The 25 Best Drama Schools in the World, 2026
A diploma from one of these ace institutions can launch an acting career. Just ask alums like Meryl Streep, Adam Driver and Cynthia Erivo.
Amid a changing arts environment, drama schools are continuing to evolve to meet the moment. That means adding more courses on how actors can create their own work (i.e., generate employment opportunities), how to prepare for the realities of AI as well as building into curriculums’ increased industry outreach to give students as many inroads to a career as possible.
While the training remains stellar, students choosing schools also are increasingly considering the cost of an education and how much debt they’ll be carrying coming out of it, particularly with the ups and downs of an acting career.
THR spoke with educators and industry insiders to determine their ranking of the best schools for an acting degree, while weighing overall training, cost, facilities, alumni success, industry connections and more. Please note: Tuition is listed on an annualized basis for the upcoming year and does not include housing and other fees.
Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Adam Driver, Danielle Brooksclass="xot-al" data-spotlight-artist="Brooks" data-spotlight-artist-id="3512">Brooks, Oscar Isaac and many more stars have trained at this prestigious institution in the heart of New York City. Juilliard accepts 18 acting students a year, roughly split between MFA and BFA students, with attendees from both programs learning together across the four-year program. Dean Evan Yionoulis is ending her eight-year tenure at the school, with an interim leadership team, led by former provost Ara Guzelimian and artistic adviser Laura Linney taking over as the search for a new dean begins. Linney, an alum with deep ties to the program, tells students to expect a continuation of the strong teaching that has been a mainstay, including helping students identify their place in the world as artists. “They are as prepared as they can possibly be for whatever they face once they leave,” says Linney. The school combines its conservatory-style training with bespoke opportunities, including commissioning alumni to write short films for graduating students, workshopping Broadway-bound musicals and meeting with experts in motion capture, voiceover and more. Juilliard’s MFA program went tuition-free in 2024 and is making progress in also seeing its bachelor’s program become tuition-free. Just this past year, grads landed series-regular positions: Petro Ninovskyi on Ponies, Taylor Dunbar on Stumble and Laëtitia Hollard on The Pitt. Undergrad tuition is $57,200.
Juilliard dean Yionoulis will become the head of the Yale School of Drama starting July 1, taking over from the long-tenured dean, James Bundy. Bundy, who will stay on to teach, calls Yiounoulis “one of the most influential acting teachers of the last quarter century.” She returns to the school after holding teaching positions there and directing at the Yale Repertory Theatre. The three-year MFA program is tuition-free and provides a need-based living stipend for the 16 actors accepted each year. In addition to high-caliber training, the school offers a wide range of performance opportunities, including school productions; Yale Cabaret, which conducts 14 student-run productions each year; as well as Yale Rep. Actors begin performing at the end of their first year. With many famous alumni, including Meryl Streep, Brian Tyree Henry and Paul Giamatti, the school has been well represented onscreen this season, with Patrick Ball and Lucas Iverson starring in The Pitt. Yale is in the process of building a new drama school building, which will house Yale Rep and the grad and undergrad programs.
Over the past year, the undergrad acting program has been increasing its industry ties, with 24 pros flying down to meet with seniors, and the school has been preparing actors for the realities of their profession, from renting an apartment to creating a career plan. The 28 actors annually accepted undergo rigorous conservatory training for the first three years, then branch out into learning stand-up comedy, creating their own work (with two plays having recently gone on to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe) and undergoing on-camera training from the in-demand Heidi Miami Marshall. At the end of it, students showcase in four cities. “We really leaned in to how to make our students as employable as soon as possible,” says dean John Langs. This has paid off with sophomore Aidan Armstrong landing a role in season five of Stranger Things, alongside other storied alum such as The White Lotus‘ Jake Lacy and Mary-Louise Parker. In-state tuition is $6,497, while out-of-state is $24,231.
About 24 students are accepted each year into this prestigious undergrad program that has alumni across Broadway stages and onscreen like Sarah Pidgeon, who starred in FX’s Love Story and Myha’la, who leads Industry. Acting and music theater students take the same core curriculum before moving into more specialized areas and performing in productions starting junior year. Students also work with visiting alumni. This year, the school opened the Center for New Work, which provides opportunities to develop work with local and national professional companies. Each year, the graduating class travels to New York and L.A. to present a showcase. Undergrad tuition is just under $70,000.
