJ, Loni Love, was indeed our Queen of the Smart Set for 2013.

Smart Stars | Danica McKellar

Danica McKellar is an American actress, author and math education ambassador. Many know her from her role as Winnie Cooper in the TV show The Wonder Years and subsequent acting career while others know her best as a New York Times bestselling author of her books promoting math to girls and young women which include Math Doesn't Suck, Kiss My Math, Hot X: Algebra Exposed, and Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape. McKellar's math cred comes from her 1998 degree in mathematics from UCLA, where she graduated summa cum laude. While at university, McKellar co-authored a paper with fellow student, Brandy Winn, and their Professor Lincoln Chayes on the 'Chayes–McKellar–Winn theorem'. McKellar's Erdős number is four and her Bacon number is two giving her an incredibly low Erdős-Bacon number of six.

From The Wonder Years to a becoming a wonder-Mom and role model, we give her an A+ for all her hard work promoting math to girls and young women. You go girl!

McKellar was named our Queen of the Smart Set for 2016.

>> Follow Danica McKellar on Future-ish.

Smart Stars | Loni Love

Detroit-born Comedian and actress Loni Love may know the formula to get a good laugh but she also knows the formula for resistance, inductance, and capacitance. What are those you ask? Well, electrical engineering formulas of course.

Before her success as a comedian and actress, Love received a scholarship to Prairie View A&M University in Texas where she studied music and yes, electrical engineering. After graduating, Love worked at Xerox for eight years while moonlighting as a regular at the Laugh Factory. When layoffs at Xerox were pending, she volunteered to leave and pursue her comedy career in order to save a job for someone else. Since then she's appeared in many plays, films, and TV shows. In addition to comedy and acting, she has served as a correspondent on CNN, covered the inauguration of President Obama, and been recognized with multiple awards and honors including our very own Queen of the Smart Set for 2013.

She's got science, she's got design (we include the performing arts in the 'design' realm here at future-ish), and she's got culture...a LOT of culture. We're just psyched our Goddess of Guffaw can bring a little science and intelligent insight to Chelsea Lately on occasion...the show really needs it. Just kidding Chelsea...we love you :-)

Smart Stars | Ashton Kutcher

Ashton Kutcher is an American model, actor, and producer. Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and developed an interest in acting in high school. He started in the biochemical engineering program at the University of Iowa before dropping after winning a modeling competition in Iowa. Kutcher modeled for a short time in New York, Milan, and Paris and then moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career in television and film and starred in series like That '70s Show and in movies such as Pearl Harbor. In addition to a very successful acting career, Kutcher has been active in investing in several social media and technology companies including Skype, Foursquare, Airbnb, Path and Fab.com. Kutcher has also been active in multiple nonprofits and social/environmental causes.

**Update**
After the 2013 Teen Choice Awards Ashton Kutcher received a lot of attention and praise for his acceptance speech in which shared some observations from his life before acting and from his recent role in the movie Jobs about Apple founder, Steve Jobs.

First, Kutcher shared that "opportunity looks a lot like hard work" and briefly chronicled the many jobs he held prior to modeling and acting including working for his dad, washing dishes at a restaurant, working at a grocery store deli, and even sweeping up Cheerios dust in a factory.

Kutcher's next observation garnered even more attention, he enthusiastically stated that "the sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart...and being thoughtful, and being generous. Everything else is crap, I promise you." And finally Kutcher shared what he learned form his Steve Jobs role...that every person can build their own life, rather than living someone else's. Kutcher's closing words were "build a life, don't live one, build one. Find your opportunities and always be sexy."

Here at Future-ish, we're all about using the power of pop culture to create positive change. Ashton Kutcher cheering that "the sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart" at the Teen Choice Awards...can't do much better than that.

Watch Kutcher's speech below:

Smart Stars | Eva Longoria

Eva Longoria is an American actress, activist, and philanthropist best known for her roles on Desperate Housewives and Young and the Restless. Born in Corpus Christi, TX to Mexican-American parents Enrique Longoria, Jr. and Ella Eva Mireles, she can trace her Spanish ancestry in the New World back to 1603.

In college, Longoria studied kinesiology and received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1998, the same year she won the title of Miss Corpus Christi. Soon after university, she won an Infinity Model Search contest in LA where and was later signed by a theatrical agent. She joined the cast of Young and the Restless in 2001 as Isabella Braña, a role she won an ALMA Award for in 2002. She has since gone on to perform in many other tv shows and movies and has received multiple other acting nominations and awards.

