Nerdy characters are meant to be annoying, although, in most movies and TV shows, it is usually revealed they have a heart of gold.
Still, for some reason, directors never allow a know-it-all character to look anything near hot.
It’s as if brains and looks are incompatible.
Here are ten actors who managed to conceal their good looks to play convincing nerds.
10 /10 Jason Schwartzman
Remember the 1998 coming-of-age movie, Rushmore? Then you certainly remember Max Fischer, the teenage geek superbly played by Jason Schwartzman.
The actor was 17 at the time, and all it took were some braces and a terrible haircut to make him look unattractive.
He had to be like that so the audience could relate better to his hopeless teenage crush. Schwartzman is now 40, and he is quite hot.
9 /10 Emma Watson
All Harry Potter fans have to agree – when she was little, Hermione Granger was insufferable. Not because she wasn’t cute, she wasn’t supposed to be, at least in the first movies of the franchise, but she was beyond nerdy, she was a teacher’s pet, and some of the teachers themselves were horrid.
Fortunately, the series ran long enough to allow Emma Watson to turn into a beautiful young woman on the screen and, obviously, in real life.
8 /10 Shannon Purser
Stranger Things brought us many weird characters, but one of the most memorable was nerdy Barb Holland.
The makeup was designed to make her unappealing, but she was nevertheless a fan favorite. Stranger Things was four years ago, and she was hot in real life even back then.
However, if you want to catch a glimpse of the real Shannon Pursuer, watch her in her new show, Riverdale. You’ll be amazed!
7 /10 Matthew Lewis
He only had a supportive part in the early Harry Potter movies, but Neville Longbottom is an essential character later in the series.
Matthew Lewis did an excellent job in portraying the clumsy and forgetful Neville Longbottom nobody thinks much of.
Well, he was an awkward teenager when the series started in 2007. In the meantime, Lewis grew up into a sexy young man.
You don’t have to take our word for it; check him out in the 2016 Me Before You, and you won’t recognize laughable Longbottom in the all-new and much improved Matthew Lewis.