What is Geena Davis’ IQ?
A real membership, and a score nobody has.
Davis is one of the few people on this site with a genuinely documented claim behind her number: she is an acknowledged member of American Mensa. What she does not have, anywhere on record, is a specific score — the “140” attached to her name traces to a tabloid headline, not to Mensa.
Geena Davis’ estimated IQ
- Acknowledged Mensa membership, which requires scoring in the top 2 percent on an accepted test — roughly 131 or above on the Cattell scale Mensa itself uses.
- Attended New England College and Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, though by her own account in her 2022 memoir she left before completing a degree.
- Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (The Accidental Tourist, 1989), and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award — an honorary Oscar — in 2019.
Mensa membership sets a real floor, not a score. It confirms she qualified above roughly the 98th percentile on some accepted test at some point, and nothing more specific than that is on record anywhere, including from Mensa itself.
- Born
- 21 January 1956, Wareham, Massachusetts
- Field
- Film, television, advocacy
- Education
- New England College; Boston University College of Fine Arts (no degree completed)
- Known for
- The Accidental Tourist, Thelma & Louise, the Geena Davis Institute
- Canonical IQ
- No published score; Mensa membership confirmed
What an IQ of 130–145 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
Average is 100 by construction, and about two-thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. Take the test to place your own score on this scale.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Geena Davis is
Geena Davis was born in 1956 in Wareham, Massachusetts. She attended New England College before transferring to Boston University’s College of Fine Arts to study drama; by her own account she left before completing enough credits to graduate, something she has said she let go uncorrected in early interviews.
She made her film debut in Tootsie (1982) and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Accidental Tourist in 1989. Thelma & Louise (1991) brought a Best Actress nomination, which she did not win. In 1999, at forty-three, she came within eight places of qualifying for the U.S. Olympic archery team, reaching the trials semifinals after two years of training.
In 2004 she founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, researching representation in film and television. In 2019 the Academy gave her the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Oscar, for that advocacy work — making her, by the Institute’s own description, a two-time Academy Award recipient.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed August 2026
Geena Davis: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1982Film debut in Tootsie.
- 1989Wins the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, The Accidental Tourist.
- 1991Thelma & Louise released; earns a Best Actress nomination.
- 1999Reaches the U.S. Olympic archery trials semifinals, finishing 24th of 28.
- 2004Founds the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.
- 2006Wins a Golden Globe for Commander in Chief.
- 2019Receives the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Where the 140 figure came from
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
Most figures on this site are invented outright. Davis’s is a subtler failure: a real, on-record fact — Mensa membership — got a specific number bolted onto it that nobody involved ever stated. It is worth naming precisely, because it shows how a headline’s URL can outrun its own article and end up cited as if it were reporting.
She sits alongside Mayim Bialik as one of two entries here with a credential that is actually checkable rather than asserted — Bialik’s is a completed PhD, Davis’s is a membership requiring a passed test. Both pages exist to make the same point: verifiable claims and specific scores are not the same thing, and this site can only stand behind the one that is documented.
How we read a number →Her own memoir; source for the New England College and Boston University chronology and her account of not completing a degree.
The organization she founded; its bio of her does not mention Mensa or any IQ figure.
Confirm the Best Supporting Actress win and the later Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
On-camera exchange in which Davis confirms Mensa membership and describes the qualifying test — without stating a score.
First-appearance date of the 140 figure pending audit.
Traceable to a tabloid URL slug rather than any statement by Davis, Mensa, or the article body it was attached to.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Geena Davis, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
A figure of 140 circulates on “smartest actresses” lists and IQ-aggregator sites, usually paired with her Mensa membership as if the two facts came from the same source.
Davis has confirmed her own Mensa membership on the record — asked by a photographer in 2011 how to get into Mensa, she answered plainly, “You gotta take the test.” No specific score has ever been published, by her, by Mensa, or by any outlet that spoke to either. The “140” traces to a tabloid article whose own body text never states the number — it appears only in the page’s URL slug, which downstream sites then repeated as if it were a reported fact.
One end of this spread is Mensa’s actual qualifying floor. The number in the middle, the one everyone repeats, came from a URL.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Geena Davis — frequently asked
What is Geena Davis’s IQ?
No specific score has ever been published. She has confirmed her own Mensa membership on the record, which sets a floor around the 98th percentile, but no number beyond that exists.
Is Geena Davis really a Mensa member?
Yes — in 2011, asked on camera how to join, she replied, “You gotta take the test,” confirming her own membership.
Where does the “140 IQ” figure for Geena Davis come from?
It traces to a tabloid article whose URL slug included the number; the article’s own text never states it, and Mensa has never published a score for her.
Did Geena Davis graduate from Boston University?
By her own account in her 2022 memoir, no — she left before completing enough credits, though she let the assumption that she’d graduated stand for years.
Which Oscar did Geena Davis win for?
Best Supporting Actress, for The Accidental Tourist (1989). Thelma & Louise earned her a Best Actress nomination two years later, which she did not win.
How does Davis’s case compare to others on this site?
Like Mayim Bialik, she has a credential that is genuinely checkable — here, Mensa membership rather than an asserted number. It is one of the few entries where the underlying claim holds up; only the specific figure attached to it does not.
How does my IQ compare with Geena Davis?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other actors profiles, starting with Natalie Portman.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More actors profiles — same field, same method
More actors
Portrait via Festival de Deauville, CC BY 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Toglenn, CC BY-SA 3.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Toglenn (2018), CC BY-SA 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above.
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