This year was a banner one for RADA grads, with Jessie Buckley winning the Oscar for Hamnet, Wunmi Mosaku taking home several awards for Sinners, Luke Thompson leading Bridgerton, and Cynthia Erivo starring in Wicked: For Good and now playing all parts in Dracula on the West End. Alumni, including Erivo and Imelda Staunton, return to the school to teach master classes, with president David Harewood also conducting one last year. RADA accepts 28 undergrads a year who have the opportunity to participate in 10 stage productions, five short films and studio nights to develop their own work, in addition to classical training. The school also offers a well-being service to support students. Every year, RADA holds a short-film showcase, featuring student actors in professionally written scripts commissioned by the school. International tuition is about $36,000 a year.
Rachel Sennott, Cristin Milioti, Elizabeth Olsen and John Early are some of the many starry alums from this centrally located school, which counts working artists as faculty and often welcomes industry members to view productions. Each undergrad class consists of about 400 students, who are split up into eight primary training studios, with six in acting, one in musical theater and one in production and design, and then even smaller groups as training progresses. The school’s prestigious graduate program accepts just 16 students a year and is deepening its partnership with the Martin Scorsese Virtual Production Center to prepare actors for the future of digital filmmaking. Tuition for the undergraduate program is just above $75,000 a year (with financial aid for families with income less than $100,000 that do not have to pay tuition). Graduate tuition is just under $83,000 with need-based scholarships.
The oldest drama school on the British Isles has taught alumni including John Lithgow, Harry Melling and Benedict Cumberbatch, with recent grad success including Dylan Ennis, who will appear in the next season of The White Lotus. LAMDA offers three-year undergrad degrees in acting and graduate degrees, including a musical theater concentration. The school recently was granted indefinite degree awarding powers, giving it a similar authority to Oxford and Cambridge in being able to design, award and regulate its own degrees. LAMDA has been strengthening its industry ties within the U.K., including partnering with the West End Mischief Theatre company and having students present at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. LAMDA also has been bolstering its ties within the U.S. with offices and studios in Manhattan. The undergrad and graduate acting and musical theater programs accept 32 students per year. Tuition for international undergrad students is just under $35,000.
Paapa Essiedu, Michaela Coel, Lily James and more attended this prestigious three-year undergraduate program, with recent grads also finding big success, including Oli Higginson (Bridgerton‘s footman John) and Lola Shalam, who played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The first two years are spent on technique, including acting on camera, movement and voice, while most of the third year is spent preparing for careers, via writing and performing self-devised work, and ending in industry showcases. Dramatherapist Patricia Ojehonmon has joined the BA in acting program to teach students how to navigate demanding creative processes. The acting program accepts 28 students a year, with annual tuition close to $43,000 for international students for the first year and slightly less the following two years.
Home to the top musical theater program, Michigan grads are filling Broadway stages, with Darren Criss in Maybe Happy Ending, McKenzie Kurtz and Isabelle McCalla in Schmigadoon and Nora Schell in Cats: The Jellicle Ball, among others, and also transitioning into onscreen careers, as in the case of Ashley Park (Emily in Paris), Erika Henningsen (The Four Seasons) and Helen J. Shen (The Devil Wears Prada 2). The program is led by Cynthia Kortman Westphal, with frequent visiting artists and alums. Jane Lanier, who worked with Bob Fosse, will join the musical theater faculty for the upcoming academic year. The school accepts 24 musical theater students a year to its undergraduate program and 18 students to its acting program. In-state tuition last year was $18,590 and out-of-state was $64,328.
This renowned Scottish institution has trained the likes of Ncuti Gatwa, James McAvoy and David Tennant. Twenty-four students are accepted annually into the three-year acting BA program, which offers specialist voice and movement training as well as training in Shakespeare and on-camera. In their second year, students can participate in the Off Kilter Festival, at least two fully staged productions and industry showcases in London and Glasgow. Pupils also can participate in international exchanges with partner institutions, which have included Carnegie Mellon and the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris. The school also offers a BA performance for deaf and hard of hearing actors. Tuition is just above $40,000 for international students.