Longoria founded Eva's Heroes in 2006, a charity which helps developmentally disabled children and serves as a spokesperson for many other nonprofit organizations. 2009 was a big year for Longoria. She enrolled in a Master's program in Chicano Studies and Political Science at Cal State University, Northridge, was appointed to a bi-partisan commission issued with the task of determining the feasibility of the creation of a National Museum of the American Latino, and was named Philanthropist of the year by the Hollywood Reporter for her commitment to Latino causes and giving back to the community. She also began serving as an executive producer of Shine Global Inc.'s film The Harvest/La Cosecha in 2009 (released in 2011), a documentary that focuses on three teenage Mexican migrant workers in order to raise awareness about the hundreds of thousands of child migrant farm workers in the U.S. In 2010, Longoria created the Eva Longoria Foundation to help Latinas build better futures for themselves and their families through education and entrepreneurship.

Longoria has become quite active in politics in recent years. In 2011 she proclaimed Arizona's SB 1070 immigration law unconstitutional and fought against Texas Governor Rick Perry’s budget cuts for services to the mentally disabled (including her sister). In 2012, she was one of seven Californians named as co-chairs of Barack Obama's re-election campaign and she later spoke Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC.

Smart Stars | Mayim Bialik

Mayim Bialik is an American actress best known for her lead role as Blossom Russo in the 1990s sitcom Blossom and more recently for her role in CBS's The Big Bang Theory as Amy Farrah Fowler. Here at Future-ish, we are big, Big, BIG fans of Bialik because she is a perfect example of someone who is passionate about science, design, and culture.

Bialik was born in San Diego, CA to Barbara and John Bialik, a nursery school director and high school drama teacher respectively. Bialik was raised in Reform Judaism. Her given name means 'water' in Hebrew. Bialik's grandparents emigrated to the USA in the 1930s from Poland and what was at the time, Czechoslovakia/Hungary.

After Blossom, Bialik was accepted to Harvard, Yale, and UCLA. She chose UCLA to stay close to her parents and in 2000 earned undergraduate degrees in in neuroscience, Hebrew, and Jewish studies. She completed her PhD in neuroscience in 2008. Bialik is a vegan and a celebrity spokesperson for the Holistic Moms Network. She continues to study Judaism and is well known for keeping fans up to date on preparations for Jewish events and holidays via social media. Oh...and she's a huge fan of the Maccabeats.

Given Mayim's fabulous showing at the 2011 Emmy's, she's now officially on our Glamour Geek list too. Check her out on the E! 360 Glam Cam below (click image to get the full E! Glam Cam experience)...

In 2012, Future-ish named Bialik as our second Queen of the Smart Set.

SeanChron - Rick Fox on Big Bang Theory

Former Celtic and Lakers basketball player turned actor, Rick Fox, just became the latest addition to the list of scientists in film. Fox made a short appearance in Season 4: Episode 13: The Love Car Displacement as Glenn, Bernadett's former Professor (not sure what subject, but he is researching global warming) and ex-boyfriend...the humor being that he is Wolowitz's exact opposite on the hunk spectrum. I always love seeing pop culture (in this case a celebrity athlete) intersect with world of science. Fox did a great job so I hope to see him back soon and often. Catch the full episode here. Fox appears at 08:15.

Smart Stars - Rowan Atkinson

He makes us laugh, he makes us cry...he makes us laugh until we cry. Rowan Atkinson is a British comedian, writer, and actor. Along with satire, Atkinson is a lettered scientist. Atkinson first studied electrical engineering at Newcastle University and then continued for his Masters in Science at Oxford's Queen's College. It was at Oxford that Atkinson acted in the Oxford University Dramatic Society, the Oxford Revue, and the Experimental Theatre Club.

Smart Stars - Dolph Lundgren

Dolph Lundgren is a Swedish marshal artist, actor, and director. Long before his action hero days, Lungdren studied at Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology and later earned his Master's in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney in 1982. In 1983, Lundgren became a Fulbright Scholar at MIT but he quit prior to graduation to pursue acting. Lundgren is fluent in Swedish, English, and Spanish, and can communicate in German, French, Japanese, and Italian as well